Determining the causes of vegetation change in arid and semi-arid environments can be difficult and may involve multiple factors, including disturbance, inter-annual climatic variation, soils, effects from years past and interactions between these factors. Theoretical models describing vegetation change in these systems have generally focused on a single aspect as...
Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (Diptera: Drosophilidae) utilizes ‘Himalaya’ blackberry, Rubus armeniacus
Focke (Rosaceae), as a host and may invade berry and stone fruit crops from field margins
containing this invasive weed. Laboratory and semi-field studies were conducted to determine (1)
the persistence of protein marks including 10% chicken egg whites (egg...
The recent irruption of Pacific red lionfish (Pterois volitans) on Caribbean and Atlantic coral reefs could prove to be one of the most damaging marine invasions to date. Invasive lionfish are reaching densities much higher than those reported from their native range, and they have a strong negative effect on...
In the arid western United States, wildlife water developments, or ‘‘guzzlers,’’ are important water sources for wildlife, and consist of impermeable roof structures designed to intercept precipitation and small tanks for storing water. Guzzlers are typically installed in remote mid- to high-elevation basins, where precipitation data are often scarce. In...
During Ocean Drilling Program Leg 204, 80 in situ measurements of
subseafloor temperature were made; 68 of these showed good frictional
pulses on insertion and extraction from the seafloor and were used to
constrain the subsurface temperature. Considering uncertainties from
various sources, uncertainties in the in situ temperatures are estimated...
The Pacific red lionfish has recently invaded Western Atlantic and Caribbean coral reefs, and may become one of the most ecologically harmful marine fish introductions to date. Lionfish possess a broad suite of traits that makes them particularly successful invaders and strong negative interactors with native fauna, including defensive venomous...
In the late 1850s, few young Jews, recently arrived in the United States from Poland, chose to live in Florida. Fortunately, one who did, Max White, wrote down his memoirs of those years, leaving us a remarkable, very personal account of life on the Florida frontier as well as a...
Many highly exploited ecosystems are managed on the basis of single-species demographic information. This management approach can exacerbate tensions among stakeholders with competing interests who in turn rely on data with notoriously high variance. In this case study, an application of diet and dive survey data was used to describe...
The distribution and range of lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) has been reduced by >90% since European settlement of the Great Plains of North America. Currently, lesser prairie-chickens occupy 3 general vegetation communities: sand sagebrush (Artemisia filifolia), sand shinnery oak (Quercus havardii), and mixed-grass prairies juxtaposed with Conservation Reserve Program grasslands....
The ability of white and brown rot fungi to colonize wood-plastic composites was investigated by measuring weight loss and anatomical changes. Three composite materials were evaluated. The material containing a 70/30 wood-high density polyethylene (HDPE) mixture was most susceptible to fungal attack, while two different 50/50 wood-HDPE composites experienced little...