Rochelle B. Renken

Flooding to Restore Connectivity of Regulated, Large-River Wetlands Natural and controlled flooding as complementary processes along the lower Missouri River

You can always count on finding the Mississippi just where you left it last year. But the Missouri is a tawny, restless, brawling flood. It cuts corners, runs around at night, fills itself with snags and traveling sandbars, lunches on levees, and swallows islands and small villages for dessert. Its perpetual dissatisfaction with its bed is the greatest peculiarity of the Missouri.... It makes farming as fascinating as gambling. You never know whether you are going to harvest corn or catfish (Fitch 1907, p. 637).

Nest-site characterization and reproductive success of Mississippi kites in the Mississippi river floodplains

The Mississippi kite (Ictinia mississippiensis) is considered rare in Missouri and occupies a habitat in the state that is being fragmented and converted into unsuitable habitat. To enhance our understanding of its habitat requirements and population status e examined the characteristics of Mississippi kite nesting habitat and reproductive success at 33 nest and random sites in 1990 and 26 sites in 1991 in the floodplain forests along the Mississippi River in southeastern Missouri. Forest tracts containing Mississippi kite nests (n = 7) were larger (x = 683 ha) than randomly sampled forest tracts (x = 7 ha, n = 7). Trees containing nests were taller than trees at random, and nests were positioned within the tree so that nests were above the surrounding forest canopy. Overstory and midstory tree diameter at breast height (dbh) were greater at nest sites than at random sites. Overstory tree density was less at nest sites than at random sites. Eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides), American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), and shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) were the most common trees at nest sites, whereas black willow (Salix nigra), green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), and silver maple (Acer saccharium) were more frequent at random sites. The modified Mayfield nest-success estimate for 10 successful and 14 failed nests was 22%. We conclude that Mississippi kites select patches of atypically tall trees surrounding an even taller nest tree for nesting sites within the Mississippi River floodplain forests in southeastern Missouri. Preserving the larger forest tracts in the region, particularly those currently used as nest sitcs, and assuring the sustainability of the tallest growing trees like cottonwoods would have ong lasting, positive effects on Mississippi kite habitat in this region of its range.

Short-term landscape-scale effects of forest management on Peromyscus spp. mice within Missouri Ozark forests

Abstract We conducted a capture–recapture study within Ozark forests in south-central Missouri to evaluate the short-term (2–5 years after timber removal) effects of even-and uneven-aged forest management on Peromyscus spp. mice inhabiting north-and east-facing slopes of forest compartments. This study was part of the Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project, a 100-year experiment investigating landscape-scale impacts of forest management on forest flora and fauna. Changes between pretreatment (1994–1995) and post-treatment (1998–2001) numbers indicated that forest management had a short-term effect on mice. Even-aged management, and to a lesser extent uneven-aged management, appeared to dampen a natural decline in mouse abundance observed on no-harvest sites. Numbers on even-aged sites were greater than those on uneven-aged sites, which were greater than numbers on no-harvest sites following treatment. Both even-and uneven-aged forest management may positively affect Peromyscus spp. numbers, but this trend may change as additional trees are removed.

LEAST TERN CHICK SURVIVAL ON THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER

Abstract Accurate population models for the endangered Interior Least Tern (Sterna antillarum) cannot be generated without age-specific survival estimates. Our purpose was to estimate chick survival from hatching to fledging, for Least Terns nesting at two sites on the Lower Mississippi River in Missouri, using mark-recapture methodology. We banded 110 Least Tern chicks during 1995 on sand island nesting colonies situated at river kilometers (Rkm) 1431 and 1481 on the Lower Mississippi River. We used Program JOLLY to compute survival point estimates, their associated variances, and goodness-of-fit tests for Jolly-Seber open population models (Pollock et al. 1990). The mean daily survival rate for Least Tern chicks at Rkm 1431 was 0.951 (SE = 0.03) with 95% confidence intervals of 0.899–1.003. Mean daily survival rate for Least Tern chicks at Rkm 1481 was 0.972 (SE = 0.03) with 95% confidence intervals of 0.911–1.034. Estimated survival of Least Tern chicks throughout the entire 17-d fledging interval was 0.43 at Rkm 1431 and 0.62 at Rkm 1481. Based on survival rate estimates and number of known pairs producing chicks we estimated 0.72 and 1.0 fledglings/pair were produced at Rkm 1431 and Rkm 1481, respectively.

Simulated data and code for analysis of herpetofauna response to forest management in the Missouri Ozarks

We present predictor variables and R and Stan code for simulating and analyzing counts of Missouri Ozark herpetofauna in response to three forest management strategies. Our code performs four primary purposes: import predictor variables from spreadsheets; simulate synthetic response variables based on imported predictor variables and user-supplied values for data-generating parameters; format synthetic data for export to Stan; and analyze synthetic data.