WERC Highlights -- January 2006

Role of Parasites: USGS scientist Kevin Lafferty of the Western Ecological Research Center will be a participant in an invited symposium on ocean plagues on February 17, 2006, at the AAAS conference to be held in St. Louis, Missouri. Lafferty’s presentation is titled “Parasites: dominant players in healthy marine and estuarine ecosystems?” There is to be a press briefing on ocean plagues that morning as well. (Kevin Lafferty, Santa Barbara, CA, 805-893-8778, klafferty@usgs.gov)

California Fire Lecture: USGS scientist Jon Keeley of the Western Ecological Research Center has been invited to deliver the evening lecture at the California Botanical Society’s annual banquet to be held on February 11, 2006, at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, California. Keeley will speak on the “Ecology and Evolution of Fire Prone Ecosystems in California.” (Jon Keeley, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3170, jon_keeley@usgs.gov)

Rare Plant Monitoring, San Diego County: USGS plant ecologist Kathryn McEachern of the Western Ecological Research Center is working with scientists in San Diego County to review the rare plant monitoring component of the San Diego South County Multiple Species Conservation Plan. Fifteen different jurisdictions are signatory to this plan under the oversight of USFWS. The Plan seeks to conserve natural diversity and rare plants and animals in the southern part of the county through land acquisitions, agreements, conservation management and monitoring. McEachern and a panel of science advisors will be meeting with agency staff February 6-8, 2006, to review data, discuss emerging management concerns and design a pilot monitoring approach for several plant species. (Kathryn McEachern, Ventura, CA, 805-658-5753, kathryn_mceachern@usgs.gov)

Desert Tortoise Research and Management: Papers and posters on USGS desert tortoise research will be presented by scientists from the Western Ecological Research Center and Southwest Biological Science Center at the 31st Annual Meeting and Symposium of the Desert Tortoise Council, to be held on Feb. 17-20, 2006, in Tucson, Arizona. The symposium will have sessions on (1) genetics, morphometrics, health, disease, and general ecology of wild desert tortoises in Sonora, Mexico; (2) recovery efforts for the endangered bolson tortoise in both Mexico and the United States; (3) the 2005 fire season, loss of tortoise habitat in the Mojave Desert, and restoration efforts (chaired by WERC scientist Matt Brooks); (4) the Fort Irwin translocation project; (5) headstarting efforts for recovery at three sites in the Mojave Desert; (6) research in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona; and (7) research in the Mojave Desert. Kristin Berry of WERC is Symposium Chair. For more: http://www.deserttortoise.org/symposium/2006/index.html. (Kristin Berry, Moreno Valley, CA, 951-697-5361, kristin_berry@usgs.gov)

USGS Biological Science Highlighted in New Zoo Exhibit: A new “Conservation Corner” exhibit at the Santa Ana Zoo will include a panel featuring biological science that describes the biodiversity of Southern California and highlights USGS work. Several photographs by USGS biologist Greta Turschak show how USGS scientists at the Western Ecological Science Center’s San Diego Field Station conduct remote camera surveys and radio-track carnivores, and how they conduct amphibian surveys and study threatened and endangered frogs. The panel is one of 7 graphics that will be displayed in a large tree/hut along with animal exhibits. The other graphics cover topics about vanishing species and environmentally friendly activities. The exhibit, which is expected to open possibly by mid-February, is expected to run for several years. The graphic design on biological science was donated to the Santa Ana Zoo by Shenin Mesdaghi. For more about the zoo: http://www.santaanazoo.org/. (Robert Fisher, San Diego, CA, 619-225-6422, rfisher@usgs.gov)

Rare Plants: USGS scientist Kathryn McEachern of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed on January 13, 2006, by the Santa Barbara News-Press regarding rare plants in the California Channel Islands, for a series of articles on island recovery issues. (Kathryn McEachern, Ventura, CA, 805-658-5753, kathryn_mceachern@usgs.gov)

Desert Tortoises: On January 13, 2006, the Seattle Times reprinted a Los Angeles Times story about USGS desert tortoise research on social behavior: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002736972_tortoise13.html. (Kristin Berry, Moreno Valley, CA, 951-697-5361, kristin_berry@usgs.gov)

Restoring Common Murres to Devil’s Slide Rock: What’s the difference between a rock and a hard place? That may, in a manner of speaking, be one of the things that GPS data can help USGS scientists discern regarding how common murres select nest locations on Devil’s Slide rock near Half Moon Bay, California. GIS specialist William Perry and statistician Julie Yee of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center are analyzing GPS data collected in October 2005, the most recent of four surveys (2000, 2001, 2004, 2005) conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to GPS nest locations of pairs of these seabirds on the rock. Perry and Yee are looking for significant clusters or ‘hot spots’, what features are important when a new nest site is selected, and how site selection affects nest success. Perry also has assisted USFWS biologists to GPS the nest sites on Devil's Slide rock. Efforts to re-establish the nesting colony have been ongoing since an oil spill in 1986 wiped out the colony. Since 1996 the restoration project has successfully used social attraction techniques (murre decoys, mirror boxes, and CD players to project murre calls) to lure murre pairs to the rock to nest, attracting 190 breeding pairs in 2004. To map the nest sites, decoy locations, and other landmarks on the rock, the survey crew uses highly accurate survey grade GPS technology. One more trip is planned for next year to collect GPS data to document the first year in which murre decoys are not deployed on the rock. For more about the project: http://www.fws.gov/sfbayrefuges/Murre/murrehome.htm. A story in Point of Beginning, a geomatics magazine, recounts the 2004 survey trip: http://www.pobonline.com/CDA/Archives/1caa771d9f0f6010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0 . (William Perry, Dixon, CA, 707-678-0682 x619, william_perry@usgs.gov)

USGS to Participate in Ocean Science Conference for Teen Girls: USGS scientist Alisha Kage of the Western Ecological Research Center (WERC) is one of ten prominent female ocean scientists from across the country who will participate in the Ocean Institute’s 1st annual Girls in Ocean Science Teen Conference on February 4, 2006, in Dana Point, California. Also participating will be Christine Alfano, a USGS volunteer at WERC and Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota. The scientists will interact with 130 girls on the R/V Sea Explorer and in the institute’s laboratories. Girls will explore careers in engineering, veterinary and health fields, ocean conservation, marine biology, and education. Each girl will receive a copy of the award-winning USGS video, “Precipice of Survival: The Southern Sea Otter,” in which Kage and other USGS scientists and colleagues discuss their collaborative research on the threatened California sea otter. For more: http://www.ocean-institute.org/. (Alisha Kage, Santa Cruz, CA, 831-459-2357, akage@usgs.gov)

Rare Frogs See 2006 in New Facility: USGS scientist Cynthia Hitchcock assisted with the move of 7 mountain yellow-legged frogs from the Los Angeles Zoo to new lodgings at the Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES) facility at the San Diego Zoo on December 29, 2005. The frogs (originally a total of 11, but 4 have died since 2003) had been housed temporarily at the Los Angeles Zoo after an emergency rescue in fall 2003 in anticipation of postfire debris flows from winter flooding that buried their habitat in City Creek in the San Bernardino Mountains under 10 feet of sediment. For now, the 7 frogs at CRES are being kept in quarantine for 30 days for precautionary reasons. They will be treated for chytrid fungus and placed in pairs in large enclosures where light, temperatures, and water levels will be regulated, mimicking natural seasonal changes normally experienced by wild frogs. It is hoped that the CRES facility will one day be able to breed the frogs for possible future translocation since wild populations are dwindling. (Cynthia Hitchcock, San Diego, CA, 619-206-5689, chitchcock@usgs.gov; Robert N. Fisher, San Diego, CA, 619-225-6422, rfisher@usgs.gov)

Smoke-Stimulated Seed Germination: An article in the December issue of the journal Seed Science Research, coauthored by USGS scientist Jon Keeley of the Western Ecological Research Center and C. J. Fotheringham of the University of California, Los Angeles, refutes contentions of a study by other scientists regarding the effects of nitrogen oxides on germination of smoke-stimulated species in California chaparral shrublands. Fotherinham and Keeley cite erroneous assumptions, poor understanding of nitrogen chemistry, and misinterpretations made by the other study. (Jon Keeley, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3170, jon_keeley@usgs.gov) Citation: Fotheringham, C. J., and J. E. Keeley. 2005. NO news is no new news. Seed Science Research 15:367-371.