WERC Highlights -- April 2001

It’s a Girl! It’s a Boy! It’s 6 Million Baby White Abalone: A team of university, government and private biologists have successfully spawned the white abalone, a crucial step in developing a white abalone hatchery. Stocking of hatchery-reared white abalone is one of the possible strategies that may be used to rebuild the white abalone population, which is being considered for listing as an endangered species. The happy event occurred April 23 after months of preparation by the biologists of the Abalone Restoration Consortium. Male and female abalone that were reproductively ready were placed in separate containers in a lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The lights were dimmed and an abalone aphrodisiac was added, and a couple of hours later, two females released 3,000,000 eggs each and one of the males released sperm, which the scientists added to the eggs. More than 95 percent of the eggs were fertilized and developed normally, the next day, into free-swimming larvae. About a week later they will have developed enough to be able to attach themselves to a surface, or settle. After rearing them for a few years, the scientists hope to have 10,000 larvae reach adulthood, ready to be released in the wild. (Gloria Maender, Tucson, AZ, 520-670-5596)

Combining the Management of Fire and Weeds: Fire can benefit invasive plants, which in turn create new fuel characteristics that alter fire regimes. Plant invasions and altered fire regimes can have dramatic effects on ecosystem integrity, possibly affecting food webs from top to bottom. Efforts to control fire such as the construction of fire breaks, and efforts to promote recovery from fire such as postfire watershed rehabilitation, can promote the spread of invasive plants which may create future fire hazards and threats to native plants and animals. Efforts to control invasive plants often include prescribed fire as an integral component. USGS research botanist Matt Brooks emphasizes the need for land management agencies to closely integrate the management of fire and invasive species in an article in the spring issue of the Noxious Times, the newsletter of the California Interagency Noxious Weed Coordinating Committee. The article is on pages 4-5 at http://pi.cdfa.ca.gov/noxioustimes/spring2001.pdf. (Matt Brooks, Las Vegas, NV, 702-914-2206 x225)

The Eastern Colorado Desert Recovery Unit: Desert Tortoise Disease and Decline: Research wildlife biologist Kristin Berry of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed about desert tortoise declines and habitat condition for a story in the Washington Post about the Chuckwalla Bench, an Area of Critical Environmental Concern. Berry discussed the Eastern Colorado recovery unit, the declines and causes of mortality in tortoises, and the potential relationships between the die-offs at the Chuckwalla Bench, Chemehuevi Valley, and Goffs. (Kristin Berry, Riverside, CA, 909-697-5361)

Desert Tortoises of the Western Mojave Desert: Research wildlife biologist Kristin Berry of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed about the status of desert tortoises in the western Mojave Desert for a story in The Press-Enterprise (Riverside). Berry's status and trends data from study plots she established in the western Mojave Desert between 1971 and 1980 indicate declines of the tortoise there. (Kristin Berry, Riverside, CA, 909-697- 5361)

Marin County Bobcats: Scientists Judd Howell and Gary Fellers of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center were interviewed by the Marin Independent Journal for an upcoming story on the county's wildlife. Marin Co. contains three national parks where WERC has conducted wildlife research (Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Pt. Reyes National Seashore, Muir Woods National Monument). The scientists provided bobcat information for a sidebar, explaining about their distribution and abundance and ability to thrive living on the urban fringe. (Judd Howell, Sacramento, CA, 916-278-3279; Gary Fellers, Pt. Reyes, CA, 415- 464-5185)