Effectiveness of Wildlife Mitigation Treatments Along the Nelsonville Bypass

SJN 135024The Nelsonville Bypass is a 9 mile stretch of U.S. Route 33 that runs through the Wayne National Forest, an area high in species diversity and home to several threatened and endangered species. The motorist safety, economic and conservation values of building effective mitigation features that reduce vehicle-wildlife collisions along the bypass have been nationally recognized. Mitigation features include: high and low fencing to reduce wildlife trespass into the right-of-way (ROW), uni-directional jump outs for wildlife exit from the ROW, underpasses and ecopassages to maintain habitat connectivity across the highway, high-mast lighting to lure bats above traffic flow, and replacement of wetlands and bat roosting habitat. Our two-year study employed road surveys, continuous monitoring of jump outs and wildlife passages, population estimations, detailed mapping of fence structures and breaches, and radio telemetry of an endangered target species. Road surveys of the bypass and control highways revealed that the mitigation structures reduced deer-vehicle collisions, but collisions still occurred on the bypass. Although, generally well-constructed, we identified several ways in which the mitigation features could be made more effective. Placement of fencing near the outer boundary of the ROW made it vulnerable to damage from erosion and tree falls, and isolated high-quality habitats within the ROW. Placement of the fence within 30-50 ft. of the roadway on less rugged terrain away from the forest would likely reduce costs of construction and maintenance while allowing wildlife access to habitat within the ROW. We also recommended regular maintenance inspections and mowing on both sides of the fencing. Jump outs were effective uni-directional exits, but wildlife, particularly deer, were not compelled to exit the expansive area within the ROW fencing. Placement of the fence with jump outs closer to the road would reduce habitat within the fence and combined with traffic noise may increase jump out use. Large wildlife underpasses and crossings were well used by a variety of mammal species. Smaller mammals used the small wildlife ecopassages. Reptiles and amphibians avoided the use of underpasses and road mortality rates of amphibians were high on Ohio State Route 78 (tributary road) near wetlands. Placement and passage design were contributing factors to high amphibian mortality. Radio-tracking of rattlesnakes discovered that snakes easily trespassed the small wildlife fencing and used the habitat within the ROW, likely because it was warmer than the surrounding forested habitat. No road mortality or attempted road crossings by rattlesnakes were detected. Finally, while bats foraged near the lights, most species were detected with equal frequency at different heights under the lighting. Our report details these findings and provides additional recommendations to improve design and construction of wildlife mitigation features both along the Nelsonville Bypass, and for future design of mitigation features for roadways in high-density wildlife areas

The Human Phenotype Ontology in 2024: phenotypes around the world.

The Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) is a widely used resource that comprehensively organizes and defines the phenotypic features of human disease, enabling computational inference and supporting genomic and phenotypic analyses through semantic similarity and machine learning algorithms. The HPO has widespread applications in clinical diagnostics and translational research, including genomic diagnostics, gene-disease discovery, and cohort analytics. In recent years, groups around the world have developed translations of the HPO from English to other languages, and the HPO browser has been internationalized, allowing users to view HPO term labels and in many cases synonyms and definitions in ten languages in addition to English. Since our last report, a total of 2239 new HPO terms and 49235 new HPO annotations were developed, many in collaboration with external groups in the fields of psychiatry, arthrogryposis, immunology and cardiology. The Medical Action Ontology (MAxO) is a new effort to model treatments and other measures taken for clinical management. Finally, the HPO consortium is contributing to efforts to integrate the HPO and the GA4GH Phenopacket Schema into electronic health records (EHRs) with the goal of more standardized and computable integration of rare disease data in EHRs

Modeling accumulated degree-days for the invasive aquatic plant Oxycaryum cubense in the southeastern United States

AbstractCuban bulrush (Oxycaryum cubense [Poepp. & Kunth] Lye) is an invasive floating aquatic plant that causes negative ecological and economic impacts in the southeastern United States. Temperatures in the United States have increased over recent decades which can result in geographic expansion of invasive plants in North America. Accumulated degree-days (ADD) were utilized to develop predictive models (state and regional models) for Cuban bulrush growth from harvested biomass collected over one year in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida. Peak emergent biomass occurred from early to mid-fall (September-October) with growth continuing into winter. Accumulated degree days needed for Cuban bulrush to reach peak emergent biomass ranged from 6,469 (Mississippi), 7111 (regional), 7,643 (Florida), and 7,903 (Louisiana). Calendar days needed for Cuban bulrush to reach peak emergent biomass ranged from 292 (Mississippi) to 334 (Florida). Base temperature thresholds for Cuban bulrush were −6 C, −3 C, −3 C, and −2 C for Mississippi, Louisiana, regional, and Florida models respectively. The models suggest Cuban bulrush has a tolerance to lower air temperatures that could allow for survival in moderate winter conditions. Overall, model predictability was less accurate for populations further south (Florida) due to warmer winter temperatures, year-round growth, and difficulty defining when peak emergent biomass occurred. Results from this study indicate that Cuban bulrush growth is greater in warmer temperatures, though low base temperature thresholds suggest this species may be capable of expanding its invaded range to cooler climates beyond the southeastern United States