Assessment of waste grain densities to aid waterfowl conservation in the Klamath Basin of northeastern California and southeastern Oregon

Post-harvest waste seed from cereal grains is a major dietary component of waterfowl in the Klamath Basin in northeastern California and southeastern Oregon, a region that plays host to over a million waterfowl annually. Understanding food abundance is critical to local waterfowl management, therefore we conducted a study in 2008 to investigate waste grain densities in barley, oat and wheat fields. We used hierarchal mixed effect models to assess several factors that may affect waste grain densities post-harvest. We also compared the effects of residue management practices to measure the effect of these treatments. To understand the scope of post-harvest practices, we conducted a weekly road survey to document treatments applied to fields in our study area. We found that, region, best explained the variance of post-harvest waste grain in barley fields, where the Tule Lake region had 89% greater densities than Lower Klamath. Neither harvester age or baling affected waste grain in oats fields. In wheat fields, the model containing region and lodging ranked highest, where the Tule Lake region had 66% greater waste densities than Lower Klamath and lodging increased waste grain by 70%. Burning did not reduce waste grain in barley or oat fields. Chisel-disking reduced waste grain by 94% in wheat fields, compared to post-harvest. Our field treatment survey found that 70% of barley fields were untreated while 18% were disked and 13% were burned and flooded. We estimated that 82% of oat fields were burned post-harvest while 18% were burned and flooded. In wheat, 61% of fields were left untreated, while 16% were disked, 8% were chisel-plowed and 7% were flooded post-harvest. Flooding and burning occurred primarily on National Wildlife Refuges while disking, chisel-plowing and post-harvest irrigation occurred solely on private properties. Our results indicate that reducing tillage treatments would boost accessibility of cereal grain food resources to waterfowl in the Klamath Basin, and incentives to flood grain fields on private properties should be considered for the same purpose when and where possible.

Lack of standardization in the use of road counts for surveying raptors

Examination of population trends for raptors is a research priority, especially given recent concern for their conservation status. Road counts—in which raptors are counted from a motorized vehicle moving along the ground—might be an effective method to expand the monitoring of raptor populations and estimation of trends. Here, we review past methods used to perform road counts of raptors and present revised recommendations to aid collaboration, data transfer, and interpretation of results across monitoring programs. We performed a standardized keyword search of online literature databases to obtain 148 past road count studies. The number of studies employing road counts increased per year since the 1970s. Most of these studies occurred in North America. The times of day during which road counts were conducted ranged from sunrise to sunset, and maximum speeds ranged from 10 to 113 km hr–1. The number of observers ranged from 1 (the driver) to 5. Most (93) of the studies used unlimited-width transects and fixed-width transects ranging from 0.02 to 2.50 km wide. Sixteen percent of studies calculated or corrected for the probability of detection. Such broad variation in the methodology used during road counts, coupled with infrequent correction for detection, hampers the interpretation of results across road survey programs. We suggest that road count practitioners should emphasize the collection of data, such as speed, number of observers, and distance to observed raptors, which would allow for the calculation of detection-corrected estimates. Such correction would likely improve trend estimation. Recent technology, including mobile apps, allows researchers to collect such data relatively easily, conducting their own studies while contributing to a broader raptor monitoring initiative. Road counts will likely become more useful as statistical analysis of road count data improves and researchers pool their data in a global effort to monitor raptors.

COMPARATIVE EVALUATION EFFICIENCY OF MOBILE LASER SCANNING AND AERIAL SURVEYING FROM UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES FOR ROAD SURVEY

The application of mobile laser scanning and aerial photography from unmanned aerial vehicles for shooting highways is considered. The aim of the research was to compare the results of shooting using mobile laser scanning systems and aerial photography from an unmanned aerial vehicle to de-termine the preferred option for shooting a highway. The experimental part of the research was carried out using the following equipment: scanning was performed using the Topcon IP - S2 Compact sys-tem, aerial photography was carried out from the GEOSCAN 201 unmanned aerial vehicle. Based on the comparative tests performed on the section of the A - 121 "Sortavala" highway, a comparative analysis of the data obtained for various indicators was carried out: the speed of the shooting stages, the cost of a set of equipment, the cost of shooting, and the accuracy of the results was evaluated. Practical recommendations for the application of these methods are given, their advantages and disad-vantages are indicated.

Lantana camara invasion along road–river interchanges and roadsides in Soutpansberg, Vhembe Biosphere Reserve in South Africa

Roads and rivers act as conduits of alien plant invasion; however, little is known regarding the abundance and invasion extent of Lantana camara, an invasive shrub, along road–river interchanges and roadsides in South Africa. We assessed the effects of road–river interchanges and roadsides as invasion corridors that facilitate L. camara invasion. A road survey method was used to measure the invasion extent of L. camara along road–river interchanges and roadsides from national and regional roads covering 446 km in Soutpansberg, Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, South Africa. L. camara occurred along 21 of the 48 surveyed road–river interchanges and its abundance and cover were similar between road–river interchanges and roadsides, although height and diameter of L. camara were greater along road–river interchanges than roadsides. Other alien species that dominated road–river interchanges were Solanum mauritianum, Caesalpinia decapetala and Rubus rigidus. Our results indicate that L. camara dominates both road–river interchanges and roadsides, therefore roads and bridges should be considered important targets for L. camara control.

Views of expatriate Pakistani doctors about quality of medical education in Pakistan

Introduction and objective: Road Survey to evaluate and analyze the views of Pakistani doctors working in various developed countries about the quality of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education they received in Pakistan and how well it prepared them for their role as senior physicians in a multicultural healthcare workforce in many countries and in terms of parity to the medical education in their current country of work. Methodology: A web-based survey consisting of twenty item questions with graded answer choices, was prepared by the authors to include a multidimensional comprehensive questionnaire to collect the views of the target participants. The survey was completed anonymously on a mobile device or a computer with internet access and took 5 to 10 minutes to complete. Results: The results of this qualitative survey indicate that there is generally a broad convergence of opinion regarding the quality of Pakistani medical education, with primary medical education, more consistently considered higher quality, amongst the Pakistani physicians currently working in UK, USA and Middle Eastern countries. Conclusion: Overall the Pakistani education seems to be of a satisfactory level, but cannot be considered to be superior to the counterpart education from these countries, based on this survey results. Areas such as research methodology appear to be particularly weak and there was a divergence of opinion regarding what the top priority should be to address within Pakistani medical education and training environment. Many of these physicians would like to work in Pakistan again, provided that the working conditions are favorable.

A novel approach for estimating densities of secretive species from road-survey and spatial-movement data

Context Accurate estimates of population density are a critical component of effective wildlife conservation and management. However, many snake species are so secretive that their density cannot be determined using traditional methods such as capture–mark–recapture. Thus, the status of most terrestrial snake populations remains completely unknown. Aim We developed a novel simulation-based technique for estimating density of secretive snakes that combined behavioural observations of snake road-crossing behaviour (crossing speed), effort-corrected road-survey data, and simulations of spatial movement patterns derived from radio-telemetry, without relying on mark–recapture. Methods We used radio-telemetry data to parameterise individual-based movement models that estimate the frequency with which individual snakes cross roads and used information on survey vehicle speed and snake crossing speed to determine the probability of detecting a snake, given that it crosses the road transect during a survey. Snake encounter frequencies during systematic road surveys were then interpreted in light of detection probabilities and simulation model results to estimate snake densities and to assess various factors likely to affect abundance estimates. We demonstrated the broad applicability of this approach through a case study of the imperiled southern hognose snake (Heterodon simus) in the North Carolina (USA) Sandhills. Key results We estimated that H. simus occurs at average densities of 0.17 ha–1 in the North Carolina Sandhills and explored the sensitivity of this estimate to assumptions and variation in model parameters. Conclusions Our novel method allowed us to generate the first abundance estimates for H. simus. We found that H. simus exists at low densities relative to congeners and other mid-sized snake species, raising concern that this species may not only have declined in geographic range, but may also occur at low densities or be declining in their strongholds, such as the North Carolina Sandhills. Implications We present a framework for estimating density of species that have traditionally been considered too secretive to study at the population level. This method will greatly enhance our ability to study and manage a wide variety of snake species and could be applied to other secretive wildlife species that are most frequently encountered during road surveys.