The Effect of Neonicotinoid Clothianidin on Ring-Necked Pheasant Survival and Reproduction

Ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) are economically important to the state of South Dakota bringing in over one hundred million dollars in revenue each season. The population is known to fluctuate temporally for many reasons, often weather related. Unfortunately, no research has been conducted involving ring-necked pheasants that evaluated the impact or interaction of neonicotinoids on the species. The objective of our study was to gain an understanding of how the neonicotinoid, Clothianidin, affects survival and breeding in pheasants. Our first experiment was to determine if there was a selection bias for seeds treated with neonicotinoids. In this experiment, eight ring-necked pheasants (4 hens and 4 roosters) where placed in an enclosure for 10 days. They were provided a choice of three options; untreated, dyed, and dyed/treated seed corn. Seeds were treated with Poncho® 1250 (containing Clothianidin) and dyed with Rhodamine B to match the color of treated seeds. Pheasants selected (P \u3c 0.0001) untreated seeds over dyed and treated seeds. We then collected 185 wild ring-necked pheasant hens from their primary range in South Dakota during the 2017 spring agricultural planting season. We necropsied collected pheasants and collected liver, spleen, and crops. We examined crop contents; 151 (~81.6%) of 185 hens had consumed agricultural seeds and of those 24 (~12.9%) of 185 hens had seeds that had treatment dye. We found that ~15.68% of the hens had greater than 0.5 parts per billion (ppb) neonicotinoid concentrations in livers. Pheasants that had consumed neonicotinoid treated seeds averaged ~3.49 ng/mL Clothianidin versus ~1.90 ng/mL for birds that did not have confirmed treated seeds, which was significantly different (P \u3c 0.04). To test survival of pheasants exposed to Clothianidin in the 2016 field season, groups of 15 captive hen pheasants received seeds of Armor® (Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA) Seed Corn 1046 or Armor® (Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA) Seed Corn 1046 that had been treated with Poncho 1250 (1.25 mg/seed). The five treatment levels consisted of 75 treated seeds, 15 treated seeds, 2 treated seeds, 1 treated seed, and 0 treated seeds (control), which were used in all trials (2016-2017). For the four groups that did not receive 75 treated seeds, untreated seeds were used to fill out the 75 total seeds provided to pheasants. Hens were then monitored for sixty days. After death or euthanasia, hen pheasants were necropsied for lesions or tumors. In 2017, our breeding study consisted of 14 days of treatments for captive pheasants, which were identical to the previous year’s treatments except roosters were included with hen pheasants. There were 5 replicates of 10 hens and 5 roosters. All pheasants received 75 seeds of Armor® (Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA) Seed Corn 1046. The same seed and variety also were treated with Poncho 1250 for the treated seeds. After the 14 days of treatments, hens were placed in breeding cages. Eggs were collected for the 8 days of breeding and 30 days following breeding and placed in an incubator. The 2016 survival results showed support for the null model (AICc 123.88). The survival results from 2017 indicated that the likelihood of survival for pheasants consuming the 75 treated seeds was 0.49 while the other treatments (combined) had a survival probability of 0.83. Survival of pheasant chicks differed; chicks from the 75 seed treatment had a survival rate of 0.50 (SEM = 0.13), whereas survival for 15, 2, 1, and control treatments were 0.73 (SEM = 0.14), 0.81 (SEM = 0.09), 0.62 (SEM = 0.08), and 0.71 (SEM = 0.07), respectively. Our study indicated that pheasants avoid treated seeds, survival probability was lower for pheasants consuming the 75 treated seeds treatment in 2017, and pheasant chick survival and nest initiation were lower and later for the higher treatment levels of Clothianidin

Oral History Transcription with Anna Sundall Dahlberg Anderson

A transcription of an oral history compiled in 1978https://digitalmaine.com/stockholm_docs/1006/thumbnail.jp

The yummy and the yucky: Expressive language and the agreeable

I probe the judgments of the agreeable that we make about food and drink. I first separate different concerns that we might have with food and drink. After that, I address expressive language by first sketching an evolutionary language-game-theoretic approach for referential language. I then try to extend it to expressive language, showing how expressive signaling might be likely to evolve. Given an account of expressive prediction, and its point, I turn to the Frege-Geach problem for the agreeable. I show how a proper understanding of what expression is, in the evolutionary language-game-theoretic framework, allows us to side-step a central aspect the problem

Oral History Transcription with Anna Sundall Dahlberg Anderson

A transcription of an oral history compiled in 1978https://digitalmaine.com/stockholm_docs/1006/thumbnail.jp

Oral History Transcription with Anna Sundall Dahlberg Anderson

https://digitalmaine.com/stockholm_docs/1002/thumbnail.jp

Conversion of Smooth Brome (Bromus inermis) to Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) on Untilled Prairie in Northwest Iowa

Since European settlement, vegetation and disturbance regimes in the North American prairies have dramatically changed. Native tall and mixed-grass prairies once covered a majority of the central and eastern Great Plains region of the United States, but less than 4% of the original 60 million ha of tallgrass prairie remains (Steinauer and Collins 1996). Smooth brome (Bromus inermis) is an introduced cool-season perennial, sod-forming grass that invades both native cool- and warm-season grasslands throughout North America (Dibbern 1947, Wilson 1991, Stubbendieck et al. 1994). The first documented importation of smooth brome to the United States was to the California Agricultural Research Station around 1880 as a cold and drought tolerant forage species (Newell and Keim 1943). In 1897, 12 tons of seed were imported from the Volga River region, divided and sent out to state research facilities across the United States (Dunn 1985). Because smooth brome has become an extremely successful invasive grass, it is problematic for managers working to restore and conserve native plant communities

Oral History Transcription with Anna Sundall Dahlberg Anderson

https://digitalmaine.com/stockholm_docs/1002/thumbnail.jp