<p>Due to overpopulation and resource-poor habitat structure, deer threaten the<a> future of oak and other browse-sensitive species in hardwood forests. </a>Appropriate tools must be used to ensure desirable, diverse, and ecologically stable regeneration of future forests and the sustainability of native plant communities. We performed two experiments and a review to examine the effectiveness of available methods for managing browse of hardwood seedlings and to discover how these interact with each other and other silvicultural methods. First, we examined how fencing interacts with controlled-release fertilization, seed source (genetically select and non-select), and site type (afforested and reforested sites) to enhance the regeneration of planted northern red oak (<i>Quercus rubra </i>L.), white oak (<i>Quercus alba</i>), black cherry (<i>Prunus serotina</i>), and black walnut (<i>Juglans nigra</i>) at five sites in Indiana. Fencing proved to be the greatest determinant of seedling growth, survival, and quality. Fertilizer enhanced the early growth of white oak and black cherry, though for black cherry this occurred only inside fences. Select seed sources grew better and showed greater quality; however, the survival of select seedlings was limited by deer browse in absence of fences. Trees at afforested sites had lower survival if left non-fenced. Secondly, we also investigated how fencing and invasive shrub removal affected natural regeneration, species richness, and ground-layer plant cover under closed-canopy forests. Honeysuckle (<i>Lonicera maackii</i>) removal had a variable effect depending on species and site. Positive effects were most common for shade-intolerant species, while negative effects occurred for a few shade-tolerant species at some sites. Deer fencing had a positive effect on cherry and hackberry seedling density, and a negative effect on elm seedling density. Honeysuckle and deer fencing interacted antagonistically in some instances. Fencing without honeysuckle removal resulted in lower elm abundance and herbaceous-layer cover. In the densest invasions, leaving honeysuckle intact resulted in a complete lack of recruitment into the sapling layer. Our experiment suggests that invasive shrub removal and fencing be done together. Finally, we synthesized the existing literature on browse management options for hardwood regeneration to evaluate their relative effectiveness. Fences, tree shelters, repellents, facilitation by neighboring plants, deer population control, timber harvest, and slash all had positive effects on height growth of regenerating seedlings under deer browse pressure. Fences were more effective at reducing browse than repellents, while fertilizers increased browse and had no effects on growth. </p>

<div>Biodiversity loss is the silent crisis of the 21st century. Human activities are drastically altering the diversity of life on Earth, yet the extent of this transformation is shrouded by our limited information on biodiversity and how it is changing. Emerging technologies may be suited to fill this information gap, and as a result increase our capacity to measure and manage natural systems. Acoustic monitoring is a remote sensing technique that is rapidly reshaping the temporal and spatial scales with which we can assess animal biodiversity. Through recording and analyzing soundscapes—the collection of sounds occurring at a given place and time—we can assess biodiversity, habitat condition, and environmental change. However, the relationships between soundscapes and these three ecological dimensions are still in the early phases of categorization, especially in aquatic systems. </div><div><br></div><div>This dissertation investigates how soundscapes can be used to measure biodiversity, habitat condition, and environmental change in aquatic habitats. It addresses several knowledge gaps: First, I develop a framework for classifying unknown sounds within a soundscape, which I use to measure the acoustic diversity and dynamics within a tropical freshwater wetland. Second, I demonstrate that soundscapes can reflect the resilience of animal communities following disturbance events. Altered soundscapes revealed that Hurricane Maria, which swept through Puerto Rico in September 2017, impacted dry forest animal communities more than adjacent coral reef communities. Third, in kelp forest habitats off the coast of California, USA, I showed that soundscape variables correlated with ecological variables associated with regime shift in kelp forests, including urchin density, kelp cover, and fish diversity. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates that soundscape recording and analysis is a promising way to assess the ecological conditions of aquatic systems. </div>

<p>Human interactions with white-tailed deer (<em>Odocoileus virginianus</em>) continue to change across the U.S. The growth of deer populations and urbanization of human populations have shifted values for wildlife away from traditional use toward mutual coexistence while simultaneously providing habitat for deer to thrive.<strong> </strong>Still, a mismatch exists between the reality of human-deer interactions and the management of them. Despite a changing social landscape, the human dimensions of deer management remain focused on hunting interests and the mitigation of crop damage to agricultural producers. Amid a national push to broaden wildlife ‘stakeholders’ to encompass all potential beneficiaries of wildlife, state wildlife agencies need to assess the needs and concerns of the broader public they serve to determine whether and how to engage non-traditional groups in wildlife management planning.</p> <p>Recognizing these needs, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IN-DNR) partnered with Purdue University in 2018 to initiate the Integrated Deer Management Project (IDMP). As part of the IDMP, this dissertation comprises the first empirical assessment of social perceptions of white-tailed deer across Indiana. My research aimed to: (i) examine the initial context of human-deer interactions in Indiana and identify key social and cognitive factors that shape them; (ii) investigate how emotions, an understudied construct, interact with beliefs and attitudes to influence resident judgements about deer management; (iii) understand existing levels of satisfaction with deer management, potentials for social conflict over management approaches, and their social-ecological drivers; and (iv) develop indices and tools that can help IN-DNR officials better account for social perceptions and concerns in deer management planning. Due to a lack of prior knowledge about human-deer interactions in the state, I used an exploratory mixed-methods research design to address these objectives. I began by conducting 59 semi-structured interviews with residents around Indiana and two focus groups in the city of Bloomington (n=14) to understand their existing perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, and emotions related to deer and deer management. These interviews informed the development of a quantitative survey which I distributed to 6,000 residents across the state. I received 1806 completed surveys for a response rate of 33%.</p> <p>My data show that social perceptions of deer and deer management remain complex, driven by dynamic feedbacks among emotions, personal experiences, livelihood and behavioral contexts, beliefs about deer management, and beliefs about other social groups. I found that mixed emotions, situational contexts, and perceived power imbalances play key roles in shaping and shifting deer-related cognitions, yet models of cognitive processing, and human-wildlife interactions more broadly, neglect these dynamics. Emotions, specifically, have been marginalized by researchers and practitioners, likely due to the perception that they represent irrational reactions rather than calculated judgements. Under different scenarios of encountering deer, however, I found that respondent emotions exert a mediating effect on their judgments about deer management, and that the type of deer encountered matters. Emotions thus work together with cognitions to process various stimuli in a human-wildlife encounter and reach a normative decision. I posit that understanding when and why emotional responses arise will help practitioners develop more effective and socially accepted approaches to wildlife management.</p> <p>I next developed and analyzed indices of public satisfaction with the IN-DNR and potentials for social conflict over deer management approaches. I found that public satisfaction with deer management is nuanced and multidimensional. Cognitive variables like residents’ perceived acceptability of management methods and their deer-related concerns most strongly predicted agency performance and quality measures of satisfaction, whereas demographic characteristics including self-identity, wildlife value orientation, and allowance of hunting on one’s property exerted the strongest influences on trust components of satisfaction. Future studies should advance a multidimensional conception of satisfaction and associate it with key variables that I suspect underly satisfaction but were not captured in this study: perceived control, psychological distance, and norms of knowledge exchange between wildlife agencies and the public. Next, I found that potentials for social conflict over deer management varied with resident self-identities and management methods but showed more predictable variation with political ideologies. Geographically, hotspots of social conflict clustered around urban areas, indicating that cities and their residents should serve as a focus for public engagement efforts and mixed management strategies. Expanding agency conceptions of public satisfaction and social conflict represents a critical step towards broadening support for wildlife management and practicing good wildlife governance.<strong> </strong>I conclude by discussing barriers to integrating social and ecological data and the practicality of incorporating complex social dimensions into wildlife management planning.</p>

<p>Mayflies are important macroinvertebrate members of steam communities and are highly sensitive to agricultural insecticides. In this dissertation I sought to explore whether Heptageniidae<i> </i>mayflies in Indiana have evolved greater tolerance to clothianidin, a neonicotinoid insecticide that has been widely applied over the predominant corn and soybean crops of the state for the last 20 years. Over the five chapters of this dissertation, I investigate different aspects of the effects of clothianidin on mayfly populations. First, I collected mayfly populations from streams around the state across a gradient of agricultural landscape to see if proximity to corn and soybean crops was associated with tolerance to the insecticide. I found significant variation in tolerance between the populations but only connected it to land use for one species and one insecticide. Second, I investigated the potential for increases in predation rates due to exposure to low concentrations of clothianidin by both a vertebrate and invertebrate predator. Sublethal exposure did increase the risk of predation by the invertebrate predator but not the vertebrate. Third, I collected four populations of mayflies and placed them in a common stream which is heavily impacted by agricultural runoff. The most tolerant of the four populations had the highest survival rates and was native to the polluted stream, suggesting that it was best adapted to the local conditions. Finally, the last chapter is a discussion of the factors influencing the evolution of contaminant tolerance, the implications for biomonitoring, and a series of recommendations for incorporating evolved tolerance into biomonitoring practices. Collectively, this work suggests that the lethal and sublethal effects of clothianidin exposure create conditions suitable for the evolution of tolerance in Heptageniid mayflies. While there are already differences in tolerance between populations, it seems likely that mayfly pesticide tolerance will continue to increase as pesticides continue to impact aquatic ecosystems. </p>

<p>  </p> <p>The rise of technology as a data source for ecological research and biodiversity conservation has led to a host of new opportunities, and new challenges, for researchers, conservationists, policymakers, and land managers. As these technologies have become more common and more capable, researchers need improved methods and improved theoretical frameworks to integrate these technologies with each other; with social science and policy; and with land-use planning. This thesis proposes several of these conceptual and theoretical frameworks—one for integration of heterogeneous data and another for the integration of ecological data with economic decision-making and policy analysis. It then suggests new methodologies for data quality assurance. Lastly, it demonstrates the applicability of acoustic monitoring in a key land-use context: agriculture in a premium crop that is grown in global biodiversity hotspots. </p>

<p>Effective conservation strategies for sea turtles require knowledge of animal movements and protection of biologically important habitats and life history stages. For breeding adult sea turtles, understanding both their inshore and pelagic spatial patterns is imperative to the successful protection of the species and the accurate identification of their vulnerabilities. This study provides insight into the inter-nesting, post-nesting, and foraging movements of green sea turtles (<i>Chelonia mydas</i>) that nest on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, by using satellite telemetry to track green turtles (n=12) during two nesting seasons (2017-18, 2018-19), and as they migrated to foraging grounds after the nesting season. These tracks were fit with a switching state space model to characterize movements, and then analyzed in relation to environmental and anthropogenic factors. Dive depth data was also used to determine utilization patterns within the water column. The 12 tagged turtles migrated for an average of 1064 km to two distinct foraging grounds, with 10 migrating west for an average of 1115 km to the coastal waters of Ghana, and 2 migrating south for an average of 1563 km to the coastal waters of Angola. Migrating turtles used both direct, pelagic migration strategies, and biphasal, coastal strategies, which included intermittent foraging throughout migrations. Dive depths varied depending on behavior, with an average of 19.3 m during inter-nesting, 12.6 m during migration and 8.5 m during foraging. Knowledge of inter-nesting habitat use, migration patterns, and foraging ground locations will be critical for the development of marine conservation management plans in the Gulf of Guinea and aide in sea turtle conservation efforts throughout the area. Additionally, spatial and dive depth data can inform zonal fishing regulators and provide information needed for modifications to fishing practices and gear that is most likely to reduce sea turtle bycatch. These data will provide a more complete understanding of marine areas critical to sea turtle conservation and aide in sustainable economic development in the Gulf of Guinea.</p><br>

Abundance, distribution and habitat preferences of the lizard species present on Motunau Island, off the Canterbury coast of New Zealand, were investigated. The aim of the study was to investigate the extent to which recent vegetation change on Motunau Island has effected the lizard community and what implications this has for the future management of the Island. Three species of lizard occur on Motunau Island; the common gecko (Hoplodactylus maculatus), common skink (Oligosoma nigriplantare polychroma) and spotted skink (O. lineoocellatum). Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) were present on the island from 1862 until their eradication in 1962. Since then, vegetation on the island has changed from being tussock-dominated to being dominated by exotic weeds. Data from lizard pitfall trap surveys carried out in 1967-75 by Tony Whitaker of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) were compared with new pitfall trapping data to determine if changes in the lizard population had occurred in response to these vegetation changes. The abundance of O. n. polychroma and H. maculatus does not appear to change significantly. The distribution of these two species were significantly correlated but neither showed any preference for a particular type. The abundance of O. lineoocellatum was significantly greater in 1996/97 than in the earlier DSlR surveys. This could be a result of the vegetation becoming more open and more structurally complex since the early surveys. This would offer greater opportunities for O. lineoocellatum (which is strongly heliothermic) to thermoregulate and forage. O. lineoocellatum showed no consistent significant preference towards any habitat type, although they tended to be found more in 'margin' habitat. Research into pitfall trapping and the way lizard behaviour may influence pitfall trapping data needs to be undertaken as there is a possible trap bias in this study. Management of Motunau Island needs to ensure that a structurally complex environment is maintained to ensure high numbers of all three lizard species can continue to coexist.

Westland petrels Procellaria westlandica breed only near Punakaiki on the West Coast of New Zealand. About 80 km offshore from their breeding colony, New Zealand's largest commercial fishery (for hoki Macruronus novaezelandiae) operates from mid June to early September, coinciding with the Westland petrel's breeding season. It has been assumed that Westland petrels feed extensively on fisheries waste and that this habit has been at least partly responsible for the increase in the Westland petrel population. Some seabird biologists have expressed concern that if a species comes to depend on scavenging at fishing vessels, such a species could experience a food crisis if fishing operations changed in a way that reduced the quantity of waste discharged. The aim of this research was to assess how dependent Westland petrels have become on fisheries waste for food. Diet studies showed that during the hoki fishing season, waste accounts for more than half by weight of the solid food Westland petrels bring back to the colony to feed their chicks. After the hoki season, waste contributes only about a quarter of their diet as birds switch to more natural prey and scavenge a wider variety of fish species presumably from smaller, inshore fishing vessels. Much of the fisheries waste eaten by Westland petrels was flesh which could not be identified using traditional techniques. The electrophoretic technique iso-electric focusing increased the number of fish samples that could be identified and consequently the diet was interpreted differently than it would have been had only traditional diet analysis been used. The survey of Westland petrel distribution off the west coast of the South Island, found that although hoki fishing vessels influence the distribution of Westland petrels, only a small proportion of the Westland petrel population appears to utilise this food resource at any one time. Westland petrels were tracked at sea by VHF radio telemetry and then by satellite tracking. Satellite tracking showed that there is considerable variation in the amount of time Westland petrels spend in the vicinity of fishing vessels. On average, satellite tracked birds spent one third of their time near vessels, but they foraged over much larger areas than that occupied by the West Coast South Island hoki fishing fleet. Although fisheries waste is an important component of the Westland petrel diet, it appears that the situation is one of opportunistic use of a readily available resource, rather than one of dependence. Several features of the Westland petrel's breeding biology and foraging ecology suggest that Westland petrels could compensate for a reduction in waste from the hoki fishery by switching to other sources of waste and increasing their consumption of natural prey. Nevertheless, much remains unanswered concerning the role of fisheries waste in the Westland petrel's diet. In particular, quantifying the waste available to seabirds, and the success of Westland petrels in acquiring that waste compared to other scavenging species, is needed in order to better predict the effect of a reduction in fisheries waste on Westland petrel population size.

Minimising the potential impact of forest management requires an understanding of the key elements that maintain forest diversity and its role in ecological processes. Invertebrates are the most diverse of all biota and play important roles in maintaining forest processes. However, little is known about invertebrates in New Zealand's beech forests or the degree to which selective beech harvest might impact on their diversity and ability to carry out ecosystem processes. Studying ecosystem responses to disturbance is considered vital for understanding how ecosystems are maintained. One of the main objectives of this research was to assess whether litter-dwelling invertebrates were susceptible to the impacts of selective harvest and, if so, whether they could be used as indicators of forest health. Changes in invertebrate diversity could have important implications for nutrient cycling and primary production in forests. Litter-dwelling invertebrates contribute to the process of decomposition by increasing the surface area of the leaves, mixing soil organic matter and by infecting leaf particles with soil microbes. This investigation into the function of invertebrates in beech forest was carried out in the context of ecological theories which relate diversity to ecosystem stability and resilience. A replicated study was established in Maruia State Forest (South Island, New Zealand) to assess the potential biotic and abiotic impacts of sustainable beech harvest. Litter-dwelling invertebrates and environmental factors were monitored during 1997, before harvest, to determine how much variability there was between study sites. Specifically, litter pH, light intensity, litter fall, litter temperature, moisture as well as invertebrate abundance and diversity were compared before and after selective harvest. On 17 January 1998, two to three trees were selectively harvested from three of the nine study sites. On 15 February 1998 a similar number of trees were winched over or felled manually to create artificial windthrow sites. The remaining three undisturbed sites were used as controls. Invertebrates belonging to the detritivore guild were assessed from litter samples and a series of litter-bags containing pre-weighed leaf litter which were placed in each of the sites to assess rates of litter decomposition. Millipedes (Diplopoda: Polyzoniidae, Schedotrigonidae, Dalodesmidae, Habrodesmidae, Sphaerotheridae), earthworms (Oligochaeta: Annelida), tipulid larvae (Diptera: Tipulidae), weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), moth larvae (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae, Tortricidae and Psychidae), slaters (Isopoda: Styloniscidae), Oribatid mites (Acarina: Cryptostigmata) and landhoppers (Crustacea: Amphipoda) were extracted from the litter-bags and their abundance and diversity was compared between the three treatments. Weight loss from the litter-bags and the carbon and nitrogen content of litter were used to measure the rate of decomposition in each treatment. An additional study investigated whether exclusion of invertebrates from leaf litter resulted in reduced rates of decomposition. The results indicated that there was an increase in light intensity and a small increase in temperature following selective harvest and artificial windthrow. There was no significant difference in litter moisture or the amount of litter fall between the treatments. Invertebrate abundances were significantly affected by season but did not appear to be affected by selective harvest or artificial windthrow. The diversity of invertebrates remained relatively constant throughout the year, as did the rate of decomposition. When invertebrates were excluded from the leaf litter there was no consequential effect on the rate of litter decomposition. This suggests that there may be compensatory mechanisms taking place between the trophic levels of the food web to maintain processes and that direct links between invertebrates and decomposition are relatively weak. In conclusion, it appears that the effects of selective beech harvest on forest-floor processes were minimal and are comparable to those created by natural windthrow disturbance. It also appears that macroclimatic effects such as seasonal climatic effects have a large effect on forest biota. As none of the invertebrates studied appeared to be detrimentally affected by selective harvest and as there was no direct link demonstrated with decomposition, it was considered inappropriate to advocate the use of this group of invertebrates as indicators of sustainable forest management. The results from this study provide information which may help inform decisions on the future management of diversity in beech forest ecosystems.

<p>Three prescribed burn sites and seven selective timber harvest sites were surveyed using a UAS equipped with a PPK-triggered RGB sensor to determine optimal image collection parameters surrounding each type of disturbance and land cover. The image coordinates were corrected with a third-party base station network (CORS) after the flight, and photogrammetrically processed to produce high-resolution georeferenced orthomosaics. This addressed the first objective of this study, which was to <i>establish effective data procurement methods from both before and after planned </i>disturbances. <br></p><p>Orthomosaic datasets surrounding both a prescribed burn and a selective timber harvest, were used to classify land covers through geographic image-based analysis (GEOBIA). The orthomosaic datasets were segmented into image objects, before classification with a machine-learning algorithm. Land covers for the prescribed prairie burn were 1) bare ground, 2) litter, 3) green vegetation, and 4) burned vegetation. Land covers for the selective timber harvest were 1) mature canopy, 2) understory vegetation, and 3) bare ground. 65 samples per class were collected for prairie burn datasets, and 80 samples per class were collected for timber harvest datasets to train the classifier. A supported vector machines (SVM) algorithm was used to produce four land cover classifications for each site surrounding their respective planned disturbance. Pixel counts for each class were multiplied by the ground sampled distance (GSD) to obtain area calculations for land covers. Accuracy assessments were conducted by projecting 250 equalized stratified random (ESR) reference points onto the georeferenced orthomosaic datasets to compare the classification to the imagery through visual interpretation. This addressed the second objective of this study, which was to <i>establish effective data classification methods from both before and after planned </i>disturbances.<br></p><p>Finally, a two-tailed t-Test was conducted with the overall accuracies for each disturbance type and land cover. Results showed no significant difference in the overall accuracy between land covers. This was done to address the third objective of this study which was to <i>determine if a significant difference exists between the classification accuracies between planned disturbance types</i>. Overall, effective data procurement and classification parameters were established for both <i>before </i>and <i>after </i>two common types of <i>planned </i>disturbances within the CHF region, with slightly better results for prescribed burns than for selective timber harvests.<br></p>