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Ecology Photo of the Month

Endangered Burke’s goldfields

This picture shows fruits of federally Endangered Burke’s goldfields (Lasthenia burkei), an annual species of the Sunflower family. It is identified by its one long pappus bristle and several short bristles. During surveys in 2010, Nomad Ecology botanists recorded a single population of this species within Lake Mendocino, which is owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Burke’s goldfields had not been seen in Mendocino County since 1886, when this species was first discovered by J.H. Burke.

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    Research

    Nomad’s biologists have contributed to an array of past and ongoing scientific, academic, and historical research and digital mapping projects that range in scope from camera-tracking studies to species-specific studies to data analysis on local and international levels.

    Their collective  work has appeared in technical reports and accredited, peer-reviewed scientific and academic journals internationally.

    Among some of Nomad Ecology’s accomplishments are the following research projects.

     

     

     

    Snow Leopard Conservancy

    Nomad wildlife and conservation biologist Jerry Roe has been working with the Snow Leopard Conservancy as an Associate Biologist where he has been involved in ongoing genetic analysis of wild snow leopards, predator-prey relationships, reducing livestock depredation, and camera-trapping snow leopards within the Himalaya, Karakoram and Ladakh mountain ranges in Asia.

    As part of the study, he helped develop standardized protocols for estimating abundance and monitoring population trends using non-invasive monitoring techniques, including sign transects, infrared camera traps, hair snares, and prey censuses in Hemis National Park, Ladakh, India, and was the lead author on the Snow Leopard Conservancy’s Estimating Snow Leopard Numbers with Emphasis on Camera Trapping: A Handbook, the first such handbook focused on non-invasively studying snow leopards throughout their range.

    Mr. Roe was also a co-founder and instructor for an annual camera-trapping workshop for The Wildlife Society attended by interagency staff, researchers and university students to gain practical hands-on experience of camera trapping using analog, digital and video units, as well as an understanding of study design and data analysis.

     

     

    Botanical Research, Alameda & Contra Costa Counties, California

    Heath Bartosh, Nomad botanist, wetland specialist, and Geographic Information System manager, has played an active role in the analysis and digitization of natural resource data for California’s plants, wildlife, and habitat types. In 2004, he digitized the forty botanical regions of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties and prepared the maps featured in Diane Lake’s Rare, Unusual and Significant Plants of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, Eighth Edition. He is also compiling and analyzing data on aeolian sand, alkaline soil, and serpentine formation inventories for extant bodies supporting edaphic vegetation associations located within the East Bay.

    Nomad Library and Resources

    Nomad’s biologists have access to an extensive library of scientific, academic, and historical literature specific to the natural sciences of California and the Bay Area with an emphasis on the floristics and herpetology of the region. To complement our library, we maintain a working relationship with the librarians, curators, and biologists associated with libraries and institutions globally such as the California Academy of Sciences; U.C. Berkeley’s Herbarium and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology; and the Jepson Herbarium.