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Studies Active in Fiscal Year 98

Director's Office
Contact: Ronald Kirby, Center Director

• Effect of prescribed fire on biocontrol of leafy spurge. Status: completed.
  
• Survival of fledged mallards in Minnesota. Status: completed.

Section of Central Plains/Ozark Plateau Ecology
Contact: Gary Willson, Section Chief

• Population demographics of western snowy plovers in southern California. Status: data collection and analysis.
  
• Effects of size, fragmentation, and management of prairie remnants on biodiversity and sustainability. Status: data collection.
• Monitoring protocol development and testing for the endangered Missouri bladderpod. Status: data collection.
  
• Climate monitoring in relation to rare plant population dynamics. Status: data collection.
• Inventory and monitoring of the black-tailed prairie dog in the National Park System. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• Vegetation community monitoring in the Prairie Cluster Long Term Envirionmental Monitoring parks. Status: data collection.
• Development and validation of biocriteria for National Parks in the prairie ecoregion. Status: data collection.
• Inventory and monitoring of 24 rare plant species. Status: data collection.
• Monitoring protocol development and testing for the threatened western prairie fringed orchid. Status: data collection.
• Inventory and monitoring protocol development and testing for grassland birds. Status: data collection.
• Digital development for Prairie Cluster Park GIS. Status: completed.
• Evaluating the effects of global change on ecological structure and function of Ozark Highlands streams. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• Land use and climate impacts on the fluvial geomorphology of Ozark Highlands streams. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• High resolution climate and streamflow reconstructions for the Ozark Highlands using long-term tree-ring data. Status: completed.
• Climatic variations of the Ozark Highlands in the context of global change. Status: data collection.
• Application of a distributed hydrology-vegetation model to the Jacks Fork basin to predict changes in runoff due to climate change. Status: data collection.
• The role of fire in maintaining landscape heterogeneity and savanna-glade boundaries in the Ozark Highlands. Status: data collection.
• Spring inventory, Jacks Fork and Current Rivers. Status: completed.
• Holocene paleoenvironments in the western Great Lakes parks. Status: completed.
• Effect of climate change on C:N pools in a boreal watershed ecosystem. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• Vegetation dynamics of the riparian corridor, Jacks Fork River, Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri. Status: data collection.
• Resurvey of vegetation plots, Turkey Mountain, Buffalo National River, Arkansas. Status: data collection.

Section of Northern Plains Ecology
Contact: Terry Shaffer, Section Chief

• Physical and biological functions and comparative wildlife values of restored prairie wetlands. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• Presence and viability of a branchiopoda "egg bank" as an indicator of wetland condition in the prairie pothole region. Status: ms preparation.
• Anurans and invertebrates as indicators of wetland condition in the North Dakota prairie pothole region. Status: ms preparation.
• Factors influencing use of prairie pothole wetlands by birds, amphibians, and aquatic macroinvertebrates. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• Impact of global climate change on aquatic invertebrates in the northern Great Plains. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• The Cottonwood Lake Study Area: long-term monitoring of the dynamics in hydrology, chemistry, and biology of a prairie wetland complex. Status: data collection.
• Aquatic invertebrates as correlates of wetland boundaries in the prairie pothole region. Status: ms preparation.
• Evaluation of restored wetlands in the prairie pothole region of the United States. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• Assessment of the recovery potential of invertebrates in restored wetlands in South Dakota. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• Influence of sedimentation on recolonization of hydrophytes and invertebrates in restored wetlands. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• A decision model for prioritizing wetland restoration in the northern Great Plains. Status: data collection.
• An assessment of wetlands on the Little Missouri National Grasslands. Status: planning.
• Red River watershed decision model. Status: planning.
• Delineation of sandhill crane subspecies and their distribution. Status: final data collection and analysis and ms preparation.
• Evaluation of wetland and upland management practices at Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Status: data collection.
• Platte River Ecosystem Initiative: Factors influencing soil macro- invertebrate communities in the riparian grasslands of the central Platte River flood plain. Status: planning.
• Breeding ecology of sandhill cranes at Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Idaho. Status: planning.
• Development of techniques to identify predators at nest sites of grassland passerines. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• Brood ecology of upland-nesting dabbling ducks in the prairie pothole region. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• Responses by breeding ducks to restored wetlands in the prairie pothole region: a landscape approach. Status: data collection.
• Spring staging ecology of greater white-fronted geese, lesser snow geese, and northern pintails in the central Platte River Valley and Rainwater Basin of Nebraska. Status: data collection.
• Survival rates and causes of mortality of mallard and gadwall ducklings in prairie pothole habitat. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• Spring staging ecology of sandhill cranes in the Central Platte Valley, Nebraska, and its relation to reproduction. Status: data collection.
• Technical assistance to management for implementation of research technologies. Status: data collection.
• Maintenance and development of the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center World-Wide Web Home Page. Status: ongoing.
• Maintenance and development of a World-Wide Web Home Page for the Great Plains International Data Network and Great Plains Partnership. Status: ongoing.
• Use by mammalian predators of grassland fields in relation to patch size in fragmented landscapes in the northern Great Plains. Status: data analysis and ms preparation.
• Behavioral interactions between captive swift foxes and red foxes. Status: data analysis and ms preparation.

Grassland Ecosystem Initiative Team
Contact: Douglas Johnson, Team Leader

• Bird use of Conservation Reserve Program fields. Status: active.
• Breeding bird communities of wetlands. Status: active.
• An index of biotic integrity for grasslands. Status: active.
• Waterfowl use of restored and natural wetlands: a landscape approach. Status: active.
• Development of the North American Reporting Center for Amphibian Malformations. Status: active.
• Grasslands Ecosystem Initiative. Status: active.
• Evaluation of control of leafy spurge and Canada thistle on wildlife refuges in the Dakotas. Status: data collection.
• Survey and ranking of exotic plants in national parks. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• Effects of leafy spurge infestation on pollination of native plants. Status: analysis and ms preparation.
• Propagule banks in prairie dog towns. Status: analysis and ms preparation.

Section of Support Services
Contact: Wesley Newton, Section Chief

• North Dakota Gap analysis. Status: planning.
• Spring 1998 nesting ground habitat statistics for fall flight forecast of Arctic nesting geese. Status: completed.
• Response of nesting ducks to predator exclosures during drought. Status: completed.
• Methods for interpreting carnivore scent-station surveys. Status: completed.
• Population dynamics of black bears at Cold Lake, Alberta. Status: ms submitted.
• Scent-station survey methods for swift and kit foxes. Status: ms submitted.
• Power analysis for carnivore scent-station surveys. Status: ms preparation.
• Waterfowl nesting on artificial islands. Status: analysis.
• Space and habitat relations of prairie striped skunks during the duck nesting season. Status: analysis and ms preparation.

University of Minnesota Social Science Program
Contact: David Lime, Research Associate

• Defining indicators and standards of experience quality at Glacier National Park. Status: completed.
• Defining indicators and standards of experience quality at Canyonlands National Park. Status: data collection.
• Defining indicators and standards of experience quality at Arches National Park. Status: analysis.
• Defining indicators and standards of experience quality at Capitol Reef National Park. Status: analysis.
• Defining indicators and standards of experience quality at Isle Royale National Park. Status: analysis and report preparation.
• Defining indicators and standards of experience quality: a handbook. Status: report preparation.
• Visitors' reactions to recreational fees in national parks. Status: completed first phase and preparing for next phase.
• Visitors' reactions to recreational fees in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Status: data collection, analysis, and report preparation.
• Monitoring social conditions in wilderness areas. Status: report preparation.
• Evaluating an education program at Hopewell National Historical Park. Status: data collection.
• Evaluating a computerized non-indigenous plant ranking system. Status: data collection.
• Riverway aquatic habitat conditions on the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway. Status: completed.

Note: Studies of the University of Minnesota Field Station Wolf Project are not listed. Transfer of the Wolf Project to NPWRC did not become effective until the beginning of FY 99.