White-Tailed Deer Movements in a Chronic Wasting Disease Area in South-Central Wisconsin

Abstract: To focus white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) management within a chronic wasting disease-infected area in south-central Wisconsin, USA, we assessed deer movements and related dispersal to variation in landscape pattern, deer density, and harvest intensity. We radiocollared and monitored 165 deer between 2003 and 2005. Yearling males that dispersed (45%) had greater forest edge (i.e., fragmentation) within natal home ranges. Exploratory movements were rare for adult females. Transient and migratory movements were rare among all deer (<5%). Although yearling males have low chronic wasting disease prevalence rates, they may be infected before dispersal due to variable incubation times. Managers should increase yearling male harvest and consider removing young males in areas of higher forest edge.     

Effects of Maternal Status on the Movement and Mortality of Sterilized Female White-Tailed Deer

Abstract: Surgical sterilization by tubal ligation has been proposed as a technique for controlling white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations in urban or suburban areas where other forms of population control are impractical, but little is known about demographic rates in populations under management with surgical sterilization. We analyzed seasonal movement and mortality data collected during a 4-year study of surgical sterilization in suburban Chicago, Illinois, USA. We calculated 323 home range size estimates for 62 individual females within season and year. Non-gravid females without young exhibited home range sizes 52% larger than gravid females and females with fawns. Mortality rate was positively correlated with home range size. We suggest that the increased mortality rate observed in surgically sterilized females may be due to greater movement by non-maternal females. Population managers will need to account for potential effects of maternal status on movement and mortality when considering the use of sterilization for management of suburban populations of white-tailed deer.     

Using isolation‐by‐distance‐based approaches to assess the barrier effect of linear landscape elements on badger (Meles meles) dispersal

As the European badger (Meles meles) can be of conservation or management concern, it is important to have a good understanding of the species’ dispersal ability. In particular, knowledge of landscape elements that affect dispersal can contribute to devising effective management strategies. However, the standard approach of using Bayesian clustering methods to correlate genetic discontinuities with landscape elements cannot easily be applied to this problem, as badger populations are often characterized by a strong confounding isolation‐by‐distance (IBD) pattern. We therefore developed a two‐step method that compares the location of pairs of related badgers relative to a putative barrier and utilizes the expected spatial genetic structure characterized by IBD as a null model to test for the presence of a barrier. If a linear feature disrupts dispersal, the IBD pattern characterising pairs of individuals located on different sides of a putative barrier should differ significantly from the pattern obtained with pairs of individuals located on the same side. We used our new approach to assess the impact of rivers and roads of different sizes on badger dispersal in western England. We show that a large, wide river represented a barrier to badger dispersal and found evidence that a motorway may also restrict badger movement. Conversely, we did not find any evidence for small rivers and roads interfering with badger movement. One of the advantages of our approach is that potentially it can detect features that disrupt gene flow locally, without necessarily creating distinct identifiable genetic units.     

Points, patches, and regions: scaling soil biogeochemical patterns in an urbanized arid ecosystem

Cities are rapidly growing throughout the world and are altering biologic processes in many regions, with global consequences. Urbanization in the Phoenix, USA metropolitan region has dramatically altered regional ecosystem patterns, but little is known about how these changes have influenced soil organic matter, total nitrogen, and the distribution of nitrogen stable isotopes. Because urban development is a phenomenon occurring at multiple scales, ecological consequences of urbanization will likely differ between individual patches and the entire metropolitan region. To investigate such changes we conducted spatially explicit surveys including three dominant land‐use types in this region: native desert, agriculture, and mesic residential. These data were combined for analysis with previously collected samples from a synoptic regional survey. A landscape scaling approach was implemented to compare the dependence of soil variability on the sampled extent and the uncertainty associated with scaling from points to patches, land‐use types, and the Phoenix metropolitan region. The multiple‐scale analysis of soil properties showed that variation in total soil nitrogen, soil organic matter, and δ⁵N content of soils differed between patch and regional scales. The majority of variation in the urbanized patch types was exhibited between patches while for the native desert the majority of variation was observed within individual patches. These differences show the impact of urbanization on the scaling relations of ecosystem components. Overall, urbanization in this region appears to have increased soil organic matter by 44%, total nitrogen by 48%, and has elevated δ¹⁵N by 21%.     

Assessment of 17 new whiskered auklet (Aethia pygmaea) microsatellite loci in 42 seabirds identifies 5–15 polymorphic markers for each of nine Alcinae species

We isolated 17 microsatellite loci in the whiskered auklet (Aethia pygmaea) and tested them for amplification in 48 species from 13 seabird families (including 42 seabirds). Fifteen of these loci were also tested for polymorphism in 38 of the species, which included nine species of Alcinae (four auklets, Atlantic puffin, dovekie, razorbill and two murre species). On the average, nine loci were polymorphic per Alcinae species.     

Low mtDNA diversity among widespread Australian diamondback moth Plutella xylostella （L,） suggests isolation and a founder effect

Populations of Australian diamondback moth （DBM） Plutella xylostella （L.）, a serious pest of cruciferous crops, display extremely low levels of genetic differentiation across Australia and New Zealand sample locations, as determined previously using microsatellite markers. These data suggest high levels of contemporary gene flow that is consistent with Australian DBM being a vagile species. Here we examine Australian DBM samples for haplotype variation using the mitochondrial DNA sequences of a 257 bp fragment of the CO1 gene. We compare this variation to equivalent mtDNA sequence variation in samples from New Zealand, Kenya and Korea. Using 42 moths collected throughout Australia we show that Australian DBM have both low mtDNA haplotype and nucleotide diversities. The three Australian haplotypes detected are closely related and they cluster with the common haplotype group from Indonesia. In addition the Australian haplotype frequency distribution resembled more that from Indonesia than that from Kenya or Korea. These data are consistent with an original strong Australian/New Zealand founder effect, from a south-eastern Asian source, with subsequent continued isolation. In a single season, the frequency of PXMt01, the most common Australian haplotype, was estimated at 15 locations spread across southern Australia and New Zealand using a polymerase chain reaction BiPASA method. The PXMt01 haplotype frequency variation was heterogenous, suggesting a small degree of population isolation that was not detected using microsatellites. Differentiation was not a function of geographical distance. These data suggest transient and sporadic local colonisation events by small numbers of founding females.     

Final Days: Japanese Culture and Choice at the End of Life

Final Days: Japanese Culture and Choice at the End of Life . Susan Orpett Long. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005. 287 pp.