Zooplankton Community Structure as a Function of Abiotic and Biotic Factors Prior to a Multiphased Restoration Effort

Lake Taylorville, an impoundment on the South Fork of the Sangamon River, is located just south of Taylorville in Christian County, Illinois. The tributaries of this reservoir drain primarily agricultural areas and contribute to degradation of the reservoir through excessive sediment and nutrient loading. A restoration project is underway which involves construction of sediment basins and dry dams. Analysis of the crustacean zooplankton community has formed an integral part of an intensive limnological investigation of the reservoir during the initial stages of the restoration effort. Seasonal variation in the composition, and density of the major groups was observed. Rotifers (Brachionus and Polyarthra) were numerically dominant throughout the study period. Copepods (primarily nauplii) accounted for the second largest proportion of total zooplankton while cladocerans (Diaphanasoma and Daphnia) had the lowest relative density. Total zooplankton density increased significantly in late May before declining again in late August. Although many chemical, physical and biological factors potentially impact zooplankton community structure, I believe that an increase in temperature as well as algal units led to a significant increase in total zooplankton density in late May while decreased dissolved oxygen concentrations produced a sharp decline in late August. Predation by size selective planktivores probably does not control zooplankton density because of the limited light regime in Lake Taylorville

Monitoring Greater Sage Grouse Populations and Habitat Use in the Southeast Montana Sage-Grouse Core Area

Sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) core areas support Montana’s highest densities of sage grouse, and are deemed vitally important to sage grouse conservation long term. The Southeast Montana Sage Grouse Core Area (SEMT SGCA) consists of large expanses of intact sagebrush-steppe habitat and is important for connectivity among populations in Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming. Relatively little development has occurred in the area, but there is potential for energy development to have large-scale impacts on the area in the near future. Little was known about sage-grouse use of the area during critical periods outside of the breeding season or factors underlying local sage-grouse population dynamics. Therefore, we radio collared 94 sage grouse hens between 2009-2011 to quantify movements, habitat use, and population vital rates. Overall, hen locations tended to be within the SEMT SGCA during spring-summer and expanded to adjacent areas of Wyoming and South Dakota during winter. Wide annual fluctuations in weather conditions drove annual variation in population demographic rates, habitat conditions, and habitat use. Apparent nest success (34-68%) and average chick production per hen that began the breeding season (0.72-1.12 chicks/hen) varied among years with extreme to mild weather. Annual hen survival varied from a low of 46 percent under extreme winter conditions to > 60 percent under milder weather. Vegetation characteristics at nest, brood-rearing, and winter locations will be presented. Results from this project will aid in land use planning, prioritization of conservation efforts, and provide information to assess the effects of future land use change. The project is conducted by MFWP and funded by the BLM

Mule Deer Management in Southeastern Montana

In 1982, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 7 implemented a five week regionwide general license either-sex plus additional antlerless B license harvest structure for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus).   This harvest strategy implemented three important changes from previous years. First, the regionwide harvest structure eliminated the use of small hunting districts and allows the law of diminishing returns to operate: hunters tend to avoid areas with low deer numbers and focus on areas with higher densities.  Second, general licenses were made either-sex, rather than antlered-only for mule deer.  Third, following natural population declines (e.g., due to severe natural stressors), biologists began increasing antlerless quotas soon after populations began to recover, rather than waiting until populations were at or above long-term averages.  This management system has maximized opportunity and flexibility for hunters while simplifying regulations and enforcement.  In the 30-plus years since implementation, Region 7 has seen a reduction in game damage complaints, and an increase in buck-to-doe ratios.  Mule deer populations and harvest have been stable long-term, and population fluctuations have decreased in magnitude.  This harvest strategy has produced similar results in both Region 7 as a whole (75% private lands) and on the Custer National Forest, a 436,000-ac block of public land

INTRODUCTION, FIRST READING AND REFERENCE

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Adaptive Wolf Management: The Regulated Public Harvest Component

Montana’s wolf (Canis lupus) conservation and management plan is based on adaptive management principles and includes regulated public harvest as a population management tool. The need and opportunity to implement public harvest in 2008, 2009, and 2010 required Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) to develop a stepped down adaptive management framework specific to harvest. For 2008 and 2009, FWP set modest objectives: implement a harvest, maintain a recovered population, and begin the learning process to inform development of future hunting regulations and quotas. In 2010, FWP used a formal Structured Decision Making Process to more clearly define priorities and challenges of setting a wolf season, outline objectives of a successful season, and evaluate consequences and trade-offs between alternative management actions. For all years, FWP used a modeling process to simulate a wide range of harvest rates across three harvest units and to predict harvest effects on the minimum number of wolves, packs and breeding pairs. Model inputs were derived from minimum wolf numbers observed in the field. Modeling allowed consideration of a range of harvest quotas, predicted outcomes, and risk that harvest could drive the population below federally-required minimums. It also facilitated explicit consideration of how well a particular quota achieved objectives and how to adapt future regulations and quotas. Legal challenges to federal delisting restricted implementation of the first fair chase hunting season to 2009. Montana’s wolf population is securely recovered, despite the dynamic political and legal environments. Regardless, FWP remains committed to a scientific, data-driven approach to adaptive management

Evaluating the Effects of Cutoffs and Treatment of Long-range Electrostatics in Protein Folding Simulations

The use of molecular dynamics simulations to provide atomic-level descriptions of biological processes tends to be computationally demanding, and a number of approximations are thus commonly employed to improve computational efficiency. In the past, the effect of these approximations on macromolecular structure and stability has been evaluated mostly through quantitative studies of small-molecule systems or qualitative observations of short-timescale simulations of biological macromolecules. Here we present a quantitative evaluation of two commonly employed approximations, using a test system that has been the subject of a number of previous protein folding studies–the villin headpiece. In particular, we examined the effect of (i) the use of a cutoff-based force-shifting technique rather than an Ewald summation for the treatment of electrostatic interactions, and (ii) the length of the cutoff used to determine how many pairwise interactions are included in the calculation of both electrostatic and van der Waals forces. Our results show that the free energy of folding is relatively insensitive to the choice of cutoff beyond 9 Å, and to whether an Ewald method is used to account for long-range electrostatic interactions. In contrast, we find that the structural properties of the unfolded state depend more strongly on the two approximations examined here

Synthetic Nanoparticles for Vaccines and Immunotherapy

The immune system plays a critical role in our health. No other component of human physiology plays a decisive role in as diverse an array of maladies, from deadly diseases with which we are all familiar to equally terrible esoteric conditions: HIV, malaria, pneumococcal and influenza infections; cancer; atherosclerosis; autoimmune diseases such as lupus, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. The importance of understanding the function of the immune system and learning how to modulate immunity to protect against or treat disease thus cannot be overstated. Fortunately, we are entering an exciting era where the science of immunology is defining pathways for the rational manipulation of the immune system at the cellular and molecular level, and this understanding is leading to dramatic advances in the clinic that are transforming the future of medicine.1,2 These initial advances are being made primarily through biologic drugs– recombinant proteins (especially antibodies) or patient-derived cell therapies– but exciting data from preclinical studies suggest that a marriage of approaches based in biotechnology with the materials science and chemistry of nanomaterials, especially nanoparticles, could enable more effective and safer immune engineering strategies. This review will examine these nanoparticle-based strategies to immune modulation in detail, and discuss the promise and outstanding challenges facing the field of immune engineering from a chemical biology/materials engineering perspectiveNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grants AI111860, CA174795, CA172164, AI091693, and AI095109)United States. Department of Defense (W911NF-13-D-0001 and Awards W911NF-07-D-0004