Feral Free-Ranging Horse Impacts to Native Wildlife

The impacts of introduced horse on the vegetative communities has been widely studied. However, minimal research has been conducted to scientifically determine how they affect native wildlife. Ecologically, feral and free-ranging horses have been documented to cause environmental effects including: soil loss, compaction and erosion; trampling of vegetation; reducing plant species richness; inducing mortality of native trees; damage to bog habitats; damage to water bodies; facilitation of weed invasion; altering composition of insects; crabs, fish, reptiles, birds and small mammals; and, keeping wildlife out of waterholes. The controversy surrounding management of horses and the continued growth of feral free-ranging horse populations will challenge the ability to properly manage habitat for wildlife into the future. We identify gaps in the literature and recommend that more peer-reviewed research would be beneficial in reducing the current public controversy surrounding management of feral horses

Resolving the Intracoastal Waterway in a Storm Surge Model Applied for Floodplain Mapping for Northeast Florida

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Preference among 7 bait flavors delivered to domestic dogs in Arizona: Implications for oral rabies vaccination on the Navajo Nation

Less than 20% of the domestic dogs on tribal lands in the United States are vaccinated against rabies. One method to increase vaccination rates may be the distribution of oral rabies vaccines (ORVs). ONRA (Artemis Technologies, Inc., Ontario, Canada) is the primary ORV used in Canada to vaccinate striped skunks and raccoons. To investigate the potential use of ONRAB ORV baits to vaccinate feral domestic dogs against rabies on tribal lands and beyond, we performed a flavor preference study. A total of 7 bait flavors (bacon, cheese, dog food, hazelnut, sugar-vanilla, peanut butter, and sardine) were offered in pairs to 13 domestic dogs. Each dog was offered all possible combinations of bait pairs over a period of 10 days, with each bait offered 6 times. The proportion of times each bait was consumed first by individual dogs was calculated and comparisons among dogs were conducted using the MIXED procedure in SAS (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Pairwise comparisons between baits were performed using “contrast” statements with sugar-vanilla flavor as the default for comparison. Type 3 tests of fixed effects showed a significant treatment effect (F6,72 = 9.74, P\u3c 0.0001). Sugar-vanilla was selected first during 14% of the offerings and exhibited the least preference among all bait types (F1,72 = 22.46, P \u3c 0.0001). Dog food was selected first 56% of the time, and more frequently than all other bait types (F1,72 = 13.09, P= 0.0005). domestic dogs. Each dog was offered all possible combinations of bait pairs over a period of 10 days, with each bait offered 6 times. The proportion of times each bait was consumed first by individual dogs was calculated and comparisons among dogs were conducted using the MIXED procedure in SAS (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Pairwise comparisons between baits were performed using “contrast” statements with sugar-vanilla flavor as the default for comparison. Type 3 tests of fixed effects showed a significant treatment effect (F6,72 = 9.74, P\u3c 0.0001). Sugar-vanilla was selected first during 14% of the offerings and exhibited the least preference among all bait types (F1,72 = 22.46, P \u3c 0.0001). Dog food was selected first 56% of the time, and more frequently than all other bait types (F1,72 = 13.09, P= 0.000

Evaluating Southern Ocean biological production in two ocean biogeochemical models on daily to seasonal timescales using satellite chlorophyll and O2 / Ar observations

© The Author(s), 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 12 (2015): 681-695, doi:10.5194/bg-12-681-2015.We assess the ability of ocean biogeochemical models to represent seasonal structures in biomass and net community production (NCP) in the Southern Ocean. Two models are compared to observations on daily to seasonal timescales in four different sections of the region. We use daily satellite fields of chlorophyll (Chl) as a proxy for biomass and in situ observations of O2 and Ar supersaturation (ΔO2 / Ar) to estimate NCP. ΔO2 / Ar is converted to the flux of biologically generated O2 from sea to air (O2 bioflux). All data are aggregated to a climatological year with a daily resolution. To account for potential regional differences within the Southern Ocean, we conduct separate analyses of sections south of South Africa, around the Drake Passage, south of Australia, and south of New Zealand. We find that the models simulate the upper range of Chl concentrations well, underestimate spring levels significantly, and show differences in skill between early and late parts of the growing season. While there is a great deal of scatter in the bioflux observations in general, the four sectors each have distinct patterns that the models pick up. Neither model exhibits a significant distinction between the Australian and New Zealand sectors and between the Drake Passage and African sectors. South of 60° S, the models fail to predict the observed extent of biological O2 undersaturation. We suggest that this shortcoming may be due either to problems with the ecosystem dynamics or problems with the vertical transport of oxygen.This work was supported in part by funding from the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA NNX08AF12G) and the National Science Foundation (NSF OPP-0823101)

Bait flavor preference and immunogenicity of ONRAB baits in domestic dogs on the Navajo Nation, Arizona

Rabies is responsible for an estimated 59,000 human deaths worldwide, and domestic dogs are the primary reservoir and vector of the disease. Among some nations, widespread vaccination has led to elimination of rabies in domestic dogs, yet dogs are still susceptible to rabies infection from interactions with wildlife reservoirs. On Tribal lands in the United States, less than 20% of domestic dogs are vaccinated for rabies, and parenteral vaccination is often unfeasible. Oral rabies vaccination may provide a solution, but a suitable bait flavor and vaccine must be identified. We evaluated 5 bait flavors (bacon, cheese, egg, fish, and sweet) in pairwise flavor-preference trials using placebo Ultralite baits in 26 domestic dogs on the Navajo Nation, Arizona. Each bait flavor was offered a total of 104 times. In all paired comparisons, bacon was more frequently preferred to the alternative. The sweet flavor (the flavor used operationally for oral rabies vaccine (ORV) distribution in Canada) was least preferred. Forty domestic dogs were offered baits containing ONRAB ORV: 14 received the sweet-flavored bait packet and 26 received bacon-flavored baits. Serum was collected from dogs before vaccination and at day 14 and 30 or 37 days after vaccination. Thirty-seven dogs consumed the baits, 2 baits (both sweet flavored) were chewed and spit out, and 1 (sweet flavored) was swallowed without apparent chewing (gulped). Eight dogs had preexisting rabies virus neutralizing antibody (RVNA) titers and 13 naïve dogs failed to seroconvert during the study period. Overall, 27 dogs (67.5%) showed increased RVNA titers after vaccination, including 1 dog who chewed and spit out the bait and all dogs with positive baseline RVNA titers. Geometric mean titers for all dogs that seroconverted during the study period peaked at day 14 (1.2 IU/ mL; n = 24) and decreased slightly by the final sampling day (0.8 IU/mL; n = 27).We conclude that bacon flavor may be a suitable bait flavor for ORV distribution in loosely kept or free-roaming domestic dogs. Seroconversion among dogs who ingested ONRAB-filled baits was variable. Why 13 dogs who consumed ORV baits failed to seroconvert remains unknown. Additional research to improve seroconversion rates in domestic dogs after vaccination with ONRAB is recommended

Evaluation of the Southern Ocean O2/Ar-based NCP estimates in a model framework

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2013. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 118 (2013): 385–399, doi:10.1002/jgrg.20032.The sea-air biological O2 flux assessed from measurements of surface O2 supersaturation in excess of Ar supersaturation (“O2 bioflux”) is increasingly being used to constrain net community production (NCP) in the upper ocean mixed layer. In making these calculations, one generally assumes that NCP is at steady state, mixed layer depth is constant, and there is no O2 exchange across the base of the mixed layer. The object of this paper is to evaluate the magnitude of errors introduced by violations of these assumptions. Therefore, we examine the differences between the sea-air biological O2 flux and NCP in the Southern Ocean mixed layer as calculated using two ocean biogeochemistry general circulation models. In this approach, NCP is considered a known entity in the prognostic model, whereas O2 bioflux is estimated using the model-predicted O2/Ar ratio to compute the mixed layer biological O2 saturation and the gas transfer velocity to calculate flux. We find that the simulated biological O2 flux gives an accurate picture of the regional-scale patterns and trends in model NCP. However, on local scales, violations of the assumptions behind the O2/Ar method lead to significant, non-uniform differences between model NCP and biological O2 flux. These errors arise from two main sources. First, venting of biological O2 to the atmosphere can be misaligned from NCP in both time and space. Second, vertical fluxes of oxygen across the base of the mixed layer complicate the relationship between NCP and the biological O2 flux. Our calculations show that low values of O2 bioflux correctly register that NCP is also low (<10 mmol m−2 day−1), but fractional errors are large when rates are this low. Values between 10 and 40 mmol m−2 day−1 in areas with intermediate mixed layer depths of 30 to 50 m have the smallest absolute and relative errors. Areas with O2 bioflux higher than 30 mmol m−2 day−1 and mixed layers deeper than 40 m tend to underestimate NCP by up to 20 mmol m−2 day−1. Excluding time periods when mixed layer biological O2 is undersaturated, O2 bioflux underestimates time-averaged NCP by 5%–15%. If these time periods are included, O2 bioflux underestimates mixed layer NCP by 20%–35% in the Southern Ocean. The higher error estimate is relevant if one wants to estimate seasonal NCP since a significant amount of biological production takes place when mixed layer biological O2 is undersaturated.This work was supported in part by funding from the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA NNX08AF12G) and National Science Foundation (NSF OPP-0823101)

Bait flavor preference and immunogenicity of ONRAB baits in domestic dogs on the Navajo Nation, Arizona

Rabies is responsible for an estimated 59,000 human deaths worldwide, and domestic dogs are the primary reservoir and vector of the disease. Among some nations, widespread vaccination has led to elimination of rabies in domestic dogs, yet dogs are still susceptible to rabies infection from interactions with wildlife reservoirs. On Tribal lands in the United States, less than 20% of domestic dogs are vaccinated for rabies, and parenteral vaccination is often unfeasible. Oral rabies vaccination may provide a solution, but a suitable bait flavor and vaccine must be identified. We evaluated 5 bait flavors (bacon, cheese, egg, fish, and sweet) in pairwise flavor-preference trials using placebo Ultralite baits in 26 domestic dogs on the Navajo Nation, Arizona. Each bait flavor was offered a total of 104 times. In all paired comparisons, bacon was more frequently preferred to the alternative. The sweet flavor (the flavor used operationally for oral rabies vaccine (ORV) distribution in Canada) was least preferred. Forty domestic dogs were offered baits containing ONRAB ORV: 14 received the sweet-flavored bait packet and 26 received bacon-flavored baits. Serum was collected from dogs before vaccination and at day 14 and 30 or 37 days after vaccination. Thirty-seven dogs consumed the baits, 2 baits (both sweet flavored) were chewed and spit out, and 1 (sweet flavored) was swallowed without apparent chewing (gulped). Eight dogs had preexisting rabies virus neutralizing antibody (RVNA) titers and 13 naïve dogs failed to seroconvert during the study period. Overall, 27 dogs (67.5%) showed increased RVNA titers after vaccination, including 1 dog who chewed and spit out the bait and all dogs with positive baseline RVNA titers. Geometric mean titers for all dogs that seroconverted during the study period peaked at day 14 (1.2 IU/ mL; n = 24) and decreased slightly by the final sampling day (0.8 IU/mL; n = 27).We conclude that bacon flavor may be a suitable bait flavor for ORV distribution in loosely kept or free-roaming domestic dogs. Seroconversion among dogs who ingested ONRAB-filled baits was variable. Why 13 dogs who consumed ORV baits failed to seroconvert remains unknown. Additional research to improve seroconversion rates in domestic dogs after vaccination with ONRAB is recommended

The Demography of Massive Dark Objects in Galaxy Centres

We construct dynamical models for a sample of 36 nearby galaxies with Hubble Space Telescope photometry and ground-based kinematics. The models assume that each galaxy is axisymmetric, with a two-integral distribution function, arbitrary inclination angle, a position-independent stellar mass-to-light ratio Upsilon, and a central massive dark object (MDO) of arbitrary mass M_bh. They provide acceptable fits to 32 of the galaxies for some value of M_bh and Upsilon; the four galaxies that cannot be fit have kinematically decoupled cores. The mass-to-light ratios inferred for the 32 well-fit galaxies are consistent with the fundamental plane correlation Upsilon \propto L^0.2, where L is galaxy luminosity. In all but six galaxies the models require at the 95% confidence level an MDO of mass M_bh ~ 0.006 M_bulge = 0.006 Upsilon L. Five of the six galaxies consistent with M_bh=0 are also consistent with this correlation. The other (NGC 7332) has a much stronger upper limit on M_bh. We consider various parameterizations for the probability distribution describing the correlation of the masses of these MDOs with other galaxy properties. One of the best models can be summarized thus: a fraction f ~0.97 of galaxies have MDOs, whose masses are well described by a Gaussian distribution in log (M_bh/M_bulge) of mean -2.27 and width ~0.07.Comment: 28 pages including 13 figures and 4 tables. Submitted to A

The Centers of Early-Type Galaxies with HST. VI. Bimodal Central Surface Brightness Profiles

We combine the results from several HST investigations of the central structure of early-type galaxies to generate a large sample of parameterized surface photometry. The studies included were those that used the "Nuker law" to characterize the inner light distributions of the galaxies. The sample comprises WFPC1 and WFPC2 V band observations published earlier by our group, R band WFPC2 photometry of Rest et al., NICMOS H band photometry by Ravindranath et al. and Quillen et al., and the BCG WFPC2 I band photometry of Laine et al. The distribution of the logarithmic slopes of the central profiles strongly affirms that the central structure of elliptical galaxies with Mv < -19 is bimodal, based on both parametric and non-parametric analysis. At the HST resolution limit, most galaxies are either power-law systems, which have steep cusps in surface brightness, or core systems, which have shallow cusps interior to a steeper envelope brightness distribution. A rapid transition between the two forms occurs over the luminosity range -22 < Mv < -20, with cores dominating at the highest luminosities, and power-laws at the lowest. There are a few "intermediate" systems that have both cusp slopes and total luminosities that fall within the core/power-law transition, but they are rare and do not fill in the overall bimodal distribution of cusp slopes. These results are inconsistent with the Ferrarese et al. Virgo Cluster Survey (VCS) analysis. However, using galaxies common to the VCS samples, we demonstrate that the VCS models of the cusps are either a poor match to the observations or consist of forms fitted to the galaxy envelopes and extrapolated inward to the HST resolution limit.Comment: Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal; 60 pages and 20 postscript figure