Deborah Buhl
Deb Buhl is a Statistician at the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center in Jamestown, North Dakota.
As a statistician, I have analyzed data for numerous ecological projects, including assessing effects of wind turbines on grassland birds, density estimates of Siberian Cranes, nest success of American coots, and food habits of striped skunks. I have analyzed data from a variety of animal species, including grassland birds, shorebirds, waterfowl, cranes, deer, badgers, skunks, and invertebrates, and from a variety of habitats including grasslands, forests, rivers, and wetlands. I have applied numerous statistical techniques to ecological data including generalized linear mixed models, ordination, occupancy modeling, resource selection, distance sampling, repeated measures models, nest survival models, and power analyses. Prior to being a statistician, I worked as a biological technician conducting research on waterfowl behavior, movement, and survival.
Professional Experience
Statistician, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Student Trainee (Statistics), Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Biological Technician (Wildlife), Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Education and Certifications
M.S., Statistics, North Dakota State University
B.S., Wildlife Management, University of Minnesota
Science and Products
Estimating offsets for avian displacement effects of anthropogenic impacts
The avian-impact offset method (AIOM) quantifies the amount of habitat needed to provide equivalent biological value for birds displaced by energy and transportation infrastructure. The AIOM can be applied in situations where avian displacement (i.e., behavioral avoidance) requires compensatory mitigation. The AIOM is based on the ability to define five metrics: impact distance, impact area, pre...
Conversion of CRP Grasslands to Cropland, Grazing Lands, or Hayland: Effects on Breeding Bird Abundances in the Northern Great Plains, 1996-2017, data release
The data set consists of bird abundance data collected in undisturbed grassland fields enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and former CRP fields that were converted to cropland, grazing land, or hayland in nine counties in four states (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota) in the northern Great Plains. The study was initiated in 1990, but data were only included in thi
Eriogonum visheri (Visher's buckwheat) seed, pollen, and insects at Badlands National Park, South Dakota, USA, 2014-2015, 2017
This data record contains fitness data for Visher's buckwheat (Eriogonum visheri) for the years 2014, 2015 and 2017 at Badlands National Park, South Dakota, USA. These data include insect visitation, pollen deposited on stigmas, achene size and germination over three field seasons (two field seasons for germination: 2015 and 2017) in four populations (two populations in 2017).
Variation in pollen transport, Badlands NP, 2018
This dataset consists of data collected at Badlands National Park (Interior, SD) that were used in the analysis in support of the article titled "Conserving all the pollinators: Variation in probability of pollen transport among insect taxa," which has been submitted to "Natural Areas Journal." Data collected between May-October, 2010 and 2011, and June-July 2012 included insects found in contact
Effects of wind-energy facilities on breeding grassland bird distributions - data release
This data release contains breeding-bird densities in native mixed-grass prairie collected from 2003 to 2012 at and adjacent to wind farms in North and South Dakota, USA, for one year prior to turbine construction and several years post-construction. One dataset contains breeding-bird densities per 100 ha by distance from turbines for categories of 0-100 m, 100-200 m, 200-300 m, and greater than 3
The influence of local- and landscape-level factors on wetland breeding birds in the Prairie Pothole Region of North and South Dakota dataset
The data set consists of data collected in 1995, 1996, and 1997 in wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota and South Dakota. The data were summarized and used in the analysis for a U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report entitled: The influence of local- and landscape-level factors on wetland breeding birds in the Prairie Pothole Region of North and South Dakota. The data consist of
Filter Total Items: 34
Assessing the use of long-term lek survey data to evaluate the effect of landscape characteristics and wind facilities on sharp-tailed grouse lek dynamics in North Dakota and South Dakota
The contribution of renewable energy to meet worldwide demand continues to grow. In the United States, wind energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sectors. Throughout the Great Plains of the United States, wind facilities often are placed in open landscapes of high-elevation grasslands, and those same habitats support sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus), a resident gamebi
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Deborah A. Buhl, Wesley E. Newton
Converting CRP grasslands to cropland, grazing land, or hayland: Effects on breeding bird abundances in the northern Great Plains of the United States
Recent declines of grassland bird populations in North America are linked to habitat loss and fragmentation associated with agricultural practices. One tool used to conserve soil, water and wildlife habitat on agricultural fields is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the largest agricultural conservation program in the United States. Managers and conservationi
Authors
Lawrence Igl, Deborah A. Buhl, Max Post van der Burg, Douglas H. Johnson
Understanding the Avian-Impact Offset Method—A tutorial
Biodiversity offsetting, or compensatory mitigation, is increasingly being used in temperate grassland and wetland ecosystems to compensate for unavoidable environmental damage from anthropogenic disturbances such as energy development and road construction. Energy-extraction and -generation facilities continue to proliferate across the natural landscapes of the United States, yet mitigation tools
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Charles R. Loesch, Deborah A. Buhl
Sample size estimation for savanna monitoring protocol development
When designing data collection protocols for a new research project, it is important to have a large enough sample size to detect a desired effect, but not so large to be wasting time collecting more data than needed. Power analysis methods can be used to estimate this sample size. In this report, power analyses used to estimate sample sizes needed for a savanna monitoring study, for which the U.S
Authors
Deborah A. Buhl
Variation in foraging patterns as reflected by floral resources used by male vs female bees of selected species at Badlands National Park, SD
Female and male bees forage for different reasons: females provision nests with pollen appropriate for larval development and consume nectar for energy while males need only fuel their own energetic requirements. The expectation, therefore, is that females should visit fewer floral resource species than males, due to females’ focus on host plant species and their tie to the nest location. We use
Authors
Diane L. Larson, Zachary M. Portman, Jennifer Larson, Deborah A. Buhl
Floral resource selection by wild bees and honey bees in the Midwest United States: Implications for designing pollinator habitat
Many seed mix recommendations for creating pollinator habitat are in part based on anecdotal evidence or field observations of bees visiting forbs (i.e. use). However, there is limited information on what forbs are preferred by bees, particularly in working landscapes where bee forage may be limited. We examined floral resource selection by wild bees and honey bees on grasslands in the Midwest usi
Authors
Stacy C. Simanonok, Clint R.V. Otto, Deborah A. Buhl
Coflowering invasive plants and a congener have neutral effects on fitness components of a rare endemic plant
Network analyses rarely include fitness components, such as germination, to tie invasive plants to population-level effects on the natives. We address this limitation in a previously studied network of flower visitors around a suite of native and invasive plants that includes an endemic plant at Badlands National Park, South Dakota, USA. Eriogonum visheri coflowers with two abundant invasive plant
Authors
Diane L. Larson, Jennifer L Larson, Amy Symstad, Deborah A. Buhl, Zachary M. Portman
Fire controls annual bromes in northern great plains grasslands—Up to a point
Concern about the impacts of two invasive annual brome grasses (cheatgrass and Japanese brome, Bromus tectorum L. and B. japonicus Thunb. ex Murray) on the mixed-grass prairie of North America's northern Great Plains (NGP) is growing. Cheatgrass is well known west of the NGP, where replacement of fire-intolerant, native sagebrush steppe by fire-prone, exotic annual grasslands is widespread. Conseq
Authors
Amy Symstad, Deborah A. Buhl, Daniel J Swanson
Quantifying and addressing the prevalence and bias of study designs in the environmental and social sciences
Building trust in science and evidence-based decision-making depends heavily on the credibility of studies and their findings. Researchers employ many different study designs that vary in their risk of bias to evaluate the true effect of interventions or impacts. Here, we empirically quantify, on a large scale, the prevalence of different study designs and the magnitude of bias in their estimates.
Authors
Alec P. Christie, David Abecasis, Mehdi Adjeroud, Juan C. Alonso, Tatsuya Amano, Alvaro Anton, Barry P. Baldigo, Rafael Barrientos, Jake E. Bicknell, Deborah A. Buhl, Just Cebrian, Ricardo S. Ceia, Luciana Cibils-Martina, Sarah Clarke, Joachim Claudet, Michael D. Craig, Dominique Davoult, Annelies De Backer, Mary K. Donovan, Tyler D. Eddy, Filipe M. França, Jonathan P.A. Gardner, Bradley P. Harris, Ari Huusko, Ian L. Jones, Brendan P. Kelaher, Janne S. Kotiaho, Adrià López-Baucells, Heather L. Major, Aki Mäki-Petäys, Beatriz Martínez-López, Carlos A. Martín, Philip A. Martin, Daniel Mateos-Molina, Robert A. McConnaughey, Michele Meroni, Christoph F. J. Meyer, Kade Mills, Monica Montefalcone, Norbertas Noreika, Carlos Palacín, Anjali Pande, C. Roland Pitcher, Carlos Ponce, Matthew J. Rinella, Ricardo Rocha, María C. Ruiz-Delgado, Juan J. Schmitter-Soto, Jill A. Shaffer, Shailesh Sharma, Anna A. Sher, Doriane Stagnol, Thomas Stanley, Kevin D.E. Stokesbury, Aurora Torres, Oliver Tully, Teppo Vehanen, Corinne Watts, Qingyuan Zhao, William J. Sutherland
Seasonal cycles in hematology and body mass in free-ranging gray wolves (Canis lupus) from northeastern Minnesota, USA
Studies of captive gray wolves (Canis lupus) showed seasonal cycles in hematologic values and female body mass. We used a remotely controlled recapture collar to determine whether nine female and five male free-ranging wolves handled four to 17 times in NE Minnesota, US showed similar cycles. Hematocrit, hemoglobin, red blood cell count, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin con
Authors
L. David Mech, Deborah A. Buhl
Estimating offsets for avian displacement effects of anthropogenic impacts
Biodiversity offsetting, or compensatory mitigation, is increasingly being used in temperate grassland ecosystems to compensate for unavoidable environmental damage from anthropogenic developments such as transportation infrastructure, urbanization, and energy development. Pursuit of energy independence in the United States will expand domestic energy production. Concurrent with this increased gr
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Charles R. Loesch, Deborah A. Buhl
Estimating indirect impacts of wind-energy development for breeding grassland birds and waterfowl in the northern Great Plains
No abstract available.
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Charles R. Loesch, Deborah A. Buhl
Science and Products
Estimating offsets for avian displacement effects of anthropogenic impacts
The avian-impact offset method (AIOM) quantifies the amount of habitat needed to provide equivalent biological value for birds displaced by energy and transportation infrastructure. The AIOM can be applied in situations where avian displacement (i.e., behavioral avoidance) requires compensatory mitigation. The AIOM is based on the ability to define five metrics: impact distance, impact area, pre...
Conversion of CRP Grasslands to Cropland, Grazing Lands, or Hayland: Effects on Breeding Bird Abundances in the Northern Great Plains, 1996-2017, data release
The data set consists of bird abundance data collected in undisturbed grassland fields enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and former CRP fields that were converted to cropland, grazing land, or hayland in nine counties in four states (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota) in the northern Great Plains. The study was initiated in 1990, but data were only included in thi
Eriogonum visheri (Visher's buckwheat) seed, pollen, and insects at Badlands National Park, South Dakota, USA, 2014-2015, 2017
This data record contains fitness data for Visher's buckwheat (Eriogonum visheri) for the years 2014, 2015 and 2017 at Badlands National Park, South Dakota, USA. These data include insect visitation, pollen deposited on stigmas, achene size and germination over three field seasons (two field seasons for germination: 2015 and 2017) in four populations (two populations in 2017).
Variation in pollen transport, Badlands NP, 2018
This dataset consists of data collected at Badlands National Park (Interior, SD) that were used in the analysis in support of the article titled "Conserving all the pollinators: Variation in probability of pollen transport among insect taxa," which has been submitted to "Natural Areas Journal." Data collected between May-October, 2010 and 2011, and June-July 2012 included insects found in contact
Effects of wind-energy facilities on breeding grassland bird distributions - data release
This data release contains breeding-bird densities in native mixed-grass prairie collected from 2003 to 2012 at and adjacent to wind farms in North and South Dakota, USA, for one year prior to turbine construction and several years post-construction. One dataset contains breeding-bird densities per 100 ha by distance from turbines for categories of 0-100 m, 100-200 m, 200-300 m, and greater than 3
The influence of local- and landscape-level factors on wetland breeding birds in the Prairie Pothole Region of North and South Dakota dataset
The data set consists of data collected in 1995, 1996, and 1997 in wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota and South Dakota. The data were summarized and used in the analysis for a U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report entitled: The influence of local- and landscape-level factors on wetland breeding birds in the Prairie Pothole Region of North and South Dakota. The data consist of
Filter Total Items: 34
Assessing the use of long-term lek survey data to evaluate the effect of landscape characteristics and wind facilities on sharp-tailed grouse lek dynamics in North Dakota and South Dakota
The contribution of renewable energy to meet worldwide demand continues to grow. In the United States, wind energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sectors. Throughout the Great Plains of the United States, wind facilities often are placed in open landscapes of high-elevation grasslands, and those same habitats support sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus), a resident gamebi
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Deborah A. Buhl, Wesley E. Newton
Converting CRP grasslands to cropland, grazing land, or hayland: Effects on breeding bird abundances in the northern Great Plains of the United States
Recent declines of grassland bird populations in North America are linked to habitat loss and fragmentation associated with agricultural practices. One tool used to conserve soil, water and wildlife habitat on agricultural fields is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the largest agricultural conservation program in the United States. Managers and conservationi
Authors
Lawrence Igl, Deborah A. Buhl, Max Post van der Burg, Douglas H. Johnson
Understanding the Avian-Impact Offset Method—A tutorial
Biodiversity offsetting, or compensatory mitigation, is increasingly being used in temperate grassland and wetland ecosystems to compensate for unavoidable environmental damage from anthropogenic disturbances such as energy development and road construction. Energy-extraction and -generation facilities continue to proliferate across the natural landscapes of the United States, yet mitigation tools
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Charles R. Loesch, Deborah A. Buhl
Sample size estimation for savanna monitoring protocol development
When designing data collection protocols for a new research project, it is important to have a large enough sample size to detect a desired effect, but not so large to be wasting time collecting more data than needed. Power analysis methods can be used to estimate this sample size. In this report, power analyses used to estimate sample sizes needed for a savanna monitoring study, for which the U.S
Authors
Deborah A. Buhl
Variation in foraging patterns as reflected by floral resources used by male vs female bees of selected species at Badlands National Park, SD
Female and male bees forage for different reasons: females provision nests with pollen appropriate for larval development and consume nectar for energy while males need only fuel their own energetic requirements. The expectation, therefore, is that females should visit fewer floral resource species than males, due to females’ focus on host plant species and their tie to the nest location. We use
Authors
Diane L. Larson, Zachary M. Portman, Jennifer Larson, Deborah A. Buhl
Floral resource selection by wild bees and honey bees in the Midwest United States: Implications for designing pollinator habitat
Many seed mix recommendations for creating pollinator habitat are in part based on anecdotal evidence or field observations of bees visiting forbs (i.e. use). However, there is limited information on what forbs are preferred by bees, particularly in working landscapes where bee forage may be limited. We examined floral resource selection by wild bees and honey bees on grasslands in the Midwest usi
Authors
Stacy C. Simanonok, Clint R.V. Otto, Deborah A. Buhl
Coflowering invasive plants and a congener have neutral effects on fitness components of a rare endemic plant
Network analyses rarely include fitness components, such as germination, to tie invasive plants to population-level effects on the natives. We address this limitation in a previously studied network of flower visitors around a suite of native and invasive plants that includes an endemic plant at Badlands National Park, South Dakota, USA. Eriogonum visheri coflowers with two abundant invasive plant
Authors
Diane L. Larson, Jennifer L Larson, Amy Symstad, Deborah A. Buhl, Zachary M. Portman
Fire controls annual bromes in northern great plains grasslands—Up to a point
Concern about the impacts of two invasive annual brome grasses (cheatgrass and Japanese brome, Bromus tectorum L. and B. japonicus Thunb. ex Murray) on the mixed-grass prairie of North America's northern Great Plains (NGP) is growing. Cheatgrass is well known west of the NGP, where replacement of fire-intolerant, native sagebrush steppe by fire-prone, exotic annual grasslands is widespread. Conseq
Authors
Amy Symstad, Deborah A. Buhl, Daniel J Swanson
Quantifying and addressing the prevalence and bias of study designs in the environmental and social sciences
Building trust in science and evidence-based decision-making depends heavily on the credibility of studies and their findings. Researchers employ many different study designs that vary in their risk of bias to evaluate the true effect of interventions or impacts. Here, we empirically quantify, on a large scale, the prevalence of different study designs and the magnitude of bias in their estimates.
Authors
Alec P. Christie, David Abecasis, Mehdi Adjeroud, Juan C. Alonso, Tatsuya Amano, Alvaro Anton, Barry P. Baldigo, Rafael Barrientos, Jake E. Bicknell, Deborah A. Buhl, Just Cebrian, Ricardo S. Ceia, Luciana Cibils-Martina, Sarah Clarke, Joachim Claudet, Michael D. Craig, Dominique Davoult, Annelies De Backer, Mary K. Donovan, Tyler D. Eddy, Filipe M. França, Jonathan P.A. Gardner, Bradley P. Harris, Ari Huusko, Ian L. Jones, Brendan P. Kelaher, Janne S. Kotiaho, Adrià López-Baucells, Heather L. Major, Aki Mäki-Petäys, Beatriz Martínez-López, Carlos A. Martín, Philip A. Martin, Daniel Mateos-Molina, Robert A. McConnaughey, Michele Meroni, Christoph F. J. Meyer, Kade Mills, Monica Montefalcone, Norbertas Noreika, Carlos Palacín, Anjali Pande, C. Roland Pitcher, Carlos Ponce, Matthew J. Rinella, Ricardo Rocha, María C. Ruiz-Delgado, Juan J. Schmitter-Soto, Jill A. Shaffer, Shailesh Sharma, Anna A. Sher, Doriane Stagnol, Thomas Stanley, Kevin D.E. Stokesbury, Aurora Torres, Oliver Tully, Teppo Vehanen, Corinne Watts, Qingyuan Zhao, William J. Sutherland
Seasonal cycles in hematology and body mass in free-ranging gray wolves (Canis lupus) from northeastern Minnesota, USA
Studies of captive gray wolves (Canis lupus) showed seasonal cycles in hematologic values and female body mass. We used a remotely controlled recapture collar to determine whether nine female and five male free-ranging wolves handled four to 17 times in NE Minnesota, US showed similar cycles. Hematocrit, hemoglobin, red blood cell count, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin con
Authors
L. David Mech, Deborah A. Buhl
Estimating offsets for avian displacement effects of anthropogenic impacts
Biodiversity offsetting, or compensatory mitigation, is increasingly being used in temperate grassland ecosystems to compensate for unavoidable environmental damage from anthropogenic developments such as transportation infrastructure, urbanization, and energy development. Pursuit of energy independence in the United States will expand domestic energy production. Concurrent with this increased gr
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Charles R. Loesch, Deborah A. Buhl
Estimating indirect impacts of wind-energy development for breeding grassland birds and waterfowl in the northern Great Plains
No abstract available.
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Charles R. Loesch, Deborah A. Buhl