Endangered Species Bulletin articles from September 2008

Endangered Species Bulletin archives from September 2008

Family ties.
September 22, 2008... The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have historic ties when it comes to research on threatened and endangered species. Many USGS scientists started their careers in the Service or other Department...

A natural connection: USGS and endangered species research.
September 22, 2008... The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is an independent science agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). USGS scientists conduct research on diverse topics in geology, biology, water, and such earth hazards as earthquakes and...

Recovering endemic plants of the Channel Islands.
September 22, 2008... At the California Channel Islands, off the state's southern coast, cold waters from the north mix with warmer waters from the south. Each of the eight Channel Islands, which were never connected to the mainland, developed unique floras as...

Conserving bird communities in the sagebrush sea.
September 22, 2008... The sagebrush ecosystem, which occupies about 120 million acres (485,600 square kilometers) across 14 western states and 3 Canadian provinces, is one of the largest in North America, and one of its most imperiled. Decades ago, warnings began to...

Ice, climate change, and wildlife research in Alaska.
September 22, 2008... What do polar bears, Pacific walrus, spectacled eiders, and Kittlitz's murrelets have in common? In a word--ice! Although the effects of climate change can now be observed almost anywhere in the United States, nowhere are the effects more...

Bringing back the bonytail and the razorback.
September 22, 2008... A group of dedicated biologists are restoring two endangered fish species, the bonytail chub (Gila elegans) and the razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus), to portions of the Colorado River in the southwestern United States. Habitat alteration...

The California clapper rail and multispecies recovery planning.
September 22, 2008... The California clapper rail (Rallus longirostris obsoletus) lives in remnant tidal marshes of San Francisco Bay, where less than 20 percent of the historic tidal wetlands remain. Listed as an endangered species in 1970 by the Fish and Wildlife...

Tracking sea turtles in the Everglades.(Cover story)(Report)
September 22, 2008... The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a long history of conducting research on threatened, endangered, and at-risk species inhabiting both terrestrial and marine environments, particularly those found within national parks and protected areas....

Hair samples shed light on grizzly bears.(Report)
September 22, 2008... Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) of the northern Rocky Mountains of Montana were listed in 1975 as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The NCDE plays a critical role in the long-term...

Understanding pallid sturgeon in the Big Muddy.(Missouri River)(Report)
September 22, 2008... The swift current of the longest river in the United States is home to the pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus), an elongated, whitish-grey fish armored with protective bony-like plates called scutes. Pallid sturgeon can live up to 60 years,...

Surveys reveal decline of the palila.(Report)
September 22, 2008... The endangered palila (Loxioides bailleui) is a flagship species of Hawaiian forest bird conservation. Due mainly to long-term ecological research by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) biologists and many hundreds of volunteers from Hawai'i, the...

How temperature affects juvenile coho salmon.(Report)
September 22, 2008... Water temperature influences many aspects of a salmon's life cycle, including egg development, juvenile appetite and growth, migration, and distribution. Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), like most salmonids, need cool water for rearing, and...

Bridging the information gap for mussels.
September 22, 2008... The conservation of freshwater mussel species in the United States is a major challenge. Freshwater mussels are the most imperiled fauna in North American. Of 297 recognized taxa, 213 are endangered, threatened, or of special concern. Their...

Neosho madtom: a small fish with complex problems.
September 22, 2008... The Neosho madtom (Noturus placidus) is a small catfish endemic to the mainstems of the Neosho and Cottonwood rivers in Kansas and Oklahoma and the Spring River in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Much of the species' historical habitat has been...

Invasive plants and pollinator interactions.
September 22, 2008... Walking through a North Dakota mixed-grass prairie on a sunny June morning reveals an abundance of blooming forbs and the busy insects that rely on the floral rewards. Native plants are not the only ones offering pollen and nectar, however....

Identifying roadblocks to recovery.
September 22, 2008... Knowledge of wildlife health-related issues is critical to the restoration of many endangered species. Since the establishment of the National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) in the mid-1970s, its pathologists have conducted more than 8,500...

Restoring endangered mussels.
September 22, 2008... North America is the global center of freshwater mussel diversity, but over-exploitation and extensive human-caused habitat alterations have led to the extinction of about 30 species and the listing of 70 others as endangered or threatened....

Conservation genetics and species recovery.
September 22, 2008... Recent advances in molecular genetics have proven to be extremely useful in efforts to conserve imperiled species. Genetics data are used to identify appropriate units of management (e.g., populations, metapopulations), effective sizes of...

Meeting information needs for endangered species.(National Biological Information Infrastructure)
September 22, 2008... The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), a unique resource coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), provides easy access to data and information about the Nation's biological treasures. It links diverse, high-quality...