An Evaluation of Short-term Mesocarnivore Control for Increasing Hatch Rate in Northern Bobwhites

We evaluated the efficacy of short-term trapping on scent-station visitation rates for some nest predators and survival of artificial nests with chicken eggs at 4 sites in west Texas from 1998-2001. Trapping of predators was conducted with cage traps for 30 days just prior to nest initiation (mid-May through mid-June) at a trap density of 1 trap/20 ha. Each site included a treatment (trapped) and control (non-trapped) area that comprised approximately 250 ha. Scent stations were employed before and after trapping to assess impacts of trapping on predator activity/abundance. Simulated nests (using 3 chicken eggs) were established 1-2 days after trapping ended, and monitored weekly to estimate visitation rate. We removed an average of 69 mesomammals per year (n = 274 across all sites), within a 30-day-trapping period. We detected no consistent declines in scent-station visitation rates of target species before or after trapping. We did not detect an increase in survival of artificial nests. We conclude that short-term trapping efforts on small areas used in this study did not reduce the overall predator community enough to affect scent-station visitation rates or survival of artificial nests

Scaled Quail Reproduction in the Trans-Pecos Region of Texas

Scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) populations have declined markedly throughout their range. We monitored hatch rates and nest placement of radio-marked female scaled quail (n 1⁄4 210) in Pecos County, Texas relative to the availability and location of ‘spreader dams’ (i.e., shallow water catchments) through the nesting seasons of 1999 and 2000. Hatch rates were high both years (i.e., 67 and 84% for 1999 and 2000, respectively). The predominant nesting microhabitat was tobosa (Pleuraphis mutica), which accounted for 85% of the nests located. We failed to document any direct impacts of spreader dams on nesting ecology of scaled quail

Breeding and non-breeding survival of lesser prairie-chickens Tympanuchus pallidicinctus in Texas, USA

Lesser prairie-chickens Tympanuchus pallidicinctus have declined throughout their range because of loss or fragmentation of habitat from conversion of native prairie to agricultural cropland, exacerbated by overgrazing and drought. We used data from radio-marked lesser prairie-chickens to determine whether differences in survival existed between populations occurring in two areas dominated by different vegetation types (sand sagebrush Artemisia filifolia vs shinnery oak Quercus havardii) in the Texas Panhandle from 2001 through 2005. We used a model-selection approach to evaluate potential generalities in lesser prairie-chicken survival. Our results indicated that survival of lesser prairie-chickens differed between breeding and non-breeding periods, and between study populations. We estimated annual survival of lesser prairie-chickens at 0.52 (95% CI: 0.32-0.71) in the sand sagebrush and 0.31 (95% CI: 0.12-0.58) in the shinnery oak vegetation type. Our results suggest that demographic differences in lesser prairiechicken within sand sagebrush and shinnery oak vegetation types throughout the Texas Panhandle should be evaluated, especially during the breeding season. Based on our results, higher mortality of birds during the breeding season illustrates the need to manage for vegetation components such as sand sagebrush and residual bunchgrasses as opposed to shinnery oak such that potential breeding season mortality may be lessened

Atlas of Rural Settlement in England

The Atlas of Rural Settlement in England GIS comprises the results of two projects based on Brian K Roberts and Stuart Wrathmell's An Atlas of Rural Settlement in England (2000). The aim of the data conversion project was to enable the key maps of rural settlement and terrain presented in the printed Atlas to be used more effectively than before in research on landscape and settlement in England, as well as in the management of the historic environment. The maps printed in the Atlas were produced digitally, but were created as vector graphics files, and were therefore not useable in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. Given the now-widespread use of GIS software in the management and study of the historic environment, as well as the availability of software such as Google Earth, that lacuna significantly restricted the use and value of the Atlas's maps. Presenting Roberts and Wrathmell's materials in an interactive, spatially-aware digital format will enable a variety of users to examine, query and re-interpret Roberts and Wrathmell's results. The aims of the environmental analysis project were to investigate the inter-relationships of environmental factors and historic settlement organisation and how they are expressed as regional and local variations, and to develop a new, national-scale characterisation of historic settlement organisation as it relates to the physical environment. The project combined the GIS data for historic settlement nucleation and dispersion with a range of data on environmental variables (topography, precipitation, temperature and soils) in order to explore which environmental variables (if any) appear to have had the most significant influence on regional variation in historic settlement organisation

Facilitating adaptation of biodiversity to climate change: a conceptual framework applied to the world’s largest Mediterranean-climate woodland

The importance of ecological management for reducing the vulnerability of biodiversity to climate change is increasingly recognized, yet frameworks to facilitate a structured approach to climate adaptation management are lacking. We developed a conceptual framework that can guide identification of climate change impacts and adaptive management options in a given region or biome. The framework focuses on potential points of early climate change impact, and organizes these along two main axes. First, it recognizes that climate change can act at a range of ecological scales. Secondly, it emphasizes that outcomes are dependent on two potentially interacting and countervailing forces: (1) changes to environmental parameters and ecological processes brought about by climate change, and (2) responses of component systems as determined by attributes of resistance and resilience. Through this structure, the framework draws together a broad range of ecological concepts, with a novel emphasis on attributes of resistance and resilience that can temper the response of species, ecosystems and landscapes to climate change. We applied the framework to the world’s largest remaining Mediterranean-climate woodland, the ‘Great Western Woodlands’ of south-western Australia. In this relatively intact region, maintaining inherent resistance and resilience by preventing anthropogenic degradation is of highest priority and lowest risk. Limited, higher risk options such as fire management, protection of refugia and translocation of adaptive genes may be justifiable under more extreme change, hence our capacity to predict the extent of change strongly impinges on such management decisions. These conclusions may contrast with similar analyses in degraded landscapes, where natural integrity is already compromised, and existing investment in restoration may facilitate experimentation with higher risk options