Experimental restoration trials in Nakula Natural Area Reserve in preparation for reintroduction of Kiwikiu (Pseudonestor xanthophrys)

Reports were scanned in black and white at a resolution of 600 dots per inch and were converted to text using Adobe Paper Capture Plug-in.The native montane mesic forest in the Kahikinui region of Maui, Hawai‘i USA has been degraded by non-native ungulates for over a century. This has resulted in large areas of non-native grassland and savanna with small intact native forest patches, mainly in steep gulches. The Nakula Natural Area Reserve (NAR), on the southwestern slope of Haleakalā volcano, was selected as the site of the reintroduction of Kiwikiu (Pseudonestor xanthophrys), a critically endangered songbird currently found only in a small range on the northern slope of the volcano. This area was selected for the reintroduction because it is located within a mesic koa (Acacia koa) forest representing some of the best potential habitat outside of the current Kiwikiu range. Historic accounts noted the Kiwikiu’s affinity for koa as a foraging substrate, although little koa forest remains on Maui. Intensive forest restoration has created new habitat and enhanced the existing habitat in Nakula to the point where the reserve may now be capable of supporting a small population of Kiwikiu and other native birds. As a precursor to reintroduction efforts, we designed experimental trials to inform managers of the most efficient and effective techniques to restore the forest in Nakula NAR and surrounding region. Trial plots were established in open grass-dominated areas within a fenced, ungulate-free portion of the reserve to investigate natural regeneration, outplanting, and seed broadcast as restoration techniques under a number of conditions. Treatments to suppress and/or remove non-native grass were implemented as these grasses likely reduce germination of native seedlings and potentially influence outplanting success. Some plots were treated with herbicide and the dead grass biomass was removed to expose bare topsoil in a subset of these plots. Additional plots were established under mature koa trees to investigate natural recruitment and the success of these same restoration techniques in this microhabitat. In two years, natural regeneration was largely limited to ‘a‘ali‘i (Dodonea viscosa) and koa, and was enhanced by the application of herbicide followed by the removal of the grass biomass. Outplanting survivorship was high in most species, exceeding 80% after two years in five of seven species. Treatment application had little effect on survivorship, but the growth rates in four of the seven species planted was greatest in plots where herbicide was applied prior to planting. Seed broadcast was not found to be an effective treatment of producing seedlings. Based on our results, we recommend non-native grass biomass removal combined with outplanting as the primary method of forest restoration in Nakula NAR and the surrounding region.These trials could not have been conducted without the financial support of State of Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW), University of Hawai‘i – Manoa, and American Bird Conservancy. We thank Native Nursery LLC for producing high-quality seedlings and preparing seeds for broadcast. We also thank DOFAW-Forestry and The Nature Conservancy for access to seed collection sites. We also thank J. Leary for aide with herbicide methodology and S. Yelenik for helpful comments and edits to this report

Data from: Population divergence and gene flow in an endangered and highly mobile seabird

Seabirds are highly vagile and can disperse up to thousands of kilometers, therefore it can be difficult to identify the factors that promote isolation between populations. The endemic Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis) is one such species. Today it is endangered, and known to breed only on the islands of Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, and Kauai. Historical records indicate that a large population formerly bred on Molokai as well, but this population has recently been extirpated. Given the great dispersal potential of these petrels it remains unclear if populations are genetically distinct and which factors may contribute to isolation between them. We sampled petrels from across their range, including individuals from the extirpated Molokai population. We sequenced 524 bp of mitochondrial DNA, 741 bp from three nuclear introns, and genotyped 18 microsatellite loci in order to examine patterns of divergence in this species and to investigate the potential underlying mechanisms. Mitochondrial and nuclear data sets indicated significant genetic differentiation among all modern populations, but no differentiation was found between historic samples from Molokai and modern birds from Lanai. Population-specific non-breeding distribution or perhaps strong natal philopatry may reduce gene flow between populations. However, the lack of population structure between extirpated Molokai birds and modern birds on Lanai suggests that petrels may be able to overcome these barriers and disperse prior to complete extirpation. Hawaiian petrel populations should be managed as distinct units, except potentially for the dwindling population on Hawaii, which may require translocation to prevent extirpation in the near future

WelchMicrosHeredity

This file contains data for 15 microsatellite loci genotyped in modern Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis) samples from the islands of Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, and Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands, USA. The file is in the three digit Genepop format. See the ReadMe file for additional details

Changing Culture : The Contribution of European Immigrants to New York City Literature, 1870–1940

This comprehensive look at the New York literature of European immigrants invites us to rethink in aesthetic terms the interaction between the psychic and the socio-historical. A closer look at the literary dimension of the Irish, German, Scandinavian and Dutch, Italian, Jewish, Polish, Greek, and other components of New York raises the question of the specificity whereby immigrant authors, or second-generation authors with a strong, obvious immigrant background, related to, and portrayed a city, and a city like no other such as New York. Mass immigration meant the almost perfect concentration in the New York of that period of the three classical dramatic unities of time, place and action, thus giving evidence to an epochal change that was at the same time external and internal, socio-political and existential, and whose effects are palpably present in the immigrants\u2019 literature. The massive global inflows from Castle Garden and Ellis Island happened because, and coincided with, a tumultuous industrial, economic and capitalist thrust, and caused a gigantic urban growth. To be sure, this was a phenomenon of obviously global dimensions, which concurred and vied with the aggressive nationalistic mind-set of the time and became an active element of a push and pull dynamic. Indeed, \u2018in a multitude of ways each immigrant culture articulated group identity as national identity\u2019

New and old Amsterdam in Twenty-First Century fiction

This chapter examines the evocation of New Amsterdam within contemporary novels of New York. You would think that, considering its humble, yet extraordinary beginnings as New Amsterdam, New York’s earliest history as a multicultural, multilingual Dutch settlement might have generated its own literature. However, this origin point is largely absent within American literary history. By assessing how New York’s Dutch origins have been featured in contemporary literature, this chapter examines Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland, Teju Cole’s Open City and Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch. These novels are examined for how New Amsterdam is set as the scene for New York’s present and its future