Emergence of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) in a Small Mammal Population in a Coastal Oak-Pine Forest, Maine, USA.

In the United States, surveillance has been key to tracking spatiotemporal emergence of blacklegged ticks [Ixodes scapularis Say (Ixodida:Ixodidae)] and their pathogens such as Borrelia burgdorferi Johnson, Schmid, Hyde, Steigerwalt & Brenner (Spirochaetales: Spirochaetaceae), the agent of Lyme disease. On the Holt Research Forest in midcoastal Maine, collection of feeding ticks from live-trapped small mammal hosts allowed us to track the emergence and establishment of I. scapularis, 1989-2019.

A 2.5-million-year perspective on coarse-filter strategies for conserving nature's stage.

Climate change will require novel conservation strategies. One such tactic is a coarse-filter approach that focuses on conserving nature's stage (CNS) rather than the actors (individual species). However, there is a temporal mismatch between the long-term goals of conservation and the short-term nature of most ecological studies, which leaves many assumptions untested.

Why geodiversity matters in valuing nature's stage.

Geodiversity--the variability of Earth's surface materials, forms, and physical processes-is an integral part of nature and crucial for sustaining ecosystems and their services. It provides the substrates, landform mosaics, and dynamic physical processes for habitat development and maintenance. By determining the heterogeneity of the physical environment in conjunction with climate interactions, geodiversity has a crucial influence on biodiversity across a wide range of scales.

Incorporating geodiversity into conservation decisions.

In a rapidly changing climate, conservation practitioners could better use geodiversity in a broad range of conservation decisions. We explored selected avenues through which this integration might improve decision making and organized them within the adaptive management cycle of assessment, planning, implementation, and monitoring. Geodiversity is seldom referenced in predominant environmental law and policy.

Improving management of small natural features on private lands by negotiating the science-policy boundary for Maine vernal pools.

Vernal pools are far more important for providing ecosystem services than one would predict based on their small size. However, prevailing resource-management strategies are not effectively conserving pools and other small natural features on private lands. Solutions are complicated by tensions between private property and societal rights, uncertainties over resource location and function, diverse stakeholders, and fragmented regulatory authority.

The complementary niches of anthropocentric and biocentric conservationists.

A divergence of values has become apparent in recent debates between conservationists who focus on ecosystem services that can improve human well-being and those who focus on avoiding the extinction of species. These divergent points of view fall along a continuum from anthropocentric to biocentric values, but most conservationists are relatively closer to each other than to the ends of the spectrum. We have some concerns with both positions but emphasize that conservation for both people and all other species will be most effective if conservationists focus on articulating the values they all share, being respectful of divergent values, and collaborating on common interests.

Clear-cutting affects habitat connectivity for a forest amphibian by decreasing permeability to juvenile movements.

Conservation of forest amphibians is dependent on finding the right balance between management for timber production and meeting species' habitat requirements. For many pond-breeding amphibians, successful dispersal of the juvenile stage is essential for long-term population persistence. We investigated the influence of timber-harvesting practices on the movements of juvenile wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus).

Terrestrial habitat selection and strong density-dependent mortality in recently metamorphosed amphibians.

To predict the effects of terrestrial habitat change on amphibian populations, we need to know how amphibians respond to habitat heterogeneity, and whether habitat choice remains consistent throughout the life-history cycle. We conducted four experiments to evaluate how the spatial distribution of juvenile wood frogs, Rana sylvatica (including both overall abundance and localized density), was influenced by habitat choice and habitat structure, and how this relationship changed with spatial scale and behavioral phase. The four experiments included (1) habitat manipulation on replicated 10-ha landscapes surrounding breeding pools; (2) short-term experiments with individual frogs emigrating through a manipulated landscape of 1 m wide hexagonal patches; and habitat manipulations in (3) small (4-m2); and (4) large (100-m2) enclosures with multiple individuals to compare behavior both during and following emigration.

Long-term effects of group-selection timber harvesting on abundance of forest birds.

Relatively few studies have examined the ecological effects of group-selection timber harvesting, and nearly all have been short-term and have lacked experimental manipulations that allow pre- and posttreatment comparisons. We have been documenting the effects of a group-selection timber harvest on bird abundance in a Maine forest for 24 years (preharvest, 1983-1987; postharvest, 1988-2006). Here we characterized the trends in bird abundance over the first 20 years of the study in the managed and control halves of the 40-ha study area.

Reversing the Fragmentation Perspective: Effects of Clearcut Size on Bird Species Richness in Maine.

The effects of clearcut size on bird species richness in a forest-dominated landscape were examined. Forty-five clearcuts, ranging in size from 2 to 112 ha and in age from 3 to 10 yr post-cut were selected as study sites in eastern Maine. At least 10% of each clearcut was censused using 1-16 fixed-radius (50-m) circular plots in May and June of 1989 and 1990.