The lesser prairie-chicken Tympanuchus pallidicinctus has received considerable attention in recent years, as a result of population decline and the uncertainty of its status under the 1973 U.S. Endangered Species Act. Substantial effort has been exerted studying the life history of the species and effects of some management practices on its ecology. However, information is lacking regarding lesser prairie-chicken use and selection of Conservation Reserve Program fields in the Southern High Plains of Texas. To fill in this knowledge gap, we assessed habitat selection by lesser prairie-chickens within Conservation Reserve Program fields, native grassland, and row-crop agriculture in Texas, 2015–2017. We assessed habitat selection using a Type II design at the second order of selection (home range placement within the landscape) and a Type III design at the third order (Global Positioning System locations within the home range). At the second order of selection, lesser prairie-chickens selected Conservation Reserve Program fields seeded in nonnative grasses (wi = 3.99, 95% CI = 1.60–6.39) and native grasses and forbs (wi = 3.25, 95% CI = 1.99–4.52) year-round. Row-crop agriculture (wi = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.06–0.28) and native grassland (wi = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.06–0.55) were avoided. Native grass Conservation Reserve Program fields were used in proportion to their availability (wi = 1.33, 95% CI = 0.81–1.85) year-round. Only Conservation Reserve Program fields seeded in native grasses and forbs were selected at the third order of selection (wi = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.16–1.47). Based on our results, Conservation Reserve Program fields provide habitat for lesser prairie-chickens, and as such, may be beneficial to persistence of the species on the High Plains of Texas.
The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is a species of conservation concern on the Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico, USA. Because fragmentation and isolation have increased since pre-settlement, dispersal through this heterogeneous landscape may be constrained, with serious implications for conservation and management of this species. Our objectives were to quantify landscape connectivity for lesser prairie-chickens within a patch network of potentially isolated leks (breeding display grounds), and examine effects of land use change on modeled lesser prairiechicken movements through the landscape. We used graph theory to quantify structural landscape connectivity and circuit theory to quantify functional landscape connectivity for lesser prairie-chickens in the Sand Shinnery Oak Prairie Ecoregion of the Southern High Plains. There was a high degree of clustering among leks (n = 1,023 leks), with a 41.9-km coalescence distance of the network. We identified 3 leks as cutpoints within the network, meaning if the habitat patches containing these leks were fragmented, the remaining leks would become isolated from each other. We also identified several leks that were important for maintaining overall population connectivity for lesser prairie-chickens on the Southern High Plains. Conservation Reserve Program land was important for maintaining connectivity among leks to the north and west of the main lek
As part of a larger investigation into students' conceptions about buoyancy, we investigated the prevalence of the belief that the gravitational force on an object changes when the object is placed in a fluid. We also investigated the effect of describing the force as "weight" instead of "gravitational force." During the first phase of the study (Winter 2016 to Fall 2016), students at two different institutions were asked to identify the correct free-body diagram (FBD) for a ball floating in water, and then for the same ball held down while fully submerged under water. Half of the students were shown FBDs involving "weight," and the other half were shown FBDs involving the "gravitational force." During the second phase of the study (Fall 2017 to Spring 2019), students at one of the institutions were asked to explicitly compare the strength of either the weight or the gravitational force on the ball when it was falling, floating, and held submerged. This paper will report on the fraction of students who indicated that the weight or gravitational force differed between the scenarios and will discuss the effects of both the question asked and the wording used to describe the force.
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