Estimating Mineral Requirements of Wild Herbivores: Modelling Arctic Caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) in Summer.

Mineral requirements are poorly described for most wildlife. Consequently, the role of forage minerals in movement and productivity are poorly understood for sedentary and migratory ungulates, such as reindeer and caribou (Rangifer tarandus). We applied estimates of maintenance, lactation, body mass change, and antler growth to production curves (body mass, daily intake, and milk yield) for female caribou to calculate their mineral requirements over summer. The total requirements (mg or g·d-1) were divided by the daily intake (kg·d-1) to estimate the minimum concentration of minerals required in the diet (mg or g·kg-1) to balance demand. The daily requirements (mg·d-1) of all minerals increased from parturition to the end of summer. The minimum dietary concentrations (mg·kg-1) of macro-minerals (Ca, P, Mg, Na, K) declined as food intake (kg·d-1) increased over summer. The minimum dietary concentrations (Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn) were heavily influenced by body mass gain, which increased through late lactation even though food intakes rose. Our modeling framework can be applied to other wild ungulates to assess the impacts of changing forage phenology, plant community compositions, or environmental disturbances on movement and productivity.

Species distribution modelling for conservation of an endangered endemic orchid.

Concerns regarding the long-term viability of threatened and endangered plant species are increasingly warranted given the potential impacts of climate change and habitat fragmentation on unstable and isolated populations. Orchidaceae is the largest and most diverse family of flowering plants, but it is currently facing unprecedented risks of extinction. Despite substantial conservation emphasis on rare orchids, populations continue to decline. Spiranthes parksii (Navasota ladies' tresses) is a federally and state-listed endangered terrestrial orchid endemic to central Texas. Hence, we aimed to identify potential factors influencing the distribution of the species, quantify the relative importance of each factor and determine suitable habitat for future surveys and targeted conservation efforts. We analysed several geo-referenced variables describing climatic conditions and landscape features to identify potential factors influencing the likelihood of occurrence of S. parksii using boosted regression trees. Our model classified 97 % of the cells correctly with regard to species presence and absence, and indicated that probability of existence was correlated with climatic conditions and landscape features. The most influential variables were mean annual precipitation, mean elevation, mean annual minimum temperature and mean annual maximum temperature. The most likely suitable range for S. parksii was the eastern portions of Leon and Madison Counties, the southern portion of Brazos County, a portion of northern Grimes County and along the borders between Burleson and Washington Counties. Our model can assist in the development of an integrated conservation strategy through: (i) focussing future survey and research efforts on areas with a high likelihood of occurrence, (ii) aiding in selection of areas for conservation and restoration and (iii) framing future research questions including those necessary for predicting responses to climate change. Our model could also incorporate new information on S. parksii as it becomes available to improve prediction accuracy, and our methodology could be adapted to develop distribution maps for other rare species of conservation concern.

Contour ripping is more beneficial than composted manure for restoring degraded rangelands in Central Texas.

Rangelands in the United States that have been the site of military training exercises have suffered extensive ecological damage, largely because of soil compaction, creation of ruts, and damage to or destruction of vegetation--all of which lead to higher runoff and accelerated erosion. In this paper we report on a study carried out within the Fort Hood Military Reservation in Central Texas, where we evaluated the extent to which application of composted dairy manure and contour ripping affect soil infiltrability, amount of runoff, and nutrient concentrations in runoff. We conducted experiments at two locations, using rainfall simulation at one and monitoring discharge from small (0.3-ha) watersheds at the other. At the rainfall simulation site, we used six levels of compost application: 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24 Mg/ha. We found that compost application had little effect on runoff, soil infiltration, sediment production, or nutrient concentrations in the runoff--except at the micro-watershed scale (12 and 24 Mg/ha); in this case, nutrient concentrations in runoff were initially high (for the rainfall simulations done immediately after compost application). In contrast, contour ripping--carried out 22 months after compost application on two of the micro-watersheds--was highly effective: runoff on the treated micro-watershed was reduced by half compared with the untreated micro-watershed. Our results suggest that (1) one-time applications of composted dairy manure do little to enhance infiltration of degraded rangelands over the short term (at the same time, these experiments demonstrated that compost application poses very little risk to water quality); and (2) for degraded rangelands with limited infiltration capacity, contour ripping is an effective strategy for increasing infiltration rates.