Bobwhite Quail Population Dynamics: Relationships of Weather, Nesting, Production Patterns, Fall Population Characteristics, and Harvest in Missouri Quail

For 25 years Missouri has investigated bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) behavior, production, and population response to 4 major types of weather. Ten population parameters are examined annually to compare effects of Normal, Wet-Deluge, Snow-Cold and Drought weather years on quail populations, Different types of weather are related to varying annual quail abundance by affecting productivity and survival and influencing relative levels of annual harvest and hunter interest. Normal and Wet-Deluge years yield favorable fall quail populations and satisfactory hunting. Years having winters of severe snow and cold have high breeder losses, low production, and reduced hunting success. In years having high temperature and drought in spring and summer, quail reproduction is inhibited, resulting in high losses of eggs and young,greatly reduced fall bird crops, and below-par hunting for many hunters. Recovery from weather-caused population lows usually occurs within 2 or 3 years after favorable weather conditions return. Reliable techniques for sampling have been developed to yield indices of annual production and hunting success. Production curves show the value of data on the distribution of peaks in hatching for understanding annual production and fall population levels of quail in Missouri. Such data form the basis for setting annual hunting regulations of bobwhite harvest

Second Broods In Bobwhite Quail

Data on second broods in bobwhite quail is limited due to a lack of information on molting patterns, quiescence of female gonads, nesting chronology, and parental behavior in males and females. An analysis of these factors is presented along with a discussion of 19 occurrences of second-clutches in Missouri. The impact of second broods on quail populations is discussed

Flathead Basin, Montana, ecosystem case study

The Flathead Basin project began as a river-basin EIS, guided by a citizen-based steering committee which eventually evolved into the Flathead Basin Commission, a State-legislated body. Water quality has dominated the Commission\u27s agenda, and has been the basis for assessing ecosystem change. Science has played a central role in providing information, driving adaptive management, developing an understanding of ecosystem structure and function, and informing the public. The ecosystem approach involved defining the system as the Flathead Lake catchment basin, synthesizing available information on the system with models, considering alternative management strategies, and making initial management decisions

Kodiak Brown Bears Surf the Salmon Red Wave: Direct Evidence from GPS Collared Individuals

One of the goals of Ecosystems Base Fisheries Management (EBFM) is recognizing and mitigating indirect effects of fisheries on trophic interactions. Most research on indirect effects has considered how the abundance of managed fishes influences trophic interactions with other species. However, recent work has shown that attributes besides abundance, such as life history variation, can strongly mediate species interactions.  For example, phenological variation within prey species may enhance foraging opportunities for mobile predators by increasing the duration over which predators can target vulnerable life stages of prey.  Here, we present direct evidence of individual brown bears (Ursus arctos middendorffi) exploiting variation in sockeye salmon spawning phenology by tracking salmon runs across a 2,800 km2 region of Kodiak Island.  Data from 40 GPS collared brown bears show bears visited multiple spawning sites in synchrony with the order of spawning phenology.  The average time spent feeding on salmon was 67 days, while the average duration of spawning for one population was only 40 days.  The number of sites used was correlated with the number of days a bear exploited salmon, suggesting phenological variation in the study area influenced bear access to salmon, a resource which strongly influences bear fitness.  These results suggest fisheries managers attempting to maximize harvest while minimizing impacts on brown bears should strive to protect the population diversity that underlies the phenological variation used by wildlife consumers.  These results underscore the need to understand how fisheries affect life history diversity in addition to abundance in order to minimize negative effects of fisheries management on non-target species, a goal of EBFM

Scaling Flow Path Processes to Fluvial Landscapes: An Integrated Field and Model Assessment of Temperature and Dissolved Oxygen Dynamics in a River-Floodplain-Aquifer System

Biogeochemical cycling within river ecosystems is strongly influenced by geomorphic and hydrologic dynamics. To scale point observations of temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) to a hydrologically complex and dynamic three-dimensional river-floodplain-aquifer system, we integrated empirical models of temperature and biotic oxygen utilization with a recently published hydrogeomorphic model. The hydrogeomorphic model simulates channel flow, floodplain inundation, and surface-subsurface water exchange on the 16 km(2) Nyack Floodplain, Middle Fork Flathead River, Montana, USA. Model results were compared to observed data sets of DO to test the hypothesis that complexity in spatiotemporal patterns of biogeochemistry emerges from a comparatively simple representation of biogeochemical processes operating within a multidimensional hydrologic system. The model explained 58% of the variance in 820 DO measurements that spanned the study site longitudinally, laterally, vertically, and across river discharge conditions and seasons. We also used model results to illustrate spatial and temporal trends of temperature and DO dynamics within the shallow alluvial aquifer, which is an extensive hyporheic zone because subsurface alluvial flow paths are recharged primarily by channel water. Our results underscore the importance of geomorphic, hydrologic, and temperature dynamics in driving river ecosystem processes, and they demonstrate how a realistic representation of a river\u27s physical template, combined with simple biogeochemical models, can explain complex patterns of solute availability

Challenges in Columbia River Fisheries Conservation: A Response to Duda et al.

The salmonid fisheries of the Columbia River Basin (CRB) have enormous socioeconomic, cultural, and ecological importance to numerous diverse stakeholders (eg state, federal, tribal, nonprofit), and there are a wide array of opinions and perspectives on how these fisheries should be managed. Although we appreciate Duda et al.\u27s commentary, it offers only one perspective of many in this context. The objective of our paper (Hand et al. 2018) was to provide justification for “the importance of social–ecological perspectives when communicating conservation values and goals, and the role of independent science in guiding management policy and practice for salmonids in the CRB”. However, we did not intend to strictly advocate for a single course of action, and the available space within our paper\u27s Panel 1 limited us from engaging in a thorough ecological debate

River Flows and Water Wars: Emerging Science for Environmental Decision Making

Real and apparent conflicts between ecosystem and human needs for fresh water are contributing to the emergence of an alternative model for conducting river science around the world. The core of this new paradigm emphasizes the need to forge new partnerships between scientists and other stakeholders where shared ecological goals and river visions are developed, and the need for new experimental approaches to advance scientific understanding at the scales relevant to whole-river management. We identify four key elements required to make this model succeed: existing and planned water projects represent opportunities to conduct ecosystem-scale experiments through controlled river flow manipulations; more cooperative interactions among scientists, managers, and other stakeholders are critical; experimental results must be synthesized across studies to allow broader generalization; and new, innovative funding partnerships are needed to engage scientists and to broadly involve the government, the private sector, and NGOs