Social construction is the virtue ascribed to a subject by the general public; along with political power, it influences the allocation of public policy benefits. Nonhuman species are socially constructed by humans, and political power is held in trust for them by human interest groups. Our goal was to determine if the allocation of benefits to endangered species is consistent with social construction and political power. We a...

Most current methods available for assessing the conservation status of a species do not take into account the underlying uncertainty inherent in the data. A point estimate approach is generally adopted to interpret the data used in these assessments. For species that are not well known, the paucity of quality data produces an unreliable estimate of the species’ status. The assessment of threat, based upon a range of values re...

The Hastings River mouse ( Pseudomys oralis ) is a small, endangered Australian conilurine rodent. Only about 200 specimens of this rodent have ever been caught, and little is known about its biology. At present, populations of this species appear to be severely fragmented. We used temperature‐gradient gel electrophoresis and DNA sequencing to investigate maternal population structuring in this species and to determine if the...

From 1987 to 1996 we used capture and telemetry methods to study the demography, movements, and population trend of grizzly bears ( Ursus arctos horribilis ) in wilderness and nonwilderness portions of the Swan Mountains of Montana. Most data were collected in the nonwilderness portion, which included public multiple‐use lands and rural areas on and near private lands. Population density in nonwilderness averaged 1.6 bears/100...

Many semi‐aquatic organisms, such as salamanders, depend on both aquatic and terrestrial habitats to complete their life cycle and maintain viable populations. But current U.S. federal and state regulations protect only the wetland itself or arbitrarily defined portions of terrestrial habitat, if any. Part of the reason terrestrial habitats adjacent to wetlands are not protected is the lack of a clear understanding of the dist...

In managing rare species for conservation, we often need to make decisions based on existing, scanty data sets. Our ability to use such data effectively may be critical to our success in managing individual populations. We used viability analysis to examine the population dynamics of a threatened plant species, Rorippa columbiae , on Pierce Island in Washington (U.S.A.). Although the island was protected in part because of the...

We investigated the relationships among a number of population and site characteristics and the ovule and seed production and seed set in 17 populations of the rare, self‐compatible, bumblebee‐pollinated perennial Gentiana pneumonanthe L. in the Netherlands. Population size and offspring heterozygosity were used as population properties; grass and heath cover, soil concentrations of various ions, soil acidity (pH), and soil mo...

The diets of several populations of four recently described species of galaxiid with allopatric distributions were examined in the Taieri River, New Zealand. Comparisons of available prey items and prey consumed were carried out to examine whether the distributions of the galaxiid species might be influenced by food availability and preferences. Seventy‐three prey categories were identified. The availability of four of these (...

Current meters deployed near East Cape, New Zealand, for 1 year show large differences between the offshore flow and that inshore of the 1000 m isobath. Offshore, mean flows are to the south‐east, and are the East Cape Current. Inshore, mean flows are to the north‐east, indicating that there may be a persistent inshore counter current. Comparison between the offshore current meter measurements and geostrophic currents inferred...

School shark, Galeorhinus galeus (family Triakidae), are fished commercially throughout New Zealand, and estimates of their growth rate, age at maturity, and longevity are required for fishery management. We aged school shark from X‐rays of thin vertebral sections, but many sections were unclear and ageing precision was low. Nevertheless, there was no between‐reader bias, and growth curves derived from length‐at‐age data appea...

Sedimentation rates have been estimated for New Zealand Lakes Rotoiti, Taupo, Ngahewa, Tikitapu, Okareka, Pukaki, Rotorua, Waikaremoana, Wakatipu, Tekapo, and Ohau, and also the Falls Dam, Central Otago, the Pauatahanui inlet (Wellington), and Lake Vanda (Antarctica). Sedimentation rates were able to be calculated using the 210 Pb and 210 Po methods in 26 out of 28 cores. For the 137 Cs method (shown equivalent to the previous...

Flood effects on benthic algal communities grown upon three common substratum types were assessed in a gravel‐bed stream. Microform bed clusters (MBCs) and, to a lesser extent, boulders conferred resistance on their associated periphyton communities (i.e., reduced flood‐induced biomass loss; functioned as refugia) relative to cobble/gravel substrata. On all substrata, flooding significantly reduced the relative abundance of Di...

The status of species within the dictyo‐ceratid sponge genus Psammocinia is reviewed. The separation of Psammocinia species from the closely related Ircinia species, which has been the subject of some dispute, is clarified. This distinction made on the basis of morphological evidence is supported by the limited chemotaxonomic and molecular phylogenetic data available. Six new species of Psammocinia are described from the New Z...

A preliminary sediment trap study using photo synthetic pigments as biomarker tracers of pelagic food web processes was conducted in three different water types (subantarctic, Subtropical Convergence, and subtropical), east of New Zealand, in winter and spring 1993. The presence of undegraded pigments in trap samples from water depths of 100–550 m indicate that phytoplankton cells were removed rapidly from surface waters, pres...

Invertebrates were collected and identified from the stomach contents of eight mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) populations in the northern Waikato region of New Zealand at 3‐month intervals from December 1994 to September 1995. To investigate temporal and spatial patterns in dietary composition a novel analysis programme was created that used Gower's similarity coefficient. The analysis found differences in diet among months,...

Observations collected in Beatrix Bay, a small bay within Pelorus Sound, New Zealand, show that although the bay is thermally stratified for much of the year, salinity stratification as a result of intermittent rainfall and river inflow plays a dominant role in the density structure and circulation within the Bay. A 3‐dimensional baroclinic model of Pelorus Sound is developed and applied to the simulation of idealised pulses o...