Article
Environmental Sciences
Steven F. F. Wilson, Cliff Nietvelt, Shawn Taylor, Daniel A. A. Guertin
Summary: This study used a Bayesian network to predict the habitat suitability of mountain goats in the Canadian Pacific region. The results showed that steep slopes, forest cover characteristics, and snow depth were important drivers of habitat suitability for mountain goats.
FRONTIERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Kevin S. White, Dominique E. Watts, Kimberlee B. Beckmen
Summary: The study investigated the use of thiafentanil as an alternative to carfentanil for chemical immobilization of mountain goats, finding that thiafentanil had faster induction and recovery times compared to carfentanil, but similar immobilization characteristics.
WILDLIFE SOCIETY BULLETIN
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Richard B. Harris, Patti J. Happe, William R. Moore, Clifford G. Rice, Jennifer M. Sevigny, David J. Vales, Kevin S. White, Emily C. Wirtz
Summary: This study examines the patterns of adult survival rates in mountain goats and their relationships with biotic and abiotic factors. Results show that survival is influenced by factors such as winter snow depth, drought index, temperature, and precipitation. These weather effects have contributed to a reduction in mountain goat survival and may pose a challenge to their population stability in the future.
JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Yasaman N. Shakeri, Kevin S. White, Jason N. Waite
Summary: Understanding the spatial use patterns and range fidelity of mountain goats in coastal Alaska revealed distinct seasonal and sex-specific variations. Females had larger home ranges than males during summer, but this relationship switched during the mating season. The high degree of range fidelity among individual animals, with 99% of them returning to their previous year's seasonal range, has important conservation implications in landscapes increasingly altered by human activities.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Kevin S. White, Taal Levi, Jessica Breen, Meghan Britt, Justin Merondun, Daria Martchenko, Yasaman N. Shakeri, Boyd Porter, Aaron B. A. Shafer
Summary: Obtaining field data and analytical methods for wildlife population conservation and management are significant challenges, especially for species in difficult-to-reach landscapes or small, isolated populations. Integrating genetic and non-genetic data can enhance understanding of population dynamics. Studying a low-density mountain goat population, genetic and morphologic data indicated demographically isolated peninsular subpopulations and influenced sustainable harvest quotas. The importance of using genetic and morphologic data, along with demographic modeling, in delineating population boundaries and dynamics for small, isolated populations was highlighted.
JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Daria Martchenko, Kevin S. White, Aaron B. A. Shafer
Summary: The potential negative artificial selection on horn size is a concern for hunting mountain goats. This study found that geographical location and artificial selection have little effect on horn size, while climate conditions may play a significant role. Additionally, mountain goats harvested closer to roads tend to have larger horns, possibly due to hunters' increased selectivity.
JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Justin A. Gude, Nicholas J. DeCesare, Kelly M. Proffitt, Sarah N. Sells, Robert A. Garrott, Imtiaz Rangwala, Mark Biel, Jessica Coltrane, Julie Cunningham, Tammy Fletcher, Karen Loveless, Rebecca Mowry, Megan O'Reilly, Ryan Rauscher, Michael Thompson
Summary: Climate change disproportionately affects species in ecosystems with hard boundaries. This study developed predictive models to analyze the impact of climate change and pneumonia epidemics on mountain goat populations in Montana, USA. The findings highlight the importance of reducing uncertainty and implementing adaptive management strategies to improve the conservation of alpine species.
JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Zoology
Chad Rice, Benjamin Larue, Marco Festa-Bianchet
Summary: Variation in age of primiparity affects population growth. Through a novel technique, we estimated the age of primiparity for 2274 mountain goats and studied the spatio-temporal variation in primiparity probability. Results suggest that large coastal mountain goat populations may be more resilient to harvest.
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Tyler D. Jessen, Christina N. Service, Kim G. Poole, A. Cole Burton, Andrew W. Bateman, Paul C. Paquet, Chris T. Darimont
Summary: This study reveals a decline in mountain goat population and habitat use in the Kitasoo Xai'xais (KX) territory in British Columbia. It emphasizes the importance of local knowledge and decentralized management in detecting and addressing threats to wildlife populations.
CONSERVATION SCIENCE AND PRACTICE
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Jesse F. Wolf, Kara M. MacAulay, Krystal D. Kriss
Summary: Anthropogenic activity puts increasing pressure on wildlife populations, affecting habitat and population viability. This study used GPS collar data to develop resource selection function (RSF) models for identifying important habitat for native mountain goats. The models, when combined with aerial survey data and existing methods, improve the accuracy of delineating ungulate winter ranges in similar eco-regions.
JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Weichao Guo, Mohammad Safeeq, Hongyan Liu, Xiuchen Wu, Guotao Cui, Qin Ma, Michael L. Goulden, Mats Lindeskog, Roger C. Bales
Summary: Feedbacks between the water and carbon cycles in semi-arid mountain ecosystems can introduce uncertainties into carbon storage projections. This study found that warming reduces carbon storage due to water limitations on growth and enhanced soil respiration, but CO2 fertilization and improved water-use efficiency offset this loss. Additionally, accounting for precipitation gradients and actual water storage is important in modeling carbon-water interactions.
GLOBAL BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
JiHyun Kim, Yeonjoo Kim, Donatella Zona, Walter Oechel, Sang-Jong Park, Bang-Yong Lee, Yonghong Yi, Angela Erb, Crystal L. Schaaf
Summary: The ongoing disproportionate increases in temperature and precipitation in Alaska may alter the latitudinal gradients in greenup and snowmelt timings as well as carbon dynamics. With a broad range of datasets and model results, the authors show that the carbon response to early greenup or delayed snowmelt varies greatly depending upon local climatic limits.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Shuren Wang, Congcong Jiao, Dayong Zhao, Jin Zeng, Peng Xing, Yongqin Liu, Qinglong L. Wu
Summary: This study reveals that rhizosphere bacterial communities in both alpine meadows and steppes exhibit higher alpha-diversity but lower beta-diversity compared to bacterial communities in sediments and bulk soils. The relationships between bacterial communities in different habitats weaken from meadows to steppes, and the drivers for the phylogenetic turnover of bacterial communities differ between meadows and steppes. These findings provide important insights into the differences in microbial communities between meadows and steppes in the grassland transition zone on the Tibetan Plateau.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Review
Environmental Studies
Luyun Chen, Yongheng Gao
Summary: This paper compares the soil microbial biomass stoichiometry ratios of alpine ecosystems and examines their responses to nitrogen deposition, altered precipitation, warming, and elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration. The results show that alpine ecosystems have a higher MBC:MBN ratio than the global average, while the MBN:MBP and MBC:MBP ratios vary considerably across different types of alpine ecosystems. The response of soil microbial stoichiometry to global climate change factors in these ecosystems is diverse and complex.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jun Xiao, Xiaoxiao Han, Shouqin Sun, Lingqing Wang, Joerg Rinklebe
Summary: The research found that different terrestrial moss species in Mountain Gongga, China, exhibit varying capacities to accumulate heavy metals, affected by growth substrates and geographic elevation. Heavy metal sources in moss in this region include atmospheric deposition, growth substrates, and anthropogenic activities.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
(2021)
Article
Infectious Diseases
Carla Julia da Silva Pessoa Vieira, Christine Steiner Sao Bernardo, David Jose Ferreira da Silva, Janaina Rigotti Kubiszeski, Eriana Serpa Barreto, Hamilton Antonio Oliveira Monteiro, Gustavo Rodrigues Canale, Carlos Augusto Peres, Aimee Leigh Massey, Taal Levi, Roberta Vieira de Morais Bronzoni
Summary: The study conducted landscape-scale mosquito surveillance in the southern Amazon to evaluate the relationship between forest disturbance and mosquito communities, focusing on arbovirus emergence. Results show that land-use change influences mosquito communities and may have implications for the emergence of arboviruses.
TRANSBOUNDARY AND EMERGING DISEASES
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Yasaman N. Shakeri, Kevin S. White, Jason N. Waite
Summary: Understanding the spatial use patterns and range fidelity of mountain goats in coastal Alaska revealed distinct seasonal and sex-specific variations. Females had larger home ranges than males during summer, but this relationship switched during the mating season. The high degree of range fidelity among individual animals, with 99% of them returning to their previous year's seasonal range, has important conservation implications in landscapes increasingly altered by human activities.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Ecology
James T. Thorson, Mayumi L. Arimitsu, Taal Levi, Gretchen H. Roffler
Summary: This article introduces a new method using a Tweedie generalized linear model (GLM) to analyze compositional data of prey. By statistically deriving the predator foraging process, future theoretical and applied developments can be inspired. The authors provide a new mvtweedie package and use two examples to demonstrate the application of this method and software.
Article
Ecology
Charlotte E. Eriksson, Daniel L. Z. Kantek, Selma S. Miyazaki, Ronaldo G. Morato, Manoel dos Santos-Filho, Joel S. Ruprecht, Carlos A. Peres, Taal Levi
Summary: Aquatic subsidies have a significant impact on jaguar diet and population density, as well as transforming their social behavior to include cooperative fishing and play interactions among same-sex adults.
Article
Ecology
Daria Martchenko, Kevin S. White, Aaron B. A. Shafer
Summary: The potential negative artificial selection on horn size is a concern for hunting mountain goats. This study found that geographical location and artificial selection have little effect on horn size, while climate conditions may play a significant role. Additionally, mountain goats harvested closer to roads tend to have larger horns, possibly due to hunters' increased selectivity.
JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Aimee L. Massey, Roberta Vieira de Morais Bronzoni, David Jose Ferreira da Silva, Jennifer M. Allen, Patrick Ricardo de Lazari, Manoel dos Santos-Filho, Gustavo Rodrigues Canale, Christine Steiner Sao Bernardo, Carlos Augusto Peres, Taal Levi
Summary: Metabarcoding and iDNA sampling were used to study vertebrate diversity in 39 forested sites in the southern Amazon, with carrion flies showing the highest vertebrate species richness. Camera traps may have biases towards certain species.
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Brent R. Barry, Katie Moriarty, David Green, Rebecca A. Hutchinson, Taal Levi
Summary: This study presents a comprehensive framework using camera traps and detection dogs to study wildlife space use and population occupancy. By applying a Bayesian spatial occupancy model, researchers successfully estimated the distribution of Pacific fishers in Oregon and identified unexpected findings. Through comparing models within different ecological regions, they determined patterns of habitat selection and spatial use by fishers.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Kiana B. Young, Tania M. Lewis, Kevin S. White, Aaron B. A. Shafer
Summary: Human disturbance and climate change can disrupt animal populations by affecting their movement and habitat. This study focuses on the mountain goats in Glacier Bay, Alaska, and examines their genetic population structure and the potential impact of climate change on population density. The researchers found that there are three genetically distinct subpopulations in Glacier Bay, and climate change is likely to reduce the population productivity for all subpopulations.
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Gretchen H. Roffler, Charlotte E. Eriksson, Jennifer M. Allen, Taal Levi
Summary: Sea otters and wolves, two apex predators, have interacted for the first time after their ranges overlap, with sea otters becoming an abundant marine subsidy for wolves. The reintroduction and restoration of sea otters have caused a dietary switch in wolves, eliminating deer and linking nearshore and terrestrial food webs. This study highlights the unexpected nutrient pathway and cross-boundary subsidy cascades resulting from species restoration.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Joel Ruprecht, Michael J. Wisdom, Darren A. Clark, Mary M. Rowland, Taal Levi
Summary: Understanding how animals respond to changes in their habitat caused by natural disturbances is increasingly important. These disturbances can affect herbivores' use of the habitat, with changes in plant communities improving forage conditions but potentially reducing other habitat functions. Quantifying the overall effects of these disturbances is challenging and requires long-term observations to fully understand their impact.
ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
(2023)
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Taal Levi, Aimee L. Massey
Article
Ecology
Cara L. Appel, Damon B. Lesmeister, Adam Duarte, Raymond J. Davis, Matthew J. Weldy, Taal Levi
Summary: Managing forests for biodiversity conservation while maintaining economic output is a major challenge globally. In the Pacific Northwest, USA, forest management is heavily influenced by the status of northern spotted owls, which have been in continued population decline for the past four decades. The monitoring program for northern spotted owls is transitioning from mark-resight surveys to a passive acoustic framework.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Emily Dziedzic, Brian Sidlauskas, Richard Cronn, James Anthony, Trevan Cornwell, Thomas A. Friesen, Peter Konstantinidis, Brooke E. Penaluna, Staci Stein, Taal Levi
Summary: The use of eDNA for species detection is changing the way global biodiversity is monitored. However, the lack of regional, vouchered, genomic sequence information, especially including intraspecific variation, hinders management agencies from fully utilizing eDNA to monitor taxa and implement eDNA analyses. This study created a database of complete mitogenomic sequences for all of Oregon's fishes, providing valuable insights into the taxonomic value and limits of complete mitogenomic sequences and informing the development of future eDNA assays and environmental genomics methods.
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Robert J. Lennox, Jacob W. Brownscombe, Chris Darimont, Andrij Horodysky, Taal Levi, Graham D. Raby, Steven J. Cooke
Summary: Human predators exploit animals at high rates, targeting different age classes and phenotypes. They have significant ecological and evolutionary impacts and can replace wild predators in maintaining ecosystem services. Poorly managed human activities can harm ecosystems and human well-being.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Phoebe Parker-Shames, Christopher Choi, Van Butsic, David Green, Brent Barry, Katie Moriarty, Taal Levi, Justin S. Brashares
Summary: The study mapped and characterized outdoor cannabis production in a large legacy cannabis-producing region of Southern Oregon during the first season of legal recreational production in 2016. The results showed that cannabis production areas were preferentially located in forested areas and undeveloped land, with smaller, spatially clustered farms. Cannabis farms were slightly closer to rivers, especially in areas predicted to have coho salmon presence.
CONSERVATION SCIENCE AND PRACTICE
(2022)