Grassland Bird Monitoring at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas

During the breeding seasons of 2001 through 2003, a total of 517 variable circular plots were surveyed for birds and assessed for habitat composition at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas. Systematic 400 x 400 meter grids, originating from random start points, were used to locate 40 permanent variable circular plots in upland habitat at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument and 242 at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. An additional 14 permanent plots were established in the less common but important riparian habitat at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, and 18 plots were added in riparian areas at Tall grass Prairie National Preserve. Variable circular plots in riparian habitat were spaced at 250 meter intervals throughout each area

Protocol for Monitoring Fish Communities in Small Streams in the Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network, Version 2.0

Executive Summary Fish communities are an important component of aquatic systems and are good bioindicators of ecosystem health. Land use changes in the Midwest have caused sedimentation, erosion, and nutrient loading that degrades and fragments habitat and impairs water quality. Because most small wadeable streams in the Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network (HTLN) have a relatively small area of their watersheds located within park boundaries, these streams are at risk of degradation due to adjacent land use practices and other anthropogenic disturbances. Shifts in the physical and chemical properties of aquatic systems have a dramatic effect on the biotic community. The federally endangered Topeka shiner (Notropis topeka) and other native fishes have declined in population size due to habitat degradation and fragmentation in Midwest streams. By protecting portions of streams on publicly owned lands, national parks may offer refuges for threatened or endangered species and species of conservation concern, as well as other native species. This protocol describes the background, history, justification, methodology, data analysis and data management for long-term fish community monitoring of wadeable streams within nine HTLN parks: Effigy Mounds National Monument (EFMO), George Washington Carver National Monument (GWCA), Herbert Hoover National Historic Site (HEHO), Homestead National Monument of America (HOME), Hot Springs National Park (HOSP), Pea Ridge National Military Park (PERI), Pipestone National Monument (PIPE), Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (TAPR), and Wilson\u27s Creek National Battlefield (WICR). The objectives of this protocol are to determine the status and long-term trends in fish richness, diversity, abundance, and community composition in small wadeable streams within these nine parks and correlate the long-term community data to overall water quality and habitat condition (DeBacker et al. 2005)

Protocol for Monitoring Aquatic Invertebrates of Small Streams in the Heartland Inventory & Monitoring Network, Version 2.1

Executive Summary The Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network (HTLN) is a component of the National Park Service’s (NPS) strategy to improve park management through greater reliance on scientific information. The purposes of this program are to design and implement long-term ecological monitoring and provide information for park managers to evaluate the integrity of park ecosystems and better understand ecosystem processes. Concerns over declining surface water quality have led to the development of various monitoring approaches to assess stream water quality. Freshwater streams in network parks are threatened by numerous stressors, most of which originate outside park boundaries. Stream condition and ecosystem health are dependent on processes occurring in the entire watershed as well as riparian and floodplain areas; therefore, they cannot be manipulated independently of this interrelationship. Land use activities—such as timber management, landfills, grazing, confined animal feeding operations, urbanization, stream channelization, removal of riparian vegetation and gravel, and mineral and metals mining—threaten stream quality. Accordingly, the framework for this aquatic monitoring is directed towards maintaining the ecological integrity of the streams in those parks. Invertebrates are an important tool for understanding and detecting changes in ecosystem integrity, and they can be used to reflect cumulative impacts that cannot otherwise be detected through traditional water quality monitoring. The broad diversity of invertebrate species occurring in aquatic systems similarly demonstrates a broad range of responses to different environmental stressors. Benthic invertebrates are sensitive to the wide variety of impacts that influence Ozark streams. Benthic invertebrate community structure can be quantified to reflect stream integrity in several ways, including the absence of pollution sensitive taxa, dominance by a particular taxon combined with low overall taxa richness, or appreciable shifts in community composition relative to reference condition. Furthermore, changes in the diversity and community structure of benthic invertebrates are relatively simple to communicate to resource managers and the public. To assess the natural and anthropogenic processes influencing invertebrate communities, this protocol has been designed to incorporate the spatial relationship of benthic invertebrates with their local habitat including substrate size and embeddedness, and water quality parameters (temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductance, and turbidity). Rigid quality control and quality assurance are used to ensure maximum data integrity. Detailed standard operating procedures (SOPs) and supporting information are associated with this protocol

Grassland Bird Monitoring at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas

During the breeding seasons of 2001 through 2003, a total of 517 variable circular plots were surveyed for birds and assessed for habitat composition at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas. Systematic 400 x 400 meter grids, originating from random start points, were used to locate 40 permanent variable circular plots in upland habitat at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument and 242 at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. An additional 14 permanent plots were established in the less common but important riparian habitat at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, and 18 plots were added in riparian areas at Tall grass Prairie National Preserve. Variable circular plots in riparian habitat were spaced at 250 meter intervals throughout each area

VARIATION IN DRONE MATING FLIGHT TIMES AMONG COMMERCIAL HONEY BEE STOCKS

International audienc

Southern hemisphere circulation anomalies associated with extreme Antarctic peninsula winter temperatures

The Southern Hemisphere reveals markedly different circulation patterns associated with extreme warm and cold Antarctic Peninsula (AP) winter temperatures. Warm winters are associated with negative 500 hPa height anomalies in the Amundsen Sea-Bellingshausen Sea (AS-BS) and positive anomalies in the South Pacific (SP) and Scotia Sea with opposing anomalies existent in cold winters. Furthermore, a switch in the relative strength of the two arms of the New Zealand split jet, the subtropical jet (STJ) and polar front jet (PFJ), occurs with the PFJ (STJ) strengthened and the STJ (PFJ) weakened in warm (cold) years leading to increased cyclonic activity in the AS-BS (SP) and a corresponding decrease in the SP (AS-BS). These hemispheric anomaly patterns bear a strong resemblance to those associated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, and their origins can be ascribed to tropical sea surface temperatures (SST) changes. However, the correspondence between warm (cold) ENSO events and cold (warm) winters is not perfect. Potential contributors to this non-linearity include intraseasonal tropical SST variations (not necessarily represented in the usual filtered ENSO indices) and the persistence of local sea ice anomalies west of the Peninsula