Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
August 2016 Activity Highlights
Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
La Crosse, Wisconsin
Topics covered in the August activity report.
- Collaborative Partner Activities
- Vegetation Mapping: Great Smokey Mountains
- Undergraduate Research Experiences
- eDNA and Informatics Discussions with the Mayo Clinic
- Media
- Electronic Methods to Track Bird Movements
- Common Loon Research and Conservation
- Publications
- Short-term climate variability predicts species occurrence as well or better than long-term climate means
- Extreme heat and other climate extremes are expected to be the norm by mid- to late-century
- Stakeholder-led science: engaging resource managers to identify science needs for long-term management of floodplain conservation lands
- Scientific Meetings, Conferences, and Workshops
- American Fisheries Society’s Annual Meeting
- Joint Statistical Meetings
- North American Ornithological Conference
- University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Geospatial Workshop
- Managing Science Data: SciDataCon 2016
- Acronyms
Collaborative Partner Activities
Vegetation Mapping: Great Smokey Mountains
Andrew Strassman, Kevin Hop, Erin Hoy (UMESC), Rickie White (NatureServe), Tom Remaley, Troy Evans, Rob Klein and other Great Smoky Mountain (GRSM) National Park staff conducted field reconnaissance and mapping verification of the vegetation within the North Carolina-side of GRSM National Park, for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Vegetation Mapping Project, August 15-26, 2016. Field work encompassed the entire North Carolina side of the park, will involve the comparison of aerial imagery signatures to ground conditions while simultaneously testing the key to vegetation for functionality and consistency, and included the testing of an initial mapping classification and draft vegetation mapping of selected sections of the park. The GRSM mapping project is associated with the National Park Service’s Vegetation Mapping Inventory (VMI) Program (Andrew Strassman, astrassman@usgs.gov, Ecosystems).
Undergraduate Research Experiences
Richard Erickson (UMESC) and Eric Eager (UW-La Crosse) mentored 4 undergraduates through a National Science Foundation funded Mathematical Biology Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Broadly, the students examined population models used for assessing the impacts of wind energy on the federally endangered Indiana bat. The students specifically analyzed branching process models, potential biological removal models, and matrix population models. The students presented the results from their research as posters during the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium, August 4, 2016. They are also working on several manuscripts for publication in peer reviewed journals. The posters were also shared with Jennifer Syzmanski (USFWS, Endangered Species Program), August 11, 2016. Syzmanski uses the same types of models in USFWS Region 3 endangered species management projects (Richard Erickson, rerickson@usgs.gov, Ecosystems).
- Demographic Modeling of an Indiana Bat Population Subject to Wind-Energy Stress, by Sarah Oldfield (University of the South), Tiffany Tu (George Washington University), Humza Haider (University of Minnesota-Morris), Rosa Moreno (California State University Islands), Eric A. Eager (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse), and Richard A. Erickson (UMESC).
- PBR Modeling and Analysis of the Indiana Bat Population, by Humza Haider, Rosa Moreno, Sarah Oldfield, Tiffany Tu, Eric A. Eager, and Richard A. Erickson
eDNA and Informatics Discussions with the Mayo Clinic
Richard Erickson, Jon Amberg, and Grace McCalla (UMESC) met with Jaime Davila (Mayo Clinic) August 23, 2016, in Rochester, MN, to discuss research overlaps and potential future collaborations between the eDNA based informatics research conducted at UMESC, and medical based informatics at the Mayo Clinic (Richard Erickson, rerickson@usgs.gov, Ecosystems).
Media
Electronic Methods to Track Bird Movements
Kevin Kenow (UMESC) provided information about the use of archival geolocator tags to document common loon migration and foraging patterns to Jim Williams from the Minneapolis StarTribune, July 28, 2016. Williams prepared a column discussing electronic methods of tracking bird movement and behavior. Williams’s birding blog is available at, http://startribune.com/Wingnut (Kevin Kenow, kkenow@usgs.gov, Ecosystems).
Common Loon Research and Conservation
Minneapolis StarTribune outdoors writer Tony Kennedy and staff photographer Aaron Lavinsky accompanied Kevin Kenow, Steve Houdek (UMESC), and Lori Naumann (MN DNR) during common loon night capture work on the Whitewater Chain of Lakes near Pequot Lakes, MN, August 9, 2016,. The news crew prepared a story on common loon research and how the effort relates to loon conservation efforts in Minnesota. The story appeared in the September 4th edition of the Minneapolis StarTribune (Kevin Kenow, kkenow@usgs.gov, Ecosystems).
Publications
Short-term Climate Variability Predicts Species Occurrence as well or better than Long-term Climate Means
Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC) and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, James Cook University, University of Nevada-Reno, Stony Brook University, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service developed species distribution models based on either short-term variability or long-term average climate covariates for 320 bird species in the conterminous U.S., and tested whether life-history trait-based guilds were particularly sensitive to short-term conditions. Models including short-term climate variability performed as well (cross-validated AUC score = 0.85) as models using long-term climate averages (0.84). Similarly, both models performed well compared to independent presence/absence data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (independent AUC of 0.89 and 0.90, respectively). However, models based on short-term variability covariates more accurately classified true absences for most species (73% of true absences classified within the lowest quarter of environmental suitability versus 68%). Models comprised of short-term climate covariates can reveal the dynamic relationship between species and their environment because they capture the spatial fluctuations of species potential breeding distributions. With this information managers can identify which species and guilds are sensitive to climate variability, identify sites of high conservation value where climate variability is low, and assess how species’ potential distributions may have already shifted due recent climate change. The paper is available online, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eap.1416/full (Wayne Thogmartin, wthogmartin@usgs.gov, Ecosystems).
- Bateman, B.L., A.M. Pidgeon, V.C. Radeloff, C.H. Flather, J. VanDerWal, H.R. Akçakaya, W.E. Thogmartin, T.P. Albright, S.J. Vavrus, P.J. Heglund. 2016. Potential breeding distributions of U.S. birds predicted with short-term variability and long-term average climate data. Ecological Applications. DOI: 10.1002/eap.1416.
Extreme Heat and other Climate Extremes are Expected to be the Norm by Mid- to Late-century
Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC) and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service quantified future changes in the frequency of extreme heat, drought, and false springs, during the avian breeding season, in 415 National Wildlife Refuges in the conterminous United States. Extreme heat is projected to increase dramatically in all wildlife refuges, whereas changes in droughts and false springs are projected to increase or decrease on a regional basis. Extreme heat is expected to change in occurrence frequency from once in about 20 years to once in every two or three years, irrespective of region. Half of all wildlife refuges are projected to see increases in frequency (>20% higher than the current rate) in at least two types of weather extremes by mid-century. Wildlife refuges in the Southwest are projected to exhibit the fastest rates of change. The paper is available online, at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716302713 (Wayne Thogmartin, wthogmartin@usgs.gov, Ecosystems).
- Martinuzzi, S., A. J. Allstadt, B. L. Bateman, P. J. Heglund, A. M. Pidgeon, W. E. Thogmartin, S. J. Vavrus, and V. C. Radeloff. Future frequencies of extreme weather events in the National Wildlife Refuges of the conterminous U.S. Biological Conservation. Vol. 201:327-335. ISSN:0006-3207. DOI:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.07.007..
Stakeholder-Led Science
Kristen Bouska (UMESC) and colleagues at the University of Missouri and CERC surveyed 80 resource managers of floodplain conservation lands, to document their management priorities and identify science needs. The areas surveyed are highly dynamic floodplain environments along the Upper and Middle Mississippi River, and Lower Missouri River. Although the problems facing the managers of these lands are complex, a small suite of inundation metrics were determined to be the most useful in guiding the decision making process. The paper is available online, at http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol21/iss3/art12/ (Kristen Bouska, kbouska@usgs.gov, Ecosystems).
- Bouska, K.L., Lindner, G.A., Paukert, C.P., Jacobson, R.B. 2016. Stakeholder-led science: engaging resource managers to identify science needs for long-term management of floodplain conservation lands. Ecology and Society. 21(3):12. DOI:10.5751/ES-08620-210312.
Scientific Meetings, Conferences, and Workshops
American Fisheries Society’s Annual Meeting
The Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) made the following contributions to the 146th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society, August 21-25, 2016, in Kansas City, MO (Randy Hines, rkhines@usgs.gov, Ecosystems)
Oral Presentations
- An Examination of Costs and Benefits for Capturing Meaningful Hydro-Geomorphic Criteria for Aquatic Biota in Rivers, by Garth Lindner, Craig Paukert, Amanda Rosenberger, Robert B. Jacobson, Kristen Bouska, and Edward Bulliner.
- Assessing Movement of Adult Silver Carp and Bighead Carp in the Upper Illinois Waterway System Using GPS Satellite and Radio Telemetry, by Andrew Mathis, James T. Lamer, Brent Knights, and Kevin Irons.
- Bigheaded Carp Behavior and Bioacoustics, by Brooke J. Vetter, Kelsie A. Murchy, Jon J. Amberg, Robin D Calfee, Mark P. Gaikowski, and Allen F. Mensinger.
- Can resilience concepts improve management and restoration?, by Kristen Bouska, Jeff Houser, and Nathan De Jager.
- Current Status of Reproducing Populations of Grass Carp in the United States, by Duane Chapman, Amy E. George, Cari-Ann Hayer, Brent Knights, Patrick Kocovsky, James Larson, Jon Vallazza, and Gregory W. Whitledge.
- Development and Potential Use of Broad-Scale Inundation Metrics to Evaluate the Role of Floodplain Inundation on Fishes in the Lower Missouri River, by Kristen Bouska, Garth Lindner, Edward Bulliner, Craig P. Paukert, and Robert B. Jacobson.
- Evaluating Upstream Passage and Associated Movement Patterns of Adult Asian Carp at a Gated Dam on the Illinois River, by Matthew Lubejko, James E. Garvey, Marybeth K. Brey, and Gregory W. Whitledge.
- Go, Carp. Go!: Efficacy of Waterguns, Sound, and CO2 to Deter Bigheaded Carp, by Marybeth K. Brey, Aaron R. Cupp, Jon J. Amberg, Richard Erickson, Kelsie A. Murchy, Allen F. Mensinger, Tyson Hatton, and Nicholas Swyers.
- Larval Fish Communities Differ Among Great Lakes Rivermouths, by Jeffrey S. Schaeffer, Sara Friedline, Martha Carlson-Mazur, Jennifer Granneman, Natalie Goldstrohm, and James Larson.
- Potential Implications of Acoustic Stimuli As a Non-Physical Barrier to Silver (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and Bighead Carp (H. noblis), Kelsie A. Murchy, Aaron R. Cupp, Jon J. Amberg, Brooke J. Vetter, Kim T. Fredricks, Mark P. Gaikowski, and Allen F. Mensinger.
- Timing and Hydrological Conditions Associated with Bigheaded Carp Movement Past Navigation Dams on the Upper Mississippi River, by Jon Vallazza, Kyle Mosel, Ann Runstrom, James Larson, Neil Gillespie, and Brent Knights.
- Use of a Backwater Lake with Restored Lateral Hydrologic Connectivity By Invasive Bighead and Silver Carp, by Alison Coulter, Doug Schultz, Elizabeth Tristano, Marybeth K. Brey, and James E. Garvey.
Posters
- A Comparison of Fish Communities in Contiguous Backwater and Vegetated Impounded Areas of Pool 19, Upper Mississippi River, Eli Lampo, James T Lamer, Brent Knights, Jon Vallazza, and James Larson.
- Quantification of Daily Otolith Increments in Young of Year Asian Carp, by Emily A. Szott, James T. Lamer, James Larson, Brent Knights, Jon Vallazza, Levi Solomon, Rich Pendleton, and Andrew F. Casper.
- Using Maxent to Generate a Fundamental Niche Model for Diverse Mussel Assemblages within the Northeastern Ozark Region of Missouri, by Kayla Key, Garth Lindner, Kristen Bouska, Amanda Rosenberger, and Stephen McMurray.
- Mapping and Monitoring Aquatic Vegetation in Lake Erie for Grass Carp Risk Assessment, by Nicole King, Jenny Hanson, and Patrick Kocovsky.
Additional Contributions
- Kristen Bouska
- Co-moderator for the session, “Documented and Documenting the Effects of Climate Change on Inland Fish and Fisheries”
- Marybeth Brey
- Attending and participating in the meeting and retreat of the Governing Board and Management Committee of AFS.
- President of the Equal Opportunities Section, running the business meeting and luncheon.
- Participating in a symposium, "Actions to Increase the Engagement of Underrepresented Minorities in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences."
- Selected as a mentor for the "Emerging Leaders" program to mentor and develop new leaders in the Society.
Joint Statistical Meetings
Brian Gray (UMESC) presented, “Trend estimation given many short series of latent means,” at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Chicago, IL, July 30-August 4, 2016. The presentation covered estimating many trends from correlated time series, such as those commonly obtained by ecological and environmental monitoring programs. The presentation’s co-authors are, Richard Erickson (UMESC), Eric Eager, Travis Harrison (Univ. of WI-La Crosse), and Karl Oskar Ekvall (Univ. of MN-Twin Cities, Brian Gray, brgray@usgs.gov, Ecosystems).
North American Ornithological Conference
Wayne Thogmartin, Jessica Stanton, and Mike Wellik (UMESC) participated in the 2016 North American Ornithological Conference, August 16-20, 2016, in Washington DC (Wayne Thogmartin, wthogmartin@usgs.gov, Ecosystems).
- A generalizable energetics-based full annual cycle model of avian migration to facilitate continental-scale waterbird conservation, by W.E. Thogmartin, E.V. Lonsdorf, K. Aagaard, S. Jacobi, and M.T. Jones.
- The Conservation Atlas for Midwest Grasslands: A New Mapping Tool to Support Strategic Decisions and Cross-sector Collaboration, by T. Will, D. Lambert, R. Drum, W. Thogmartin, C. Wilsey, and K. Koch.
- Incorporating uncertainty into North American landbird population size estimates, by J.C. Stanton, P. Blancher, K.V. Rosenberg, A.O. Panjabi, and W.E. Thogmartin
- Predicting the future: ‘half-life’ projections and urgency metrics for North American birds, by J.C. Stanton and W.E. Thogmartin.
- Airspace use by night migrating landbirds in relation to the southwestern shore of Lake Erie, OH, M. Wellik and E. Kirsch.
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Geospatial Workshop
John (JC) Nelson (UMESC) was invited to participate in a workshop to help enhance geospatial education at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC), August 18, 2016. Nelson’s experience as UMESC’s GIS lab manager and working with lidar data prompted the invitation. The UWEC workshop will focus on, “Challenges and strategies for working with millennials,” “Bringing LiDAR into the classroom,” and “Cartography’s place in the geospatial realm” (John (JC) Nelson, jcnelson@usgs.gov, Ecosystems).
Managing Science Data: SciDataCon 2016
John (JC) Nelson (UMESC) presented, “Data management challenges in a distributed organization: What challenges we are facing at the USGS and how are we working to overcome them,” at SciDataCon 2016, September 11-13, 2016, in Denver, CO. SciDataCon seeks to advance the frontiers of data in all areas of research. This means addressing a range of fundamental and urgent issues around the ‘Data Revolution’ and the recent data-driven transformation of research and the responses to these issues in the conduct of research. SciDataCon 2016 is part of International Data Week, convened by The Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA), the International Council for Science (ICSU) World Data System, and the Research Data Alliance (John Nelson, jcnelson@usgs.gov, Ecosystems).
Acronyms
CERC – Columbia Environmental Research Center
DNR – Department of Natural Resources
eDNA – environmental DNA
GRSM – Great Smokey Mountains
LiDAR – Light Detection and Ranging
NPS – National Park Service
REU – Research Undergraduate Experiences
UMESC – Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
USFWS – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
USGS – U.S. Geological Survey
VMI – Vegetation Monitoring Inventory
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Page Last Modified: September 27, 2016