Explore the vast range of titles available.

My thesis research focused on 1) evaluating the establishment success of forb species on bentonite mines undergoing reclamation; and, 2) surveying the invertebrate biomass and diversity of invertebrate Orders associated with forb species commonly found on the eastern flank of the Bighorn Basin in north-central Wyoming. The broader objective of this work is to enhance habitats critical to greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) and, while this research is specific to minelands reclamation, the results may be applicable to other forms of disturbance in the Bighorn Basin. Healthy ecosystems, including robust forb and invertebrate populations, are critical to support greater sage-grouse populations.Due to its xeric conditions and poor soil development, reclamation of disturbed sites in the Bighorn Basin is challenging. Few commercially-available forbs species are suited to the soils or abiotic conditions, which results in difficulty establishing them on minelands undergoing reclamation. We implemented a seeding trial with locally collected seeds from 10 forb species on three sites—two sites on mines undergoing reclamation, and one at the Bridger Plant Materials Center (BPMC) in south-central Montana. Seeds were applied through broadcast seeding and drill seeding. Across all three sites, few species had significant differences in plant density in response to seeding method. On the reclamation sites, four species established at densities above our minimum threshold of for recommendation (one plant/m2) in 2013, and two species were above the threshold in 2014, including butte candle (Cryptantha celosioides) and tansyleaf tansyaster (Machaeranthera tanacetifolia) both years. The reclamation sites had a year-over-year decline in plant densities (p = 0.004). Only yellow spiderflower (Cleome lutea) established at higher densities in 2014 than in 2013 (p = 0.079), likely due to seed dormancy. In the more hospitable conditions of the BPMC site, the effects of seeding method was again limited. Four species established at densities above our minimum threshold of for recommendation (10 plants/m2) in 2013, and seven species were above the threshold in 2014, including C. celosioides and M. tanacetifolia both years. BPMC had a year-over-year increase in plant densities (p = 0.001), indicating overwinter survival and reproduction. On the reclamation sites, topsoil management influenced invasive species cover and the density of plants recruiting from the seedbank. The site that received live topsoil had no change in weed cover between years (p = 0.09) and had significantly more non-target native species recruit from the seedbank than the site with stockpiled topsoil (p = 1.6*10-9). Unlike the seeded target species, the non-target recruits did not decline in density between years (p = 0.97). The site that received stockpiled topsoil had weed cover increase over the two years (p < 0.001) and no non-target native recruits from the seed bank survived to 2014. Second, we conducted invertebrate surveys for 13 flowering plant species on the eastern flank of the Bighorn Basin throughout the growing season of 2013. Invertebrate biomass varied significantly by plant species (p < 2*10-16) and plant development stage (p = 2.1*10-10), with the greatest invertebrate biomass during flowering (p < 0.001). The plant species which hosted the greatest invertebrate biomass varied by development stage, but included C. lutea, common sunflower (Helianthus annuus), M. tanacetifolia and plains pricklypear (Opuntia polyacantha). The invertebrate Orders with the greatest biomass were Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. Across all three categories of plant development there was a positive and statistically significant relationship between the number of invertebrate Orders present and total invertebrate biomass in the sample (p = 0.03, p = 0.05 and p < 0.001, respectively). The presence or absence of anthills within the sampling site did not have a significant effect on Hymenoptera biomass.

Abstract Managing wildlife populations in the face of global change requires regular data on the abundance and distribution of wild animals, but acquiring these over appropriate spatial scales in a sustainable way has proven challenging. Here we present the data from Snapshot USA 2020, a second annual national mammal survey of the USA. This project involved 152 scientists setting camera traps in a standardized protocol at 1485 locations across 103 arrays in 43 states for a total of 52,710 trap‐nights of survey effort. Most (58) of these arrays were also sampled during the same months (September and October) in 2019, providing a direct comparison of animal populations in 2 years that includes data from both during and before the COVID‐19 pandemic. All data were managed by the eMammal system, with all species identifications checked by at least two reviewers. In total, we recorded 117,415 detections of 78 species of wild mammals, 9236 detections of at least 43 species of birds, 15,851 detections of six domestic animals and 23,825 detections of humans or their vehicles. Spatial differences across arrays explained more variation in the relative abundance than temporal variation across years for all 38 species modeled, although there are examples of significant site‐level differences among years for many species. Temporal results show how species allocate their time and can be used to study species interactions, including between humans and wildlife. These data provide a snapshot of the mammal community of the USA for 2020 and will be useful for exploring the drivers of spatial and temporal changes in relative abundance and distribution, and the impacts of species interactions on daily activity patterns. There are no copyright restrictions, and please cite this paper when using these data, or a subset of these data, for publication.

We tested whether striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, could be recognized based on variation in pelage patterns and whether camera position influenced that outcome. We presented 11 volunteers with 2 sets of 24 photographs taken between 1 January and 15 February 2015, one with animals photographed from the side, the other from above. Each set of 24 photographs included 9 pairs, with each pair representing 2 different images of the same animal. Volunteers scored twice as many correct matches and 4-fold fewer false matches when photographs were taken from above. Regardless of camera position, the total number of unique skunks in each set was underestimated (83% of total from above, 75% from side), likely because some skunks had very similar pelage patterns. Our results indicate that variation in nose stripe, back stripe, dorsal and ventral tail pattern, and shape of tail can be used to recognize individual striped skunks but similarity in those characteristics among some individuals may cause total number of unique individuals to be underestimated regardless of camera orientation.

We present a scalable, energy-efficient method to automatically align microring resonators and modulators with laser wavelengths, as well as provide thermal stabilization. The method utilizes a dithering signal to generate error signals that are immune to fluctuations in laser power.