ESA-Listed Species in AZ: Status and Needs

Notes from Alexandra Permar's research into the current status and needs of ESA listed species in AZ.

Candidates Species for Listing

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/9743

 

Species with T/E Listing Status and Active Recovery Plans

Ute ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes diluvialis) (Threatened, G2): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/2159 | https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxon=102217 | https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.129296/Spiranthes_diluvialis

Welsh's milkweed (Asclepias welshii) (Threatened): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/8400 |

https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxon=3793#:~:text=Plant%3A%20perennial%20herb%3B%20stems%20erect,base%2C%20obtuse%20to%20mostly%20rounded%2D

Opportunity to survey for this species in northern AZ 

Recovery plan implementation progress is only about half done (maybe less than half).

Original delisting date (goal): 2010.

Needed: species surveys (in known and unknown locales in northern AZ) as well as communication campaigns to increase awareness and appreciation for the species.

Revised recovery documents (two five-year reviews) published in 2015 and 2021 indicate USFWS is collaborating with researchers at NAU and has hired private botanists to survey for this species in recent years. The botanists have conducted surveys and some research (e.g., controlled breeding in potted soils vs. native sandy soil type) which the USFWS is using. However, these two five-year plans (especially the 2015 one) reiterate the continuing need for many recovery activities including "… repetitive, standardized, rigorous surveys …."

Canelo Hills ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes delitescens) (Endangered): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/8098 | https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxon=2715

Researchers with Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix are researching this species (and using research dogs to find the plants--AZNPS Flagstaff chapter lecture on 09.19.2023)

San Francisco Peaks ragwort (Packera franciscana) (Threatened): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/1721 | https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxon=567

USFS Rocky Mtn Research Sta. is researching the species (population, effects of climate change). They have research transects in the San Francisco peaks where they perturb and observe populations of P. fransciscana through time.

New Mexico meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius luteus) (Endangered): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/7965

There is ample work underway to protect this species (USFWS, NAU, AZGFD).

This species depends on mesic habitats in- and around wetlands which are rare in AZ.

Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) (Threatened): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/B074

This species has been listed for a while and receives significant attention.

Sonoran tiger salamander (Ambystoma mavortium stebbinsi) (Endangered): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/D01H | https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/2096 | https://awcs.azgfd.com/species/amphibians/ambystoma-mavortium-stebbinsi | https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.103735/Ambystoma_mavortium_stebbinsi

Need: Analyze data for AZGFD (population monitoring surveys conducted 2012-14) and USFWS (population monitoring protocol implemented 4x annually from 2004-13). It seems there has not been population monitoring conducted since 2014 in AZ. ??

Need: Conduct salamander surveys in Sonora, MX.

Recovery plan update conveys that USFWS et al. have reviewed the 10-year survey data and used it to understand the current status of the species. On the whole, the species is better off than I would've guessed; continuing concerns include bullfrogs, non-native predatory fish/crayfish, drought, reliance on cattle tanks for habitat, and climate change. Interestingly, periodic/episodic drought which dries some of the ponds/cattle tanks where the salamanders reside is actually good for the salamanders b/c predatory fish/crayfish/bullfrogs don't survive dry periods well. As a species, the salamanders depend on cattle tanks for habitat in AZ.

Chiricahua leopard frog (Rana chiricahuensis) (Threatened): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/D02F

This species has been listed for a while and receives significant attention.

Arizona Cliffrose (Purshia (=Cowania) subintegra) (Endangered): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/866

Botanists have already surveyed for this species and found all there is to find.

Masked bobwhite (quail) (Colinus virginianus ridgwayi) (Endangered): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/3484

This species is controlled through controlled active breeding programs and introductions at the Buenos Aires NWR; it seems most of the program isn't working that well. The controlled reproduction includes "foster parenting" of chicks. (When researchers introduce a masked-bobwhite-quail chick into BA NWR, they also introduce an adult male of another quail species with the chick; the male is supposed to foster the chick.) This species will probably go extinct.

Nichol's Turk's head cactus (Echinocactus horizonthalonius var. nicholii) (Endangered): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/5343

This species has already received ample attention; the recovery plan may resolve in this decade.

Bartram's stonecrop (Graptopetalum bartramii) (Threatened): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/8382 | https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxon=3117&clid=3130

Difficult to survey for this species b/c it grows in "steep canyons" near water.

Jones Cycladenia (Cycladenia humilis var. jonesii) (Threatened): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/3336 | https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxauthid=1&taxon=3703&clid=2670#:~:text=Plant%3A%20perennial%20herb%2C%201%2D,of%20follicles%205%2D10%20cm

This is a newly listed species (Aug 2021); it requires ample attention. Need habitat assessments and plant surveys, possibly also pollinator studies. However, most of this species' distribution is in Utah.

Kearney's blue-star (Amsonia kearneyana) (Endangered): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/7485 | https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxon=1408#:~:text=Plant%3A%20perennial%20herb%3B%204%2D,broadest%20below%20the%20apex%2C%20slightly

Need census of species subsites; monitoring of species individuals and their habitat; education/outreach re: species conservation and recovery; surveys for new individuals and subsites.

This species used to be synonymous with A. palmeri which we found near Hillside, AZ in April, 2023 (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/158329553).

Access to state- and tribal lands is restricted and inhibits botanical surveying efforts.

It is challenging to find the species in its native habitat; it grows in steep canyons and on cliffsides with slopes >= 20 degrees.

The survey sites for this species are paired with a nearby experimental site on BLM land where researchers are conducting controlled introductions of this species and observing their survival rates.

Pima pineapple cactus (Coryphantha scheeri var. robustispina) (Endangered): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/4919 | https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxon=3428

This species has been listed for a while and probably receives enough attention.

Species with T/E listing but without active recovery plans

Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) (Threatened): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/B06R

Many people are researching this species. However, survey data from the past 15-20 years for the Upper Verde region is missing from the Audubon Southwest AZ IBA Database. Need to coordinate with USFWS and Audubon SW to track down the data and analyze it. 

Need a 10(a)1(A) scientific research permit with the USFWS.

Description of Upper Verde River habitat (Yavapai County, AZ) is in USFWS Critical Habitat document (FR Vol. 86, No. 75, 04.21.2021) on pages 20855, 20881.

AZGFD management decisions (made for fish) in the Upper Verde watershed are--according to the USFWS--proving relatively sufficient to maintain suitable habitat for the YBCU. Thus, the USFWS has decided to not declare critical habitat for the cuckoo in the Upper Verde River watershed (AZGFD asked USFWS to not declare critical habitat here).

References cited in the USFWS Federal Register critical habitat document indicate that AZGFD, USFWS, and partners have analyzed recent data from the Upper Verde River watershed and find the cuckoo numbers (occupancy, breeding, migration) to be satisfactory. However, I searched for these original reference documents and was unable to find any of them.

Ecology quotes from Loreau

From Populations to Ecosystems: Theoretical Foundations for a New Ecological Synthesis, Loreau (2010) contains a large number of pithy postulates.

A) Comparative data often indicate a unimodal relationship between diversity and productivity driven by changes in environmental conditions. (B) Experimental variation in species richness under a specific set of environmental conditions produces a pattern of decreasing between-replicate variance and increasing mean response with increasing diversity, as indicated by the thin, curved regression lines through the scatter of response values (shaded areas).

Mutualistic interactions, ecosystem engineering, and trait-mediated indirect interactions (see Schmidz) are not described in simple trophic food webs.

Too much interaction (too many species, too many connections, or too strong connections) destabalize complex ecosystems.

Vertical diversity, in contrast to horizotnal diversity, does not increase productivity but does increase stability. Production (flux) is less affected by top down forces than is biomass or population density (stocks). Horizontal diversity enhances resource exploitation. But note Schmitz: "Weak carnivore indirect effect on plant (biomass, diversity) does not necessarily mean weak effect on ecosystem properties (NPP, N mineralization).

While positive species interactions such as facilitation and mutualism are on eof the biological mechanisms that contribute to generate functional complementarity, and hence positive relationships between species diversity and total biomass and production with single trophic levels (horizontal diversity), their impact in multitrophic systems is more complex because they tend to increase the resource exploitation ability of species at all trophic levels. Consequently, they can enhance the efficiency with which limiting resources are usesd and transferred along the food chain, thereby contributing to enhance ecosystem functioning, but they can also exacerbate the negative effects of trophic interactions when consumers are generalists, including the potential for overexploitation (hyperpredation), intense resource and apparent competition, and reduced functional comiplementarity at consumer trophic levels. Since a higher species diversity provides more opportunities for both trophic and nontrophic interactions, it can also exacerbate these negative effects and result in weaker, or even negative, relationships with total biomass or production.

Overyielding occurs when plant assemblages outperform monocultures. Transgressive Overyielding occurs when when these plant assemblages...

Internal (re)cycling of nutrients (P, N) typically an order of magnitude greater than inputs or outputs (Vitousek and Matson 2009).

Indirect Mutualism Through Nutrient Cycling can occur through Plant-Decomposer Interactions (unless decomposers compete with plants for limiting nutrients?)

Predicts that species traits that improve nutrient cycling efficiency of either plants or decomposers should have a strong positive effect on ecosystem cycling efficiency, primary production, and secondary production. Plants may produce litters of different qualities, thereby controlling patterns of nutrient cycling (Hobbie 1992); they may modify soil structure, which in turn strongly affects nutrient retention (Wood 1984); they may recycle some limiting nutrients internally via biochemical pathways (Switzer and Nelson 1972); or they may directly control nitrification, and hence nitrogen outputs, in the vicinity of their rooting system through inhibition of nitrifying bacteria (Lata et al. 2004).

Grazing Optimization Hypothesis: primary productivity, or even plant fitness, is maximized at an imtermediate rate of herbivory. See McNaughton 1979 for example in Serengeti.

Notes from End of Field Season Final Report

Notes used to prepare my End of Field Season Final Report on the Upper Rio Grande Headwaters Wetland Project for Colorado Natural Heritage Program:


Detail:

Teaching lesson plans

teaching lesson plans
1) find the center of the triangle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incircle



2) alphabet on beyond zebra cyrillic arabic etc

Lesson Plan #1. Relationships: Analogy and Resemblance

Relationships: analogy, resemblance

In education, we teach you what kind of assumptions you can make.
Everyone has seen the kid who sees a bird and then thinks that he can fly.
This is false.
Unless he can generate sufficient lift to overcome gravity. Orbits, bernouli, etc.

Now: correspondence. When are two things equal? Equivalent: right and left hand.
Cardinal number (e.g. 5 or infinity) natural numbers vs. transfinite cardinal numbers
Name an infinite set: the set of all natural numbers
Denumberably infinite set is given a name: aleph-null.
Other examples: all even numbers (show correspondence)
All pairs of natural numbers; [therefore rational fractions]
Arranged diagonally: ((1,1)>(2,1)>(1,2)>(1,3)>(2,2)>(3,1)>(4,1))

Aren’t all infinite sets denumerably infinite then?
No: real numbers
Start simple: between 0 and 1
Make a correspondence: 0.20746….=1
0.16238….=2
0.97126….=3

Until you have a countably infinite list. But now construct a new decimal whose first digit is different from 1, whose second is different from 2, whose third is different from 3, etc. Continue until you have a decimal that is different from the infinite number already given. Obviously you could do this at least 8 other times, and then a new order would suffice to let you do it again, and again, and again…

Thus the set of natural numbers and the set of real numbers are not equivalent
The set of real numbers is called transcendental numbers. It is equivalent both to a line (or any size) and the plane(!), or a space of any dimension.

A new tool for making bigger infinities: The set of all subsets.