Geology topics

J. Beringer

Publications and source records attributed to J. Beringer.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2014

Influence of drift and admixture on population structure of American black bears ( Ursus americanus ) in the Central Interior Highlands, USA, 50 years after translocation

Bottlenecks, founder events, and genetic drift often result in decreased genetic diversity and increased population differentiation. These events may follow abundance declines due to natural or anthropogenic perturbations, where translocations may be an effective conservation strategy to increase population size. American black bears ( Ursus americanus ) were nearly extirpated from the Central Interior Highlands, USA by 1920. In an effort to restore bears, 254 individuals were translocated from Minnesota, USA, and Manitoba, Canada, into the Ouachita and Ozark Mountains from 1958 to 1968. Using 15 microsatellites and mitochondrial haplotypes, we observed contemporary genetic diversity and differentiation between the source and supplemented populations. We inferred four genetic clusters: Source, Ouachitas, Ozarks, and a cluster in Missouri where no individuals were translocated. Coalescent models using approximate Bayesian computation identified an admixture model as having the highest posterior probability (0.942) over models where the translocation was unsuccessful or acted as a founder event. Nuclear genetic diversity was highest in the source (A R = 9.11) and significantly lower in the translocated populations (A R = 7.07-7.34; P = 0.004). The Missouri cluster had the lowest genetic diversity (A R = 5.48) and served as a natural experiment showing the utility of translocations to increase genetic diversity following demographic bottlenecks. Differentiation was greater between the two admixed populations than either compared to the source, suggesting that genetic drift acted strongly over the eight generations since the translocation. The Ouachitas and Missouri were previously hypothesized to be remnant lineages. We observed a pretranslocation remnant signature in Missouri but not in the Ouachitas.

Molecular Ecology↗

USGS2010

Bioenergetics assessment of fish and crayfish consumption by river otter (Lontra canadensis): integrating prey availability, diet, and field metabolic rate

River otters (Lontra canadensis) are important predators in aquatic ecosystems, but few studies quantify their prey consumption. We trapped crayfish monthly as an index of availability and collected otter scat for diet analysis in the Ozark Mountains of northwestern Arkansas, USA. We measured otter daily energy expenditure (DEE) with the doubly labeled water method to develop a bioenergetics model for estimating monthly prey consumption. Meek's crayfish (Orconectes meeki) catch-per-unit-effort was positively related to stream temperature, indicating that crayfish were more available during warmer months. The percentage frequency of occurrence for crayfish in scat samples peaked at 85.0% in summer and was lowest (42.3%) in winter. In contrast, the percentage occurrence of fish was 13.3% in summer and 57.7% in winter. Estimates of DEE averaged 4738 kJ·day -1 for an otter with a body mass of 7842 g. Total biomass consumption ranged from 35 079 to 52 653 g·month -1 (wet mass), corresponding to a high proportion of fish and crayfish in the diet, respectively. Otter consumption represents a large fraction of prey production, indicating potentially strong effects of otters on trophic dynamics in stream ecosystems.

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences↗

USGS2002

Environmental variation, vegetation distribution, carbon dynamics and water/energy exchange at high latitudes

The responses of high latitude ecosystems to global change involve complex interactions among environmental variables, vegetation distribution, carbon dynamics, and water and energy exchange. These responses may have important consequences for the earth system. In this study, we evaluated how vegetation distribution, carbon stocks and turnover, and water and energy exchange are related to environmental variation spanned by the network of the IGBP high latitude transects. While the most notable feature of the high latitude transects is that they generally span temperature gradients from southern to northern latitudes, there are substantial differences in temperature among the transects. Also, along each transect temperature co-varies with precipitation and photosynthetically active radiation, which are also variable among the transects. Both climate and disturbance interact to influence latitudinal patterns of vegetation and soil carbon storage among the transects, and vegetation distribution appears to interact with climate to determine exchanges of heat and moisture in high latitudes. Despite limitations imposed by the data we assembled, the analyses in this study have taken an important step toward clarifying the complexity of interactions among environmental variables, vegetation distribution, carbon stocks and turnover, and water and energy exchange in high latitude regions. This study reveals the need to conduct coordinated global change studies in high latitudes to further elucidate how interactions among climate, disturbance, and vegetation distribution influence carbon dynamics and water and energy exchange in high latitudes.

Journal of Vegetation Science↗