Geology topics

Daniel D. Roby

Publications and source records attributed to Daniel D. Roby.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

USGS2014

Demographics of piscivorous colonial waterbirds and management implications for ESA-listed salmonids on the Columbia Plateau

We investigated colony size, productivity, and limiting factors for five piscivorous waterbird species nesting at 18 locations on the Columbia Plateau (Washington) during 2004–2010 with emphasis on species with a history of salmonid ( Oncorhynchus spp.) depredation. Numbers of nesting Caspian terns ( Hydroprogne caspia ) and double-crested cormorants ( Phalacrocorax auritus ) were stable at about 700–1,000 breeding pairs at five colonies and about 1,200–1,500 breeding pairs at four colonies, respectively. Numbers of American white pelicans ( Pelecanus erythrorhynchos ) increased at Badger Island, the sole breeding colony for the species on the Columbia Plateau, from about 900 individuals in 2007 to over 2,000 individuals in 2010. Overall numbers of breeding California gulls ( Larus californicus ) and ring-billed gulls ( L. delawarensis ) declined during the study, mostly because of the abandonment of a large colony in the mid-Columbia River. Three gull colonies below the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers increased substantially, however. Factors that may limit colony size and productivity for piscivorous waterbirds nesting on the Columbia Plateau included availability of suitable nesting habitat, interspecific competition for nest sites, predation, gull kleptoparasitism, food availability, and human disturbance. Based on observed population trends alone, there is little reason to project increased impacts to juvenile salmonid survival from tern and cormorant populations. Additional monitoring and evaluation may be warranted to assess future impacts of the growing Badger Island American white pelican colony and those gull colonies located near mainstem dams or associated with Caspian tern colonies where kleptoparasitism is common.

Columbia Plateau↗

USGS2013

Phylogeography and population genetic structure of double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus)

We examined the genetic structure of doublecrested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) across their range in the United States and Canada. Sequences of the mitochondrial control region were analyzed for 248 cormorants from 23 breeding sites. Variation was also examined at eight microsatellite loci for 409 cormorants from the same sites. The mitochondrial and microsatellite data provided strong evidence that the Alaskan subspecies (P. a. cincinnatus) is genetically divergent from other populations in North America (net sequence divergence = 5.85 %;UST for mitochondrial control region = 0.708; FST for microsatellite loci = 0.052). Historical records, contemporary population estimates, and field observations are consistent with recognition of the Alaskan subspecies as distinct and potentially of conservation interest. Our data also indicated the presence of another divergent lineage, associated with the southwestern portion of the species range, as evidenced by highly unique haplotypes sampled in southern California. In contrast, there was little support for recognition of subspecies within the conterminous U.S. and Canada. Rather than genetically distinct regions corresponding to the putative subspecies [P. a. albociliatus (Pacific), P. a. auritus (Interior and North Atlantic), and P. a. floridanus (Southeast)], we observed a distribution of genetic variation consistent with a pattern of isolation by distance. This pattern implies that genetic differences across the range are due to geographic distance, rather than discrete subspecific breaks. Although three of the four traditional subspecies were not genetically distinct, possible demographic separation, habitat differences, and documented declines at some colonies within the regions, suggests that the Pacific and possibly North Atlantic portions of the breeding range may warrant differential consideration from the Interior and Southeast breeding regions.

Conservation Genetics↗

USGS2011

Relationship of external fish condition to pathogen prevalence and out-migration survival in juvenile steelhead

Understanding how the external condition of juvenile salmonids is associated with internal measures of health and subsequent out‐migration survival can be valuable for population monitoring programs. This study investigated the use of a rapid, nonlethal, external examination to assess the condition of run‐of‐the‐river juvenile steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss migrating from the Snake River to the Pacific Ocean. We compared the external condition (e.g., body injuries, descaling, external signs of disease, fin damage, and ectoparasite infestations) with (1) the internal condition of a steelhead as measured by the presence of selected pathogens detected by histopathology and polymerase chain reaction analysis and (2) out‐migration survival through the Snake and Columbia rivers as determined by passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag technology. The results from steelhead captured and euthanized ( n = 222) at Lower Monumental Dam on the lower Snake River in 2008 indicated that external condition was significantly correlated with selected measures of internal condition. The odds of testing positive for a pathogen were 39.2, 24.3, and 5.6 times greater for steelhead with severe or moderate external signs of disease or more than 20% descaling, respectively. Capture–recapture models of 22,451 PIT‐tagged steelhead released at Lower Monumental Dam in 2007–2009 indicated that external condition was significantly correlated with juvenile survival. The odds of out‐migration survival for steelhead with moderate or severe external signs of disease, more than 20% descaling, or severe fin damage were 5.7, 4.9, 1.6, and 1.3 times lower, respectively, than those for steelhead without these external conditions. This study effectively demonstrated that specific measures of external condition were associated with both the internal condition and out‐migration survival of juvenile steelhead.

Oregon, Washington↗

USGS2011

Use of fatty acid analysis to determine dispersal of Caspian Terns in the Columbia River Basin, U.S.A.

Lethal control, which has been used to reduce local abundances of animals in conflict with humans or with endangered species, may not achieve management goals if animal movement is not considered. In populations with emigration and immigration, lethal control may induce compensatory immigration, if the source of attraction remains unchanged. Within the Columbia River Basin (Washington, U.S.A.), avian predators forage at dams because dams tend to reduce rates of emigration of juvenile salmonids ( Oncorhynchus spp. ), artificially concentrating these prey. We used differences in fatty acid profiles between Caspian Terns ( Hydroprogne caspia ) at coastal and inland breeding colonies and terns culled by a lethal control program at a mid‐Columbia River dam to infer dispersal patterns. We modeled the rate of loss of fatty acid biomarkers, which are fatty acids that can be traced to a single prey species or groups of species, to infer whether and when terns foraging at dams had emigrated from the coast. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling showed that coastal terns had high levels of C 20 and C 22 monounsaturated fatty acids, whereas fatty acids of inland breeders were high in C18:3n3, C20:4n6, and C22:5n3. Models of the rate of loss of fatty acid showed that approximately 60% of the terns collected at Rock Island Dam were unlikely to have bred successfully at local (inland) sites, suggesting that terns foraging at dams come from an extensive area. Fatty acid biomarkers may provide accurate information about patterns of dispersal in animal populations and may be extremely valuable in cases where populations differ demonstrably in prey base.

Washington↗

USGS2011

Validating growth and development of a seabird as an indicator of food availability: Captive-reared Caspian Tern chicks fed ad libitum and restricted diets

For seabirds raising young under conditions of limited food availability, reducing chick provisioning and chick growth rates are the primary means available to avoid abandonment of a breeding effort. For most seabirds, however, baseline data characterizing chick growth and development under known feeding conditions are unavailable, so it is difficult to evaluate chick nutritional status as it relates to foraging conditions near breeding colonies. To address this need, we examined the growth and development of young Caspian Terns (Hydroprogne caspia), a cosmopolitan, generalist piscivore, reared in captivity and fed ad libitum and restricted (ca. one-third lower caloric intake) diets. Ad libitum-fed chicks grew at similar rates and achieved a similar size at fledging as previously documented for chicks in the wild and had energetic demands that closely matched allometric predictions. We identified three general characteristics of food-restricted Caspian Tern chicks compared to ad libitum chicks: (1) lower age-specific body mass, (2) lower age-specific skeletal and feather size, such as wing chord length, and (3) heightened levels of corticosterone in blood, both for baseline levels and in response to acute stress. Effects of diet restriction on feather growth (10–11% slower growth in diet-restricted chicks) were less pronounced than effects on structural growth (37–52% slower growth) and body mass (24% lower at fledging age) apparently due to preferential allocation of food resources to maintain plumage growth. Our results suggest that measurements of chick body mass and feather development (e.g., wing chord or primary length) or measurement of corticosterone levels in the blood would allow useful evaluation of the nutritional status of chicks reared in the wild and of food availability in the foraging range of adults. Such evaluations could also inform demography studies (e.g., predict future recruitment) and assist in evaluating designated piscivorous waterbird conservation (colony) sites.

Oregon↗

USGS2005

Do wintering Harlequin Ducks forage nocturnally at high latitudes?

We monitored radio-tagged Harlequin Ducks ( Histrionicus histrionicus ) to determine whether nocturnal feeding was part of their foraging strategy during winter in south-central Alaska. Despite attributes of our study site (low ambient temperatures, harsh weather, short day length) and study species (small body size, high daytime foraging rates) that would be expected to favor nocturnal foraging, we found no evidence of nocturnal dive-feeding. Signals from eight radio-tagged Harlequin Ducks never exhibited signal loss due to diving during a total of 780 minutes of nocturnal monitoring. In contrast, the same eight birds exhibited signal loss during 62 ± 7% (SE) of 5-minute diurnal monitoring periods (total of 365 minutes of monitoring). Our results suggest that Harlequin Ducks in south-central Alaska face a stringent time constraint on daytime foraging during midwinter. Harlequin Ducks wintering at high latitudes, therefore, may be particularly sensitive to factors that increase foraging requirements or decrease foraging efficiency.

Condor↗

USGS2005

Foraging ecology of Caspian Terns in the Columbia River Estuary, USA

Comparisons were made of the foraging ecology of Caspian Terns ( Sterna caspia ) nesting on two islands in the Columbia River estuary using radio telemetry and observations of prey fed to chicks and mates at each colony. Early in the chick-rearing period, radio-tagged terns nesting at Rice Island (river km 34) foraged mostly in the freshwater zone of the estuary close to the colony, while terns nesting on East Sand Island (river km 8) foraged in the marine or estuarine mixing zones close to that colony. Late in the chick-rearing period, Rice Island terns moved more of their foraging to the two zones lower in the estuary, while East Sand Island terns continued to forage in these areas. Tern diets at each colony corresponded to the primary foraging zone (freshwater vs. marine/mixing) of radio-tagged individuals: Early in chick-rearing, Rice Island terns relied heavily on juvenile salmonids ( Oncorhynchus spp., 71% of identified prey), but this declined late in chick-rearing (46%). East Sand Island terns relied less on salmonids (42% and 16%, early and late in chick-rearing), and instead utilized marine fishes such as Anchovy ( Engraulis mordax ) and Herring ( Clupea pallasi ). Throughout chick-rearing, Rice Island terns foraged farther from their colony (median distance: 12.3 km during early chick-rearing and 16.9 km during late chick-rearing) than did East Sand Island terns (9.6 and 7.7 km, respectively). The study leads to the conclusion that Caspian Terns are generalist foragers and make use of the most proximate available forage fish resources when raising young.

Oregon, Washington↗

USGS2003

[Book Review] Biology of marine birds

A text devoted to the biology and ecology of marine birds has not been published in the last 15 years. Although a number of more taxa-specific texts have been produced during that period, there has not been a single publication that attempted to review our knowledge of all the major seabird orders since the works of Nelson (1979), Croxall (1987), and Furness and Monaghan (1987). Following the publication of those works, a large and impressive body of literature has been produced. Given the rapid expansion of the field in the last two decades, the time was ripe for production of an extensive compendium on the biology, ecology, and conservation of the world's seabirds. E. A. Schreiber and J. Burger are editors of this CRC publication, Biology of Marine Birds . The book consists of 19 chapters that vary in length from 15 to 51 pages. There are also two extensive appendices: (1) a list of seabird species (restricted to the orders Sphenisciformes, Procellariiformes, Pelecaniformes, and Charadriiformes, the latter limited to Stercorariidae, Laridae, Rhynchopidae, and Alcidae) and their IUCN status, and (2) a very useful table of species-specific life-history traits. The 19 chapters were prepared by 26 authors, among them some of the most respected and published seabird scientists in the world. A brief preface introduces the book, its objective (to provide an examination and summary of the research on seabirds), its audience (researchers, conservationists, managers, and policy-makers), and the taxa covered. The editors coauthored the introductory chapter, Seabirds in the Marine Environment. The authors describe distinctive characteristics of seabird life-histories in comparison to other taxa, hypotheses for why those lifestyles evolved and the potential role of energy limitation in the evolution of seabird life-histories. Along with a discussion of other common seabird traits, such as a propensity for colonial breeding, the authors also suggest directions for future research in seabird ecology.

The Auk↗

USGS2002

Effects of colony relocation on diet and productivity of Caspian terns

We investigated the efficacy of management to reduce the impact of Caspian tern ( Sterna caspia ) predation on survival of juvenile salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) in the Columbia River estuary. Resource managers sought to relocate approximately 9,000 pairs of terns nesting on Rice Island (river km 34) to East Sand Island (river km 8), where terns were expected to prey on fewer juvenile salmonids. Efforts to attract terns to nest on East Sand Island included creation of nesting habitat, use of social attraction techniques, and predator control, with concurrent efforts to discourage terns from nesting on Rice Island. This approach was successful in completely relocating the tern colony from Rice Island to East Sand Island by the third breeding season. Juvenile salmonids decreased and marine forage fishes (i.e., herring, sardine, anchovy, smelt, surfperch, Pacific sand lance) increased in the diet of Caspian terns nesting on East Sand Island, compared with terns nesting on Rice Island. During 1999 and 2000, the diet of terns nesting on Rice Island consisted of 77% and 90% juvenile salmonids, respectively, while during 1999, 2000, and 2001, the diet of terns nesting on East Sand Island consisted of 46%, 47%, and 33% juvenile salmonids, respectively. Nesting success of Caspian terns was consistently and substantially higher on East Sand Island than on Rice Island. These results indicate that relocating the Caspian tern colony was an effective management action for reducing predation on juvenile salmonids without harm to the population of breeding terns, at least in the short term. The success of this management approach largely was a consequence of the nesting and foraging ecology of Caspian terns: the species shifts breeding colony sites frequently in response to changing habitats, and the species is a generalist forager, preying on the most available forage fish near the colony.

Oregon, Washington↗

USGS1997

Proximate composition and energy density of some North Pacific forage fishes

Mature pelagic forage fish species (capelin, sand lance, squid) had greater lipid concentrations than juvenile age-classes of large demersal and pelagic fish species (walleye pollock, Pacific cod, Atka mackerel, greenling, prowfish, rockfish, sablefish). Myctophids preyed on by puffins have at least twice as much lipid per gram compared to mature capelin, sand lance and squid, and an order of magnitude greater lipid concentrations than juvenile forage fish. Energy density of forage fishes was positively correlated with lipid content, and negatively correlated with water, ash-free lean dry mass (mostly protein), and ash contents.

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A: M↗

USGS1997

Significance of stomach oil for reproduction in seabirds: An interspecies cross-fostering experiment

Stomach oil, a complex mixture of neutral dietary lipids, is a unique attribute of seabirds in the order Procellariiformes. With the exception of diving-petrels, all procellariiforms produce stomach oil and feed it to their young. We conducted an interspecies cross-fostering experiment on Bird Island, South Georgia, that was designed to reveal how the presence or absence of stomach oil in meals fed to young seabirds influences their growth, development, and survival. Hatchling South Georgia Diving-Petrels ( Pelecanoides georgicus ), a species that lacks stomach oil, were switched with hatchling Antarctic Prions ( Pachyptila desolata ), a species that feeds its young stomach oil. Diving-petrel foster parents did not successfully raise prion nestlings, presumably due to the absence of stomach oil in meals fed to nestlings. Prion foster parents successfully raised diving-petrel nestlings to fledging, but growth rates were lower, nestling fat reserves were lower, and fledging was delayed compared with controls. These results suggest that stomach oil is an essential dietary component for prion nestlings to meet their energy requirements, but diving-petrel nestlings apparently cannot efficiently assimilate stomach oil. This experiment supports the hypothesis that the production of stomach oil is an adaptation that allows breeding seabirds to enhance provisioning rates of energy to the nest, while foraging on a distant and dispersed food supply.

Georgia↗