Management and policy decisions regarding biological invasions and other aspects of global change... more Management and policy decisions regarding biological invasions and other aspects of global change such as the changing climate have the potential to influence one another. Recently, interest in harvest as an invasive species management strategy has surged. Researchers have speculated about the potential positive (e.g. population and impact reduction, economic losses recouped through new profits) and negative (e.g. generation of economic incentives to encourage further introductions) consequences of such management strategies, but few experimental analyses exist despite the fact that real-world ‘experiments’ in harvesting invasive species continue to accrue. This chapter provides the first comprehensive list of the many ways humankind has adapted to the presence of invasive species through harvest, and considers trends that emerge from this list. The spectrum ranges from collection of feral invasive populations to cultivation of potential invaders as crops, and harvested invasive species serve a variety of purposes ranging from biofuels to foods. The costs of invasion and benefit from harvest can be difficult to quantify, and this difficulty is compounded by the fact that costs and benefits are often incurred by different stakeholders. Climate and other aspects of global change accompanying invasive species harvest have rarely been taken into account, and the climate effects of invasive species harvest should become an explicit consideration of harvest strategies moving forward. Ecologists, economists, environmental managers and stakeholders must work together to ensure the successful and responsible application of ongoing harvests and to inform future efforts.
ABSTRACT Management and policy decisions regarding biological invasions and other aspects of glob... more ABSTRACT Management and policy decisions regarding biological invasions and other aspects of global change such as the changing climate have the potential to influence one another. Recently, interest in harvest as an invasive species management strategy has surged. Researchers have speculated about the potential positive (e.g. population and impact reduction, economic losses recouped through new profits) and negative (e.g. generation of economic incentives to encourage further introductions) consequences of such management strategies, but few experimental analyses exist despite the fact that real-world 'experiments' in harvesting invasive species continue to accrue. This chapter provides the first comprehensive list of the many ways humankind has adapted to the presence of invasive species through harvest and considers trends that emerge from this list. The spectrum ranges from collection of feral invasive populations to cultivation of potential invaders as crops, and harvested invasive species serve a variety of purposes ranging from biofuels to foods. The costs of invasion and benefit from harvest can be difficult to quantify, and this difficulty is compounded by the fact that costs and benefits are often incurred by different stakeholders. Climate and other aspects of global change accompanying invasive species harvest have rarely been taken into account, and the climate effects of invasive species harvest should become an explicit consideration of harvest strategies moving forward. Ecologists, economists, environmental managers and stakeholders must work together to ensure the successful and responsible application of ongoing harvests and to inform future efforts.
Gut bacterial communities play essential roles in host biology, but to date we lack information o... more Gut bacterial communities play essential roles in host biology, but to date we lack information on the forces that shape gut microbiota between hosts and over time in natural populations. Understanding these forces in wild primates provides a valuable comparative context that enriches scientific perspectives on human gut microbiota. To this end, we tested predictors of gut microbial composition in a well-studied population of wild baboons. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal samples collected over 13 years, we found that baboons harbor gut microbiota typical of other omnivorous primates, albeit with an especially high abundance of Bifidobacterium. Similar to previous work in humans and other primates, we found strong effects of both developmental transitions and diet on gut microbial composition. Strikingly, baboon gut microbiota appeared to be highly dynamic such that samples collected from the same individual only a few days apart were as different from each other as samples co...
Social structure is proposed to influence the transmission of both directly and environmentally t... more Social structure is proposed to influence the transmission of both directly and environmentally transmitted infectious agents. However in natural populations, many other factors also influence transmission, including variation in individual susceptibility and aspects of the environment that promote or inhibit exposure to infection. We used a population genetic approach to investigate the effects of social structure, environment, and host traits on the transmission of Escherichia coli infecting two populations of wild elephants: one in Amboseli National Park and another in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya. If E. coli transmission is strongly influenced by elephant social structure, E. coli infecting elephants from the same social group should be genetically more similar than E. coli sampled from members of different social groups. However, we found no support for this prediction. Instead, E. coli was panmictic across social groups, and transmission patterns were largely dominated by h...
White-nose syndrome (WNS), an emerging infectious disease that has killed over 5.5 million hibern... more White-nose syndrome (WNS), an emerging infectious disease that has killed over 5.5 million hibernating bats, is named for the causative agent, a white fungus (Geomyces destructans (Gd)) that invades the skin of torpid bats. During hibernation, arousals to warm (euthermic) body temperatures are normal but deplete fat stores. Temperature-sensitive dataloggers were attached to the backs of 504 free-ranging little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in hibernacula located throughout the northeastern USA. Dataloggers were retrieved at the end of the hibernation season and complete profiles of skin temperature data were available from 83 bats, which were categorized as: (1) unaffected, (2) WNS-affected but alive at time of datalogger removal, or (3) WNS-affected but found dead at time of datalogger removal. Histological confirmation of WNS severity (as indexed by degree of fungal infection) as well as confirmation of presence/absence of DNA from Gd by PCR was determined for 26 animals. We demonstrated that WNS-affected bats aroused to euthermic body temperatures more frequently than unaffected bats, likely contributing to subsequent mortality. Within the subset of WNS-affected bats that were found dead at the time of datalogger removal, the number of arousal bouts since datalogger attachment significantly predicted date of death. Additionally, the severity of cutaneous Gd infection correlated with the number of arousal episodes from torpor during hibernation. Thus, increased frequency of arousal from torpor likely contributes to WNS-associated mortality, but the question of how Gd infection induces increased arousals remains unanswered.
Management and policy decisions regarding biological invasions and other aspects of global change... more Management and policy decisions regarding biological invasions and other aspects of global change such as the changing climate have the potential to influence one another. Recently, interest in harvest as an invasive species management strategy has surged. Researchers have speculated about the potential positive (e.g. population and impact reduction, economic losses recouped through new profits) and negative (e.g. generation of economic incentives to encourage further introductions) consequences of such management strategies, but few experimental analyses exist despite the fact that real-world ‘experiments’ in harvesting invasive species continue to accrue. This chapter provides the first comprehensive list of the many ways humankind has adapted to the presence of invasive species through harvest, and considers trends that emerge from this list. The spectrum ranges from collection of feral invasive populations to cultivation of potential invaders as crops, and harvested invasive species serve a variety of purposes ranging from biofuels to foods. The costs of invasion and benefit from harvest can be difficult to quantify, and this difficulty is compounded by the fact that costs and benefits are often incurred by different stakeholders. Climate and other aspects of global change accompanying invasive species harvest have rarely been taken into account, and the climate effects of invasive species harvest should become an explicit consideration of harvest strategies moving forward. Ecologists, economists, environmental managers and stakeholders must work together to ensure the successful and responsible application of ongoing harvests and to inform future efforts.
ABSTRACT Management and policy decisions regarding biological invasions and other aspects of glob... more ABSTRACT Management and policy decisions regarding biological invasions and other aspects of global change such as the changing climate have the potential to influence one another. Recently, interest in harvest as an invasive species management strategy has surged. Researchers have speculated about the potential positive (e.g. population and impact reduction, economic losses recouped through new profits) and negative (e.g. generation of economic incentives to encourage further introductions) consequences of such management strategies, but few experimental analyses exist despite the fact that real-world 'experiments' in harvesting invasive species continue to accrue. This chapter provides the first comprehensive list of the many ways humankind has adapted to the presence of invasive species through harvest and considers trends that emerge from this list. The spectrum ranges from collection of feral invasive populations to cultivation of potential invaders as crops, and harvested invasive species serve a variety of purposes ranging from biofuels to foods. The costs of invasion and benefit from harvest can be difficult to quantify, and this difficulty is compounded by the fact that costs and benefits are often incurred by different stakeholders. Climate and other aspects of global change accompanying invasive species harvest have rarely been taken into account, and the climate effects of invasive species harvest should become an explicit consideration of harvest strategies moving forward. Ecologists, economists, environmental managers and stakeholders must work together to ensure the successful and responsible application of ongoing harvests and to inform future efforts.
Gut bacterial communities play essential roles in host biology, but to date we lack information o... more Gut bacterial communities play essential roles in host biology, but to date we lack information on the forces that shape gut microbiota between hosts and over time in natural populations. Understanding these forces in wild primates provides a valuable comparative context that enriches scientific perspectives on human gut microbiota. To this end, we tested predictors of gut microbial composition in a well-studied population of wild baboons. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal samples collected over 13 years, we found that baboons harbor gut microbiota typical of other omnivorous primates, albeit with an especially high abundance of Bifidobacterium. Similar to previous work in humans and other primates, we found strong effects of both developmental transitions and diet on gut microbial composition. Strikingly, baboon gut microbiota appeared to be highly dynamic such that samples collected from the same individual only a few days apart were as different from each other as samples co...
Social structure is proposed to influence the transmission of both directly and environmentally t... more Social structure is proposed to influence the transmission of both directly and environmentally transmitted infectious agents. However in natural populations, many other factors also influence transmission, including variation in individual susceptibility and aspects of the environment that promote or inhibit exposure to infection. We used a population genetic approach to investigate the effects of social structure, environment, and host traits on the transmission of Escherichia coli infecting two populations of wild elephants: one in Amboseli National Park and another in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya. If E. coli transmission is strongly influenced by elephant social structure, E. coli infecting elephants from the same social group should be genetically more similar than E. coli sampled from members of different social groups. However, we found no support for this prediction. Instead, E. coli was panmictic across social groups, and transmission patterns were largely dominated by h...
White-nose syndrome (WNS), an emerging infectious disease that has killed over 5.5 million hibern... more White-nose syndrome (WNS), an emerging infectious disease that has killed over 5.5 million hibernating bats, is named for the causative agent, a white fungus (Geomyces destructans (Gd)) that invades the skin of torpid bats. During hibernation, arousals to warm (euthermic) body temperatures are normal but deplete fat stores. Temperature-sensitive dataloggers were attached to the backs of 504 free-ranging little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in hibernacula located throughout the northeastern USA. Dataloggers were retrieved at the end of the hibernation season and complete profiles of skin temperature data were available from 83 bats, which were categorized as: (1) unaffected, (2) WNS-affected but alive at time of datalogger removal, or (3) WNS-affected but found dead at time of datalogger removal. Histological confirmation of WNS severity (as indexed by degree of fungal infection) as well as confirmation of presence/absence of DNA from Gd by PCR was determined for 26 animals. We demonstrated that WNS-affected bats aroused to euthermic body temperatures more frequently than unaffected bats, likely contributing to subsequent mortality. Within the subset of WNS-affected bats that were found dead at the time of datalogger removal, the number of arousal bouts since datalogger attachment significantly predicted date of death. Additionally, the severity of cutaneous Gd infection correlated with the number of arousal episodes from torpor during hibernation. Thus, increased frequency of arousal from torpor likely contributes to WNS-associated mortality, but the question of how Gd infection induces increased arousals remains unanswered.
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Papers by Laura Grieneisen