What's New at NPWRC

April 5, 2008

Biological Resource -- Ecosystem Services Derived from Wetland Conservation Practices in the United States Prairie Pothole Region with an Emphasis on the U.S. Department of Agriculture Conservation Reserve and Wetlands Reserve Programs

January 17, 2008

Employment Opportunities -- Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center has job openings for Field Technicians to work on several current and upcoming studies to be conducted during the summer field season. For more information, please check the available job listings on the Employment page.

August 24, 2006

Web Site Changes -- The Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center's Web site has updated the look of its site to match the most recent design format of U.S. Geological Survey Web products. Additionally, in an effort to return our search engine to full functionality, numerous links to our site have changed addresses. We apologize to our frequent visitors and encourage searching from the Biological Resources page, cross-referencing old URLs using the New Resource Locations page, or by browsing the Site Map to locate your favorite bookmarked pages on our site.

Moved Resources -- The Butterflies of North America and Moths of North America Web sites are now operated by the Big Sky Institute at Montana State University and the NBII Mountain Prairie Information Node. Information previously found on these sites has been incorporated into a new Butterflies and Moths of North America Web site at http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org.

Biological Resource -- Patterns of Variation in Clutch Sizes in a Guild of Temperate-Nesting Dabbling Ducks investigates patterns and causes of variation in clutch sizes in a guild of five species of temperate-nesting dabbling ducks (Mallard, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, Blue-winged Teal, and Northern Shoveler) during 1993–1995 in the Prairie Pothole Region of midcontinental North America.

Biological Resource -- Effects of Biodiversity on Ecosystem Functioning: A Consensus of Current Knowledge summarizes a consensus view for the ecological community of current understandings of the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning; and reviews the scientific evidence for links between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.

Biological Resource -- A Retrospective Perspective: Evaluating Population Changes by Repeating Historic Bird Surveys illustrates the advantages and disadvantages in repeating a historical survey and some of the challenges that might arise when using this approach to evaluate population changes.

Biological Resource -- Does Presence of Permanent Fresh Water Affect Recruitment in Prairie-Nesting Dabbling Ducks? evaluates whether development of a permanent water body had affected survival of gadwall and mallard broods and ducklings in surrounding wetland complexes in 1992-1993.

Biological Resource -- Variability in Vegetation Effects on Density and Nesting Success of Grassland Birds investigates the effect of vegetation structure on the density and nesting success of 3 grassland-nesting birds: clay-colored sparrow (Spizella pallida), Savannah sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis), and bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) in 3 regions of the northern tallgrass prairie in 1998–2001.

Biological Resource -- Grassland Bird Use of Conservation Reserve Program Fields in the Great Plains: 2000-2005 Update updates the information in Johnson (2000), which summarized research findings related to bird responses to CRP, with new research conducted since that report.

Biological Resource -- Determinants of Mallard and Gadwall Nesting on Constructed Islands in North Dakota studies mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and gadwall (A. strepera) nesting on constructed islands in North Dakota in 1996 and 1997 to evaluate factors—particularly amount of perennial grass cover in the surrounding landscape and density of breeding pairs—that possibly influence numbers of initiated nests.

Biological Resource -- Influences of Management Regimes on Breeding Bird Densities and Habitat in Mixed-Grass Prairie: An Example from North Dakota evaluates bird population densities and their habitats under cattle and bison management regimes in mixed-grass prairie.

Biological Resource -- Patch Size and Landscape Effects on Density and Nesting Success of Grassland Birds tests the spatial and temporal repeatability of the influence of patch size and landscape composition on density and nesting success of 3 grassland passerines in 3 regions of the northern tallgrass prairie in Minnesota and North Dakota, USA.

Biological Resource -- Parental Nest Defense on Videotape: More Reality Than Myth discusses the suitability of using video cameras for studies of nest defense and presents some additional data related to nest defense acquired using this method.

Biological Resource -- Proximate and Landscape Factors Influence Grassland Bird Distributions examines the influences of tree cover at both proximate and landscape scales on grassland birds, a group of birds of high conservation concern, in the Sheyenne National Grassland in North Dakota, USA.

Biological Resource -- Sampling Designs for Carnivore Scent-Station Surveys uses data collected from carnivore scent-station surveys in Minnesota, USA, during 1986-1991 to encourage and facilitate the use of efficient designs and reporting standards.

Biological Resource -- Markov Chain Monte Carlo Estimation of Species Distributions: a Case Study of the Swift Fox in Western Kansas provides results of a systematic survey of swift fox (Vulpes velox) distribution in western Kansas, USA, and describes the use of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) image restoration to rectify problems with map accuracy.

Biological Resource -- Fat Dynamics of Arctic-nesting Sandpipers during Spring in Mid-continental North America examines use of stored fat by adult male and female Baird's, Semipalmated, and White-rumped Sandpipers during their spring stopovers in eastern North Dakota.

Biological Resource -- Time-specific Variation in Passerine Nest Survival: New Insights Into Old Questions studies nest survival as a function of nest age and date in Clay-colored Sparrows (Spizella pallida) and Vesper Sparrows (Pooecetes gramineus) breeding in north-central North Dakota using the logistic-exposure method.

Biological Resource -- A Unified Approach to Analyzing Nest Success illustrates how the combination of generalized linear models and information-theoretic techniques for model selection, along with commonly available statistical software, provides ornithologists with a powerful, easily used approach to analyzing nest success.

Update -- Logistic-Exposure Analyses of Nest Survival has been updated to include revised versions of downloadable SAS code and macros for conducting logistic-exposure analyses of nest survival.

Update -- North Dakota GAP Analysis Project has been updated to include a downloadable versions of the April 2005 North Dakota GAP Final Report as well as contact information for requesting a companion GIS data CD.

Staff Information -- The staff profile pages in the NPWRC Staff Directory have been updated to include a “quick link” to that staff member's catalog of NPWRC-authored publications.

Publications Search -- The Publications Database Search has been redesigned and updated to make it easier for users to search for publications authored by NPWRC staff.

October 14, 2004

Biological Resource -- Computer Simulation of Wolf-removal Strategies for Animal Damage Control examines the use of a stochastic, spatially structured, individually based simulation model of a hypothetical wolf population, representing a small subset of the western Great Lakes wolves, to predict the relative performance of 3 wolf-removal strategies.

Biological Resource -- The role of replication in observational and sample survey studies is critically examined in The Importance of Replication in Wildlife Research.

Update -- Butterflies of North America and Moths of North America have been updated to include recently added county records.

Update -- New entries have been added to the Bibliography for Swift Foxes (Vulpes velox). This searchable resource now contains 459 citations.

Email Address Update -- The Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center's Web site has a new email address. You can now contact NPWRC via email at npwrc@usgs.gov or use the Mail Form to send us your comments, questions, and suggestions.

Web Site Changes -- The Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center's Web site has updated the look of the home page and has reorganized several of its pages. Due to the many changes made in an effort to “clean up” our file system, a significant number of links to our site have changed addresses. We apologize to our frequent visitors and encourage using the Resource Finder, the New Resource Locations page, or the Site Map to relocate your favorite bookmarked pages on our site.

Several popular relocated resources of note include:

• Bird Checklists of the United States
• Caterpillars of Eastern Forests
• Caterpillars of Pacific Northwest Forests and Woodlands
• Species Identification Guide: An Online Guide for Amphibians in the United States and Canada (formerly a part of NARCAM)
• Operation Crane Watch
• Midwestern Wetland Flora
• Northeast Wetland Flora
• Southern Wetland Flora
• Western Wetland Flora

August 12, 2004

Biological Resource -- The Usefulness of GPS Telemetry to Study Wolf Circadian and Social Activity describes circadian and social movement patterns of 9 wolves and illustrates capabilities and limitations of Global Positioning System (GPS) telemetry for analysis of animal activity patterns.

Biological Resource -- Incidence of Mink, Mustela vison, and River Otter, Lutra canadensis, in a Highly Urbanized Area documents Mink and an Otter inhabiting or traversing a residential, business, and industrial part of the Twin Cities, Minnesota, with little water or natural vegetation.

Biological Resource -- Differential Use of a Wolf, Canis lupus, Pack Territory Edge and Core provides data that supports a hypothesis that buffer zones exist between Wolf pack territories and may explain why prey survive longer there.

Biological Resource -- Breeding Season of Wolves, Canis lupus, in Relation to Latitude documents a significant relationship was found between Wolf breeding dates and latitudes between 12° and 80° N, with Wolves breeding earlier at lower latitudes, probably because of differences in seasonality.

Biological Resource -- Leadership Behavior in Relation to Dominance and Reproductive Status in Gray Wolves, Canis lupus provides a detailed account of the leadership behavior of breeding and nonbreeding gray wolves (Canis lupus) in three packs during winter in 1997-1999.

Biological Resource -- Range Expansion of the Pileated Woodpecker in North Dakota presents information that supports the idea that the pileated woodpecker is establishing populations in the Turtle Mountains, Devils Lake area, and along the Sheyenne River, especially in the Sheyenne National Grassland, and is moving even farther west.

Biological Resource -- Nesting Waterfowl and Water Birds on Natural Islands in the Dakotas and Montana investigates the extent of waterfowl nesting and rate of nest success on islands in North Dakota, South Dakota, and northeastern Montana and identifies island habitat features associated with nesting waterfowl and water birds.

Biological Resource -- Habitat Use and Movements of Canvasback Broods in Southwestern Manitoba evaluates observations of Canvasback broods accompanying marked females and the movements of different age classes among ponds of different size and wetland class during five summers in southwestern Manitoba.

Update -- Species accounts for the Greater Sage-Grouse and Brewer's Sparrow are now available in Effects of Management Practices on Grassland Birds.

Resource Finder -- The Resource Finder has been changed to conduct searches using the USGS search engine. This search engine allows visitors to search our entire site for the topics and information they are looking for.

Web Resources on the Move -- With the transfer of our Web hosting services now complete, we will be gradually making changes to our file system in the coming months. Some of those changes will result in new address locations for some of our biological resources. The New Resource Locations page provides a listing of both old and new address locations for resources as they are moved and will serve as a reference to help visitors find the new location for a resource they may have bookmarked.

Announcements -- Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center is looking to fill up to two Biological Science Technician positions for work on a sandhill crane recruitment study being conducted this fall in south-central Canada, North Dakota, and northwest Minnesota. Positions will begin on 6 or 13 September, and will conclude approximately the end of October. For more information, see the job announcement in the Employment Information section of the Announcements page.