Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences electronic theses and dissertations (MU)
https://hdl.handle.net/10355/5250
The electronic theses and dissertations of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences.2024-03-29T00:48:36ZAbundance of black-backed woodpeckers and other birds in relation to disturbance and forest structure in the Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains of South Dakota and Wyoming
https://hdl.handle.net/10355/62062
Abundance of black-backed woodpeckers and other birds in relation to disturbance and forest structure in the Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains of South Dakota and Wyoming
Matseur, Elizabeth A.
Black-backed Woodpeckers (Picoides arcticus) are rare residents of northern conifer forests and are almost always associated with disturbances, such as fire and beetle infestation. The Black Hills population of Black-backed Woodpeckers has been petitioned to be considered a Distinct Population Segment under the Endangered Species Act and more information on their population size in the region is needed. Our objective was to map abundance of Black-backed Woodpeckers in the Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains of South Dakota and Wyoming and provide a population estimate for Black-backed Woodpeckers in the region. We located 124 and 115 transects, containing 1,232 and 1,138 sampling points, in 2015 and 2016, respectively. We conducted 5-minute point count surveys from late-March to late-June and visited each point three times to estimate detection probability. We characterized vegetation around each point using GIS derived landscape variables that included: percent cover of green trees, beetle killed trees, dead trees, and year since wildfire. We detected 362 Black-backed Woodpeckers across both years. We fit three-level hierarchical time-removal models that simultaneously estimated abundance, availability, and detection probability in R package "unmarked" using gmultmix and ranked models using Akaike Information Criterion. The global abundance model received the most support. Abundance was negatively related to percent cover of dead trees and green trees and a positively related to percent cover of beetle killed trees, and percent area of 1- to 2-, 3-, and 4- to 5-year-old wildfires. Abundance of Black-backed Woodpeckers varied the greatest across present cover of beetle killed trees and wildfires that had burned within the last five years. Mean density was 0.00528 birds/ha in 2015 and 0.00626 birds /ha in 2016. An estimated 2,920 (LCL: 1,449; UCL: 5,917) and 3,439 (LCL: 1,739; UCL: 6,908) individual Black-backed Woodpeckers, which is equivalent to 1,460 and 1,720 pairs of Black-backed Woodpeckers, in the Black Hills in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Our study is the most extensive survey of Blackbacked Woodpecker abundance in the region and sets the stage for future analyses of the species population viability in the region.
2017-01-01T00:00:00ZAmphibians as wetland restoration indicators on Wetlands Reserve Program sites in Lower Grand River basin, Missouri
https://hdl.handle.net/10355/10532
Amphibians as wetland restoration indicators on Wetlands Reserve Program sites in Lower Grand River basin, Missouri
Mengel, Doreen C., 1960-
My research goal was to determine if hydrological and biological wetland characteristics had been restored to Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) sites in the Lower Grand River basin, north-central Missouri, as indicated by distribution, recruitment success, and relative species richness estimates for members of a regional species pool. I encountered 10 amphibian species representing 59% of the regional species pool. Results indicate seven of the detected species or groups were widely- distributed, two were moderately- distributed, and two were sparsely distributed on WRP sites indicating hydrological wetland characteristics have been restored to sites given the moderate- to wide- distribution of species associated with both seasonal and permanent wetlands. Although species were successfully recruiting young into adult populations, only leopard frogs had high estimates of recruitment success whereas the remaining species had moderately high to moderate to low recruitment estimates indicating biological wetland characteristics are somewhat lacking to lacking for these species. Results from the relative species richness assessment indicate that, whereas 74% of the sites provided some degree of wetland habitat for members of the regional species pool over the course of the field season (7 March - 19 September), 52% of the sites lacked suitable habitat conditions during the peak of amphibian breeding and larval development (May through July). Targeting management actions that result in suitable seasonal wetland habitat conditions (shallow, vegetated wetlands that gradually dry by mid-to late-summer) throughout the time needed for species to complete their life history requirements is one method to increase the biological wetland value of restored WRP sites.
Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 30, 2011).; The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.; Thesis advisor: Dr. David L. Galat.; M.S. University of Missouri--Columbia 2010.
2010-01-01T00:00:00ZAssemblage structure and shallow-water habitat use by small-bodied fishes at lower Missouri River sandbars
https://hdl.handle.net/10355/5076
Assemblage structure and shallow-water habitat use by small-bodied fishes at lower Missouri River sandbars
Ridenour, Clayton
Populations of many native big-river fishes have declined since channelization and flow regulation contributed to losses of shallow-water habitat (SWH) on lower Missouri River (LMOR). Existing point and wing-dike sandbars represent a potentially important source of SWH to fishes during early ontogeny within the main channel of LMOR. Small-bodied fishes were sampled using pre-positioned electrofishing devices from 0.0-0.5 m water depths adjacent to four point and four wing-dike sandbars on LMOR between July and October, 2005. A suite of associated environmental factors were also measured. Habitat use and assemblage structure relative to three spatial (sandbar type, region within sandbars, and distance from shoreline within region) and two temporal (month, diel), and environmental factors were evaluated using Analysis of Variance, Detrended Correspondence Analysis, and Canonical Correspondence Analysis. Samples yielded 49 species from 13 families in depths 0.0-0.5 m; most fishes were [less than or equal to]105 mm TL. Fish mean length increased but abundance decreased from July to October. Ordination analyses revealed that the assemblage was organized into bodylength subgroups. Fish assemblages were not different between point and wing-dike sandbars. Instead, fishes aligned along a depth-velocity gradient relative to body length. Shallow (ca. 0.12m), near-shore areas were dominated by fishes [less than] 35 mm TL during the day, but larger fishes (e.g., 70 mm TL) moved nearer to shore at night. This research shows that main-channel sandbars provide nursery to many fluvial fishes during early ontogeny and that sandbars play an important role as nursery in large regulated rivers.
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.; Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on January 8, 2008); Includes bibliographical references.; Thesis (M.S.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2007.; Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Fisheries and wildlife.
2007-01-01T00:00:00ZAssessing the vulnerability of stream communities and the consistency and use of biotic indices in least-disturbed streams
https://hdl.handle.net/10355/56188
Assessing the vulnerability of stream communities and the consistency and use of biotic indices in least-disturbed streams
Schwoerer, Jacob M.
The need in freshwater conservation is to understand the current status of aquatic biota so that we can recognize when degradation or changes occur. Because stream habitats and communities are dynamic, it is important to understand the natural variability through time and space so that departures may be used to make inferences on stability or instability. Additionally, attempting to predict aquatic communities that are more likely to experience a change in diversity, abundance, and function from anthropogenic impacts may help to prioritize locations for management action. Finally, assessing the consistency of various biotic indices (quantitative tools used to convey lotic ecosystem health) will aid in conveying a more holistic depiction of stream condition and to prioritize locations and biota for management action. To address each of the aforementioned data gaps, we used fish and aquatic invertebrate community data collected from 1988 to 2013 from 88 sites within seven National Park Service (NPS) units represented within the Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network. The fish community (Index of Biotic Integrity) at each of the seven NPS units was less temporally variable than spatially variable. This relationship was not found with aquatic invertebrate community (Hilsenhoff Biotic Index) in that only three of the seven NPS units were less temporally variable than spatially variable.
2016-01-01T00:00:00Z