Recently added articles from The American Midland Naturalist:

Comparative Analysis of Plant and Ground Dwelling Arthropod Communities in Lacustrine Dune Areas with and without Centaurea biebersteinii (Asteraceae)

Apr 01, 2008; Marshall, Jordan M; Storer, Andrew J; Leutscher, Bruce ... ABSTRACT.- Open dune systems are being degraded through human development and exotic species invasions. The Grand Sable Dunes, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan, are protected from development but not from the spread of exotic species. The invasive exotic spotted knapweed, ...

Assessing the Impacts of Rusty Crayfish (Orconectes rusticus) on Submergent Macrophytes in a North-Temperate U.S. Lake Using Electric Fences

Apr 01, 2008; Peters, Jody A; Kreps, Tim; Lodge, David M ... ABSTRACT.- Electric "fences" were used along with hand removal to experimentally reduce rusty crayfish (Orconectes rusticus) densities in a lake. The goals of this experiment were to determine the impacts of crayfish on three macrophytes species, Potamogeton amplifolius, P. richardsonii ...

Plant Succession on Gopher Mounds in Western Cascade Meadows: Consequences for Species Diversity and Heterogeneity

Apr 01, 2008; Jones, Chad C; Halpern, Charles B; Niederer, Jessica ... ABSTRACT.- Pocket gophers have the potential to alter the dynamics of grasslands by creating mounds that bury existing vegetation and locally reset succession. Gopher mounds may provide safe sites for less competitive species, potentially increasing both species diversity and vegetation ...

Effects of the Pitcher Plant Mining Moth Exyra semicrocea on the Hooded Pitcher Plant Sarracenia minor

Apr 01, 2008; Moon, Daniel C; Rossi, Anthony; Stokes, Keith; Moon, Jamie ... ABSTRACT.- The relationship between carnivorous pitcher plants (Family Sarraceniaceae) is not well understood. While a limited amount of such data are available for some pitcher plant species such as Sarracenia purpurea, very little is know about others such as S. minor. This study ...

Ecology and Ontogenetic Variation of Diet in the Pigmy Short-Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma douglasii)

Apr 01, 2008; Lahti, Megan E; Beck, Daniel D ... ABSTRACT.- To date, the diet of the pigmy short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma douglasii) is not known. We report the diet of the pigmy short-horned lizard to determine whether it shows a more generalized diet, similar to other short-horned lizards or a more specialized diet consisting ...

Distribution, Population Structure and Habitat Use of the Endangered Saint Francis Satyr Butterfly, Neonympha Mitchellii Francisci

Apr 01, 2008; Kuefler, Daniel; Haddad, Nick M; Hall, Stephen; Hudgens, Brian; Bartel, Becky; Hoffman, Erich ... ABSTRACT.- The endangered St. Francis Satyr (Neonympha mitchellii francisci) is a small sedentary butterfly and one of the rarest in North America. Our study examined various quantitative aspects of this butterfly's biology, including the distributional range, habitat associations, ...

Measuring Fluctuating Asymmetry in Plastron Scutes of Yellow-bellied Sliders: the Importance of Gender, Size and Body Location

Apr 01, 2008; Davis, Andrew K; Grosse, Andrew M ... ABSTRACT.- The use of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) estimates in animal research is increasing, but most studies thus far have focused on birds, amphibians and insects. Turtles have bilateral shell scutes that can be easily measured with modern imaging techniques and, therefore, should ...

Species-area and Latitudinal Patterns for Michigan Fishes

Apr 01, 2008; Latta, W C; Breck, J E; Duchon, E R Marshall ... ABSTRACT.- The species-area pattern for plants and animals predicts larger areas generally contain greater species richness. Also, it is recognized that the number of species increases from north to south with temperature. Our analyses of the distribution of Michigan fishes support these ...

Historical and Current Environmental Influences on an Endemic Great Plains Fish

Apr 01, 2008; Fischer, Jesse R; Paukert, Craig P ... ABSTRACT.- Native fishes of the Great Plains are at risk of decline due to disturbances to physical habitat caused by changes in land and water use, as well as shifts in species assemblages driven by the invasion of introduced species with the loss of natives. We used historical and ...

Seasonal Variation and Ecological Effects of Camp Shelby Burrowing Crayfish (Fallicambarus gordoni) Burrows

Apr 01, 2008; Welch, Shane M; Waldron, Jayme L; Eversole, Arnold G; Simoes, Jody C ... ABSTRACT.- Foam casts and burrow excavations were used to examine Fallicambarus gordoni burrow occupancy rates, seasonal variation in burrow morphology, correlation between crayfish abundance and burrow abundance and potential ecological effects of burrowing through soil disturbance and ...

Characteristics of a High Density Population of Southern Fox Squirrels

Apr 01, 2008; Lee, James C; Osborn, David A; Miller, Karl V ... ABSTRACT.- Fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) populations in the southeastern United States are declining, with fragmentation of large mature forests believed to be the primary cause. Historically, demographics of midwestern fox squirrel or gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) populations have ...

Raccoons Use Habitat Edges in Northern Illinois

Apr 01, 2008; Barding, Erin E; Nelson, Thomas A ... ABSTRACT.- Raccoons (Procyon lotor) have been implicated as important predators impacting nesting birds in the Midwest. Raccoon populations have increased dramatically in Illinois during the past 20 y prompting suggestions that lethal control programs may be warranted. Non-lethal ...

Survival and Space Use of Fawn White-tailed Deer in Southern Michigan

Apr 01, 2008; Hiller, Tim L; Campa, Henry III; Winterstein, Scott R; Rudolph, Brent A ... ABSTRACT.- Many cervids exhibit similar behavior near and following parturition. For example, during their first 2 mo of life, fawn white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are relatively sedentary, may be at their highest risk for mortality and are not yet functional ruminants ....

Nestling Survival and Population Fluctuations of the Prairie Vole Microtus ochrogaster

Apr 01, 2008; Getz, Lowell L; McGuire, Betty ... ABSTRACT.- Nestling survival may be an important factor driving population fluctuations of arvicoline rodents, yet few data exist owing to the difficulties of monitoring survival at the nest. We examined survival of nestling prairie voles Microtus ochrogaster in alfalfa and bluegrass ...

Thirty Years of Post-fire Succession in a Southern Boreal Forest Bird Community

Apr 01, 2008; Haney, Alan; Apfelbaum, Steven; Burris, John M ... ABSTRACT.- Birds and vegetation were surveyed in a 9 ha plot in spring 1976 in a 73 y-old jack pine (Pinus banksiana) - black spruce (Picea mariana) forest in northeastern Minnesota. A 1368 ha wildfire burned across the area that autumn. The plot was resurveyed in 1977 and periodically ...

Factors Influencing Woodpecker Predation on Emerald Ash Borer

Apr 01, 2008; Lindell, Catherine A; McCullough, Deborah G; Cappaert, David; Apostolou, Natalya M; Roth, Melinda B ... ABSTRACT.- Woodpeckers are a significant source of mortality of emerald ash borer (EAB) (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire), an Asian phloem-feeding insect first discovered in North America in 2002. However, factors that may influence woodpecker-EAB interactions have not been investigated ....

Middle-Wisconsinan Gravel and Wood from a Well-drilling in West-central Indiana

Apr 01, 2008; Swinehart, Anthony L; Napieralski, Jacob; Geist, Nicole M ... ABSTRACT.- Fossil wood recovered in gravel at a depth of 129 ft (40 m) from a west-central Indiana water-well drilling was dated at 30,070 ± 240 ^sup 14^C y BP. This date represents a time period in Indiana between ~23,000-40,000 y BP from which no known previous radiocarbon dates have ...

Transport of Agricultural Pb, As and P through a Riparian Wetland

Apr 01, 2008; Galicki, Stan; Davidson, Gregg R; Threlkeld, Stephen T ... ABSTRACT.- A 100-y geochemical record preserved in the sediments of a Mississippi oxbow lake yields evidence that chemicals entering from agricultural fields are only temporarily sequestered in the riparian fringe prior to active removal and transport to open water. Elevated ...

Vascular Systemic Induced Resistance For Artemisia cana and Volatile Communication for Artemisia douglasiana

Apr 01, 2008; Shiojiri, Kaori; Karban, Richard ... ABSTRACT.- Recent work has demonstrated that communication between plants in natural settings can increase resistance against herbivores. However, this phenomenon has been found convincingly for only two species, alder (Alnus glutinosa) and sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), and recent ...

Does the Density of Dead Shells Predict the Density of Living Anguispira cumberlandiana Lea 1840 (Gastropoda: Discidae)?

Apr 01, 2008; Thurman, Carter F; Shackleton, Lane P; Haskell, David G ... ABSTRACT.- Population densities of calciphilic land snails are hard to quantify because the snails stay lodged deep within limestone cracks for much of the year. We tested the hypothesis that the density of empty shells from dead snails ("dead shell") of Anguispira cumberlandiana ...