A topic of recurring interest in ecological research is the degree to which
vegetation structure influences the distribution and abundance of species. Here we test the
applicability of remote sensing, particularly novel use of waveform lidar measurements, for
quantifying the habitat heterogeneity of a contiguous northern hardwoods forest in the...
We used reverse time capture-mark-recapture models to describe associations between rate of population change (λ) and climate for northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) at six long-term study areas in Washington and Oregon, USA. Populations in three of six areas showed strong evidence of declining populations, while populations in two...
Pacific rockfish experience high discard mortality when captured owing to a condition called barotrauma,which is caused by the change in pressure during capture. This condition appears to be species specific at the macroscopic level; however, little is known about the microscopic tissue-level effects of barotrauma. Determining whether tissue-level injuries are...
We described and predicted spatial variation in marine migration (anadromy) of female Oncorhynchus mykiss in the John Day River watershed, Oregon. We collected 149 juvenile O. mykiss across 72 sites and identified locations used by anadromous females by assigning maternal origin (anadromous versus non-anadromous) to each juvenile. These assignments used...
Despite the importance of Pacific cod in Bering Sea fisheries and foodwebs, little is known about the habitat use and the distribution of early life stages. We analysed 6 years of catch data for 0-group Pacific cod in fishery-independent surveys of the Bering Sea shelf. Juvenile cod were most commonly...
Overfished species of rockfish, Sebastes spp., from the Northeast Pacific experience high bycatch mortality because of ‘barotrauma’, a condition induced from the rapid change in pressure during capture. Field experiments show that it may be possible for rockfish to recover from barotrauma if quickly recompressed; however, no work has followed...
Lake trout Salvelinus namaycush in the Laurentian Great Lakes suffer from thiamine deficiency as a result of adult lake trout consuming prey containing thiaminase, a thiamine-degrading enzyme. Sufficiently low egg thiamine concentrations result in direct mortality of or sublethal effects on newly hatched lake trout fry. To determine the prevalence...
Current bioassessment efforts are focused on small wadeable streams, at least partly because assessing ecological conditions in non-wadeable large rivers poses many additional challenges. In this study, we sampled 20 sites in each of seven large rivers in the Pacific Northwest, USA, to characterize variation of benthic diatom assemblages among...
The endangered western stock of the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) - the largest of the eared seals - has declined by 80% from population levels encountered four decades ago. Current overall trends from the Gulf of Alaska to the Aleutian Islands appear neutral with strong regional heterogeneities. A published...
The use of passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags in ecological studies is increasingly common, but evaluations of their performance and range of application in the field are still emerging. Here, we compare habitat unit–scale abundance estimates of PIT-tagged juvenile coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch and steelhead O. mykiss derived from multiple-pass...
Collaborative fisheries research provides a mechanism for integrating the unique knowledge, experience, and skills of fishermen and scientists. It is a joint intellectual endeavor that begins with the inception of a project and continues until its final stages, with each group having mutual investment in-and ownership of-the project. Collaborative fisheries...
Question: Are there general life-history rules for exploitation-caused extinction of mammal populations?
Mathematical methods: A population of size N faced with the added mortality of human exploitation will deterministically go extinct if its per-capita birth rate can no longer match its per-capita mortality rate as N approaches zero. We develop...
Mesoscale physical oceanographic features, such as jets and eddies, can influence the structure of marine ecosystems. We used trophically transmitted parasite communities of pelagic fishes in the northern California Current to examine effects of physical oceanographic features on pelagic ecosystem structure. We tested the hypotheses that (1) oceanographic features associated...
Thiamine (vitamin B₁) deficiency is a global concern affecting wildlife, livestock, and humans. In Great Lakes salmonines, thiamine deficiency causes embryo mortality and is an impediment to restoration of native lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) stocks. Thiamine deficiency in fish may result from a diet of prey with high levels of...
Vocalizations of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in west Hong Kong waters were described from 12 recordings in 2010. A broadband hydrophone system recorded sounds. Vocalizations were characterized as broadband click trains, burst pulses, and narrowband frequency modulated sounds, including whistles generally similar to those of some other delphinid cetaceans....
Mesozooplankton (>200 μm) collected in August and September of 2010 from the northern Gulf of Mexico show evidence of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Multivariate statistical analysis revealed that distributions of PAHs extracted from mesozooplankton were related to the oil released from the ruptured British Petroleum Macondo-1 (M-1) well...
The dynamic watershed acid-base chemistry model of acidification of groundwater in catchments (MAGIC) was used to calculate target loads (TLs) of atmospheric sulfur and nitrogen deposition expected to be protective of aquatic health in lakes in the Adirondack ecoregion of New York. The TLs were calculated for two future dates...
The number of sites sampled must be considered when determining the effort necessary for adequately assessing taxa richness in an ecosystem for bioassessment purposes; however, there have been few studies concerning the number of sites necessary for bioassessment of large rivers. We evaluated the effect of sample size (i.e., number...
The current conditions of many seasonally dry forests in the western and southern United States, especially those that once experienced low- to moderate-intensity fire regimes, leave them uncharacteristically susceptible to high-severity wildfire. Both prescribed fire and its mechanical surrogates are generally successful in meeting short-term fuel-reduction objectives such that treated...
OBJECTIVE. Hospital readmissions are a current target of initiatives to reduce healthcare costs. This study quantified the association between having a clinical culture positive for 1 of 3 prevalent hospital-associated organisms and time to hospital readmission.
DESIGN. Retrospective cohort study.
PATIENTS AND SETTING. Adults admitted to an academic, tertiary care...