Less than 6% of the coterminous United States is in nature reserves. Assessment of the occurrence of nature reserves across ranges of elevation and soil productivity classes indicates that nature reserves are most frequently found at higher elevations and on less productive soils. The distribution of plants and animals suggests that the greatest number of species is found at lower elevations. A preliminary assessment of the occurrence of mapped land cover types indicates that ϳ60% of mapped cover types have Ͻ10% of their area in nature reserves. Land ownership patterns show that areas of lower elevation and more productive soils are most often privately owned and already extensively converted to urban and agricultural uses. Thus any effort to establish a system of nature reserves that captures the full geographical and ecological range of cover types and species must fully engage the private sector.

Global positioning system (GPS) collars have been deployed on adult moose (Alces americanus) and other ungulates to study various aspects of their ecology, but until the current study they have not been fitted to moose neonates. The moose population in northeastern Minnesota, USA, has been declining since 2006, and information on neonatal survival and cause‐specific mortality are needed. We monitored hourly movements of GPS‐collared females for indications of calving. During 2 May–2 June 2013 we observed 47 of 73 collared females (50 known pregnant, 17 not pregnant, 6 unknown pregnancy status) make “calving movements” followed by a clustering of locations. After allowing a mean bonding time of 40.2 hr, we approached their calving sites and captured and GPS‐collared 49 neonates from 31 dams. We closely monitored dam–calf movements and launched rapid investigative responses to calf mortality notifications to determine cause of mortality. Mean response time was 53.3 hr, but ranged from 0.3 hr to 579 hr, depending on collar accessibility and proper functioning of the GPS component. We censored capture‐related mortalities and slipped collars. Twenty‐five of 34 calves (74%) died of natural causes as of 31 December 2013, including 1 after natural abandonment, 1 after abandonment of unknown cause, 1 drowning, 1 unknown predator kill, 1 lethal infection from wolf (Canis lupus) bites, 4 black bear (Ursus americanus) kills, 12 wolf kills, and 4 “probable wolf kills.” As this technology develops, the quantity and quality of survival, cause‐specific mortality, movement, and habitat use data generated from intense monitoring of GPS‐collared adults and offspring will have unprecedented value associated with management at the population and landscape scales. © 2015 The Wildlife Society.

Global Positioning System (GPS) telemetry is used extensively to study animal distribution and resource selection patterns but is susceptible to biases resulting from data omission and spatial inaccuracies. These data errors may cause misinterpretation of wildlife habitat selection or spatial use patterns. We used both stationary test collars and collared free‐ranging American black bears (Ursus americanus) to quantify systemic data loss and location error of GPS telemetry in mountainous, old‐growth temperate forests of Olympic National Park, Washington, USA. We developed predictive models of environmental factors that influence the probability of obtaining GPS locations and evaluated the ability of weighting factors derived from these models to mitigate data omission biases from collared bears. We also examined the effects of microhabitat on collar fix success rate and examined collar accuracy as related to elevation changes between successive fixes. The probability of collars successfully obtaining location fixes was positively associated with elevation and unobstructed satellite view and was negatively affected by the interaction of overstory canopy and satellite view. Test collars were 33% more successful at acquiring fixes than those on bears. Fix success rates of collared bears varied seasonally and diurnally. Application of weighting factors to individual collared bear fixes recouped only 6% of lost data and failed to reduce seasonal or diurnal variation in fix success, suggesting that variables not included in our model contributed to data loss. Test collars placed to mimic bear bedding sites received 16% fewer fixes than randomly placed collars, indicating that microhabitat selection may contribute to data loss for wildlife equipped with GPS collars. Horizontal collar errors of >800 m occurred when elevation changes between successive fixes were >400 m. We conclude that significant limitations remain in accounting for data loss and error inherent in using GPS telemetry in coniferous forest ecosystems and that, at present, resource selection patterns of large mammals derived from GPS telemetry should be interpreted cautiously.

Abstract.The operation of water distribution networks (WDN) with a 4 dynamic topology is a recently pioneered approach for the advanced man- indicate AZP reductions for a dynamic topology of up to 6.5% over optimally 26 controlled fixed topology DMAs.