Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Publications
Development of a novel framework for modeling field-scale conservation effects of depressional wetlands in agricultural landscapes
The intermixed cropland, grassland, and wetland ecosystems of the upper mid-western United States combine to provide a suite of valuable ecological services. Grassland and wetland losses in the upper midwestern United States have been extensive, but government-funded conservation programs have protected and restored hundreds of thousands of acres...
McKenna, Owen P.; Osorio, Javier M.; Behrman, Katherine D.; Doro, Luca; Mushet, David M. Improving the ability to include freshwater wetland plants in process-based models
Considerable effort and resources have been placed into conservation programs designed to reduce or alleviate negative environmental effects of crop production and into evaluation of the benefits of these programs. Wetlands are an important source of ecosystem services, but modeling wetland plants is an emerging science. To date, wetland plant...
Williams, Amber S.; Mushet, David M.; Lang, Megan; McCarty, Gregory W.; Shaffer, Jill A.; Kahara, Sharon N. ; Johnson, Mari-Vaughn V.; Kiniry, James R. Towards a U.S. national program for monitoring native bees
North America has more than 4000 bee species, yet we have little information on the health, distribution, and population trends of most of these species. In the United States, what information is available is distributed across multiple institutions, and efforts to track bee populations are largely uncoordinated on a national scale. An overarching...
Woodward, Hollis; Federman, Sarah; James, Rosalind R.; Danforth, Bryan; Griswold, Terry; Inouye, David W.; McFrederick, Quinn; Morandin, Lora; Paul, Deborah; Sellers, Elizabeth; Strange, James P; Vaughan, Mace; Williams, Neal M.; Branstetter, Michael; Burns, Casey T.; Cane, James; Cariveau, Alison B; Cariveau, Daniel; Childers, Anna; Childers, Christopher; Cox-Foster, Diana L.; Evan, Elaine; Graham, Kelsey K.; Hackett, Kevin; Huntzinger, Kimberly; Irwin, Rebecca; Jha, Shalene; Lawson, Sarah; Liang, Christina; Lopez-Uribe, Margarita M.; Melathopoulos, Andony; Moylett, Heather M.C.; Otto, Clint R. V.; Ponisio, Lauren; Richardson, Leif L; Rose, Robyn; Singh, Rajwinder; Wehling, Wayne Wetlands in agricultural landscapes—Significant findings and recent advances from CEAP-Wetlands
The Wetlands Component of the USDA's Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP-Wetlands) is a multi-agency effort advancing science related to quantifying and interpreting effects and effectiveness of conservation practices and programs on ecosystem services provided by wetlands in agricultural landscapes. This special section originated from...
Mushet, David M.; Effland, William R.
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Brewer’s Sparrow (Spizella breweri breweri)
Keys to Brewer’s Sparrow (Spizella breweri breweri) management include maintaining extensive, unfragmented patches of suitable breeding habitat; reducing conifer cover and height; preventing the invasion of conifers and nonnative plants, especially cheatgrass (downy brome [Bromus tectorum]); minimizing disturbance to soil; and restricting the use...
Walker, Brett L.; Igl, Lawrence D.; Shaffer, Jill A. Climate- versus geographic-dependent patterns in the spatial distribution ofmacroinvertebrate assemblages in New World depressional wetlands
Analyses of biota at lower latitudes may presage impacts of climate change on biota at higher latitudes. Macroinvertebrate assemblages in depressional wetlands may be especially sensitive to climate change because weather‐related precipitation and evapotranspiration are dominant ecological controls on habitats, and organisms of depressional...
Stenert, C.; Pires, M.M.; Epele, L.B.; Grech, M.G.; Maltchik, L.; Mclean, Kyle I.; Mushet, David M.; Batzer, D.P.
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Nelson’s Sparrow (Ammospiza nelsoni nelsoni)
The key to Nelson’s Sparrow (Ammospiza nelsoni nelsoni) management is providing dense grasses or emergent vegetation near damp areas or freshwater wetlands. Nelson’s Sparrows have been reported to use habitats with 20–122 centimeters (cm) average vegetation height, 41 cm visual obstruction reading, 40–58 percent grass cover, 24 percent forb cover...
Shaffer, Jill A.; Igl, Lawrence D.; Johnson, Douglas H.; Sondreal, Marriah L.; Goldade, Christopher M.; Rabie, Paul A.; Euliss, Betty R.
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus)
Keys to Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus) management include maintaining cliffs with suitable recesses for use as nest sites (that is, the substrate that supports the nest or the specific location of the nest on the landscape), protecting nest sites from human disturbance by designating buffer zones, and maintaining open landscapes and habitats...
DeLong, John P.; Steenhof, Karen A new decision support tool for collaborative adaptive vegetation management in northern Great Plains national parks
National Park Service (NPS) units in the northern Great Plains (NGP) were established to preserve and interpret the history of America, protect and showcase unusual geology and paleontology, and provide a home for vanishing large wildlife. A unifying feature among these national parks, monuments, and historic sites is mixed-grass prairie, which...
Ashton, Isabel W.; Symstad, Amy; Baldwin, Heather; Post van der Burg, Max; Bekedam, Steven; Borgman, Erin; Haar, Milton; Hogan, Terri; Rockwood, Stephanie; Swanson, Daniel J; Thomson, Carmen; Wienk, Cody Testing a new passive acoustic recording unit to monitor wolves
As part of a broader trial of noninvasive methods to research wild wolves (Canis lupus) in Minnesota, USA, we explored whether wolves could be remotely monitored using a new, inexpensive, remotely deployable, noninvasive, passive acoustic recording device, the AudioMoth. We tested the efficacy of AudioMoths in detecting wolf howls and factors...
Barber-Meyer, Shannon; Palacios, Vicente; Marti‐Domken, Barbara; Schmidt, Lori
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Sedge Wren (Cistothorus platensis)
Keys to Sedge Wren (Cistothorus platensis) management include providing tall, dense grasslands with moderate forb coverage and minimizing disturbances during the breeding season. Sedge Wrens have been reported to use habitats with 30–166 centimeters (cm) average vegetation height, 8–80 cm visual obstruction reading, 15–75 percent grass cover, 3–78...
Shaffer, Jill A.; Igl, Lawrence D.; Johnson, Douglas H.; Sondreal, Marriah L.; Goldade, Christopher M.; Parkin, Barry D.; Wooten, Travis L.; Euliss, Betty R.
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus)
The key to Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) management is maintaining expansive sand shinnery oak (Quercus havardii) or sand sagebrush (Artemisia filifolia) grasslands. Within these grasslands, areas should contain short herbaceous cover for lek sites (that is, an area where male prairie-chickens gather to engage in courtship...
Jamison, Brent E.; Igl, Lawrence D.; Shaffer, Jill A.; Johnson, Douglas H.; Goldade, Christopher M.; Euliss, Betty R.