Wildlife Food Research Articles

Cascading Effects of Anthropogenic Excess Food for Predators on a Peri‐Urban Population of an Endangered Ungulate

ABSTRACTA major side effect of urbanization is the increased availability of food for wildlife in peri‐urban areas. Most research has focused on highly adaptive exploiter species that thrive under such conditions, overlooking avoider species, which are often predated upon by exploiters. Moreover, peri‐urban areas are often grazed by livestock, mainly to reduce the frequency and intensity of fires, a practice that can also adversely affect vulnerable wildlife species. We examined the long‐term effects of excess food provided to discourage exploiter species, namely golden jackal (Canis aureus) and wild boar (Sus scrofa), from foraging on farmland and in human residencies. Both species prey on endangered mountain gazelles (Gazella gazella) in our peri‐urban study area, which is nested within a mosaic of settlements and agricultural lands in Mediterranean Israel. Because the park is routinely subjected to seasonal cattle ranching, we included cattle stocking rate (mean ± SD: 51.77 ± 18.21 cow grazing days/ha) as an alternative factor, into our analysis. We used Generalized Linear Mixed Models to analyze an extensive dataset, comprising 724 surveys conducted over 17 years, and modeled gazelle encounter rates in response to excess food and cattle ranching, while controlling for environmental factors. Our results suggest that anthropogenic excess food through diversionary feeding led to decreasing gazelle densities, probably through increased predation by exploiter species. When diversionary feeding ceased after 12 years, gazelle encounter rates increased. We argue that this increase corresponds to population recovery, although it could be consistent with alternative mechanisms such as altered space‐use and movement patterns. To conserve vulnerable and endangered wildlife species in urban and peri‐urban areas, managers should reduce the availability of anthropogenic food for predators and scavengers. Furthermore, moderate cattle ranching (i.e., seasonal with low stocking rates) could mitigate potential adverse impacts of cattle ranching on mountain gazelle populations.

Google Earth Engine application for mapping and monitoring drought patterns and trends: A case study in Arkansas, USA

Google Earth Engine application for mapping and monitoring drought patterns and trends: A case study in Arkansas, USA

Young Generations’ Perception of Deadwood in Forest Landscapes

Recently, citizens’ perceptions toward deadwood in forests have become increasingly important in recreational forests for socially sustainable management. The present study aims to investigate how deadwood in forests is perceived by the young generations (university and post-university students). This study was implemented by submitting a web-based questionnaire to 485 Turkish students. The results showed that our student sample perceived the key role in deadwood for soil fertilization, the provision of microhabitats, and food for wildlife. A high percentage of students positively viewed lying deadwood in forests, while standing dead trees were less positively perceived. The socio-demographic characteristics of respondents (gender and age) played a key role in explaining the variations in individual preferences toward deadwood. In conclusion, the results of this study highlight that despite students’ awareness of the ecological role of deadwood in forests, aesthetically they still prefer forests with moderate amount of deadwood or without deadwood. The findings obtained in this study can help decision-makers define a socially accepted forest management strategy.

Human-derived food shrinks home ranges and alters resource selection of mammals at the urban-wild interface

Human-derived food shrinks home ranges and alters resource selection of mammals at the urban-wild interface

A study on the potential of Bursa city parks to provide natural food for urban wildlife

This study aims to determine the periods during which fruit-bearing woody plant species in the study area parks have ripe fruits, thereby revealing the potential of these parks to provide food resources for urban wildlife. The study was conducted in three major parks in Bursa: Reşat Oyal Culture Park, Soğanlı Botanical Park and Hüdavendigar City Park. To determine the periods and durations during which each plant species bears ripe fruits, the study area parks were visited once a week for one year. During the visits, the times when the fruit-bearing woody plant species had ripe fruits were recorded on a species-time table. Reşat Oyal Culture Park hosts 32 species of fruit-bearing woody plants, Soğanlı Botanical Park has 35 species, and Hüdavendigar City Park hosts 17 species. The oldest park, Reşat Oyal Culture Park, has the highest number of native fruit-bearing plant species with 18, while the newest park, Hüdavendigar Urban Park, has the lowest number with 8 species. On a weekly average, 7.9 plants in Reşat Oyal Culture Park, 9.6 plants in Soğanlı Botanical Park, and 4.8 plants in Hüdavendigar City Park bear ripe fruits. A statistically significant difference was found between the data from Reşat Oyal Culture Park and Soğanlı Botanical Park compared to the data from Hüdavendigar City Park (P>0.05). In urban ecosystems, fruity woody plants provide natural food for urban wildlife. The use of native and fruit-bearing woody plant species in urban plantings has an important role in the sustainability of urban wildlife.

Low rate of population establishment of a freshwater invertebrate (Gammarus lacustris) in experimental conservation translocations

Conservation translocations may be a useful tool for the restoration of declining freshwater invertebrates, but they are poorly represented in the literature. We conducted a before‐after/control‐impact (BACI) experiment to test the efficacy of conservation translocation for re‐establishing abundant populations of the amphipod Gammarus lacustris, a declining species and wildlife food resource in depressional wetlands in the upper Midwest of the United States of America. Each study site (n = 19) contained at least one treatment wetland receiving translocated G. lacustris from a local donor and one control wetland. We selected study wetlands based on a suite of wetland characteristics and randomly assigned recipient versus control treatment. Gammarus lacustris was detected post‐translocation at only 2 of 22 recipient wetlands (1 of 19 sites). Overall, there was a statistical increase in G. lacustris density in recipient wetlands compared to controls; however, the results were of minimal biological significance due to being driven by a single site with low G. lacustris densities. Accordingly, our results suggest that future conservation translocations of amphipods might be successful if limited to recently restored wetlands or informed by a more complex habitat suitability model to differentiate dispersal limitations from habitat limitations. To develop such a model would involve identifying the fewest, most influential physical and biological factors (e.g. wetland size/structure, fish, aquatic vegetation, and water chemistry) from the numerous inter‐related factors that correlate with the abundance of naturally occurring G. lacustris; candidate wetlands to receive amphipods would be those for which the model predicts abundant G. lacustris but in which they do not presently occur.

Occupancy, relative abundance and activity patterns of three sympatric deer in ponds of Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Campeche

Calakmul Biosphere Reserve is one of the largest tropical forests in the Americas, home to three species of deer, the white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, the Yucatan brown brocket deer, Odocoileus pandora, and the Central American red brocket deer, Mazama temama. Important ecological aspects on the conservation of these species have been poorly studied. The aim of this study was to determine the occupancy, relative abundance and activity patterns of these species through 9 years of camera-trapping in ponds of a Neotropical Forest in southern Mexico, contributing to the understanding of the ecological patterns and conservation of Neotropical deer. To determine abundance, occupancy and activity patterns, 18 ponds were monitored from 2014 to 2022. The general relative abundance index was used to calculate abundance and the temporal kernel density was used to evaluate the overlap in daily activity of the species. The dynamic occupancy model was used to obtain the occupancy, colonization, extinction and detection of deer, while species co-occurrence occupancy models were used to assess the interaction of water and species. White-tailed deer were the most abundant (Table 1) during the nine years of the study, with low pond occupancy, but with a high probability of colonization. The brown brocket deer was the one with the highest probability of occupancy, showing a low abundance (Table 1), followed by the red brocket deer, with a very low occupancy and abundance (Table 1). Interaction with water was positive in two of the three analyzed species and activity was diurnal for Odocoileus species and cathemeral for Mazama (Fig. 3). The use of ponds by deer is varied in quantity and activity, but they are important places for their development. The protection of the ponds should be fundamental for the conservation of the species in the area, being one of the few semi-perennial water sources and places of food and shelter for wildlife.

Exploring explicit and implicit attitudes towards wildlife food

Exploring explicit and implicit attitudes towards wildlife food

Nutritional Status of Wood Melick (Melica uniflora Retz.) in a Natural Forest Stand in South-Western Poland

Melica uniflora Retz., commonly known as wood melick, is a grass species that is native to most of Europe. Melica uniflora grows in hardwood forests near Fagus species, providing vital food and shelter for forest wildlife. The nutritional status of wood melick is not sufficiently recognized. The study aims to identify the intrapopulation variability of Melica uniflora plants collected from natural forest habitats in Poland in terms of nutritional status variability in relation to stage development and the course of weather conditions. The research was conducted for two consecutive years: 2021 and 2022, in the area of the Ślęża Massif, near the town of Sobótka in Lower Silesia voivodeship (Poland). The material for analyses was collected from 10 natural forest sites twice: in July (I) and October (II). The content of nutritive components: crude protein (CP), crude ash (CA), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), and water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) was evaluated. Relative feed value (RFV), dry matter digestibility (DDM), dry matter intake (DMI), cellulose (CL), and hemicellulose (HCL) content were calculated based on ADF and NDF. Melica uniflora plants contained 75.2 g·kg−1 DM of CP, 290.6 g·kg−1 DM of CF, 120.0 g·kg−1 DM of CA, and 25.9 g·kg−1 DM of WSC. The content of NDF was 637.6 g·kg−1 DM, ADF 407.5 g·kg−1 DM, and ADL 58.0 g·kg−1 DM. The nutritional status of wood melick depended on the course of weather conditions in the following years and its location, which changed during the growing season. Plants collected in the first year of the study contained more CL, NDF, and ADF fractions and less CA, ADL, and WSC. Melica uniflora plants harvested in June were characterized by higher CP (102.1 g·kg−1 DM) and WSC (30.1 g·kg−1 DM) content and lower content of remaining nutrients. It can be concluded that Melica uniflora plants can be a valuable source of these nutrients in the forage of forest animals.

Community perceptions of ecosystem services and disservices linked to urban tree plantings

The planting of trees in streets and parks is critical for urban greening efforts that seek to improve climate-change resilience in cities around the world. Ecosystem services provided by urban trees range from mitigating urban heat island effects to enhancing human well-being and conserving native biodiversity. At the same time, such tree services trade off with disservices that include risk to human safety from falling branches and infrastructure damage from root growth. Here, we performed a survey of residents of a sub-tropical region in eastern Australia to determine community perceptions of the ecosystem services and disservices linked to urban tree plantings. Our aim was to better understand the diverse perceptions of the community, prior to on-the-ground implementation of urban greening, to help guide planting programs in streets and parklands that are vulnerable to UHI effects in the region. We found strong evidence for a high level of public awareness about the beneficial ecosystem services that urban trees can provide. A broad spectrum of beneficial tree services were valued highly by the community in their urban environment including the planting of native trees that can attract and provide food for preferred wildlife; provide shade and reduce heat; allow for a strong connection with nature; have the potential to store carbon to mitigate climate change; provide a level of protection from bushfires; have aesthetically pleasing properties; and produce food for people. At the same time, however, community concerns about tree disservices were concentrated primarily on root damage to infrastructure as well as property damage and injury from falling branches. Our elicitation of community attitudes to tree services and disservices will allow for residents’ most important values and strongest concerns about trees to be explicitly taken into account when establishing a community-inclusive approach to urban tree planting.

‘FLLA11019‐8’: A new dual‐purpose facultative oat cultivar for grain and forage production in the southern United States

Abstract‘FLLA11019‐8’ (Reg. no. CV‐386, PI 700040) is new facultative oat (Avena sativa L.) cultivar for the southern United States for forage, grain, cover, and wildlife food crop uses. It was co‐developed by the University of Florida and Louisiana State University Agricultural Center and was released in 2020 under the SunGrains, a cooperative small grain breeding program among seven Southern Universities. This line was derived from a single cross between two advanced breeding lines, FL0564‐Ab13 and LA06071SBSB‐S1. Exclusive marketing rights were granted to Ragan & Massey, Inc., and the line is currently commercializing under the names of RAM Forage Oats and PlotSpike Forage Oats. The University of Florida is the lead institution in this release. FLLA11019‐8 (originally named FLLA11‐19S‐8) was developed using the selected bulk breeding method and was selected as an F5:6 head row. The line was evaluated in observation, preliminary, advanced, regional, and state grain and forage yield trials from 2016 to 2021. FLLA11019‐8 was released based on the merits of its broad adaptation, excellent grain yield, volume weight, forage potential, and winter survival. It is resistant to crown rust and stem rust and moderately resistant to Barley yellow dwarf virus. It is a mid‐maturing and mid‐tall height variety. FLLA11019‐8 has semi‐prostrate plant type with vigorous early‐season growth and high tillering capacity. It has performed very well in both grain and forage trials and is broadly adapted to the southern and southeastern United States.

Can assisted tree migration today sustain forest ecosystem goods and services for the future?

Can assisted tree migration today sustain forest ecosystem goods and services for the future?

Migration patterns and habitat use by molt migrant temperate‐breeding Canada geese in James Bay, Canada

Numbers of temperate‐breeding Atlantic and Mississippi Flyway Canada geese have greatly increased since the 1980s. Consequently, numbers of yearlings, sub‐adults and failed breeders undertaking pre‐molt migration to northern latitudes has also increased, potentially providing additional hunting opportunities for Cree hunters living near James Bay, Canada. We described movement patterns and habitat use of molt migrant Canada geese Brenta canadensis maxima along the east coast of James Bay based on nine geese fitted with GSM–GPS devices during 11 northward and eight southward migrations between 2015 and 2019. Geese staged for 2.8 ± 0.6 days (mean ± standard error of the mean) at 3.2 ± 0.6 staging sites (mostly tidal flats and salt marshes) from the first week of June in spring and 3.8 ± 1.8 days at 2.0 ± 0.5 staging sites (mostly inland freshwater wetlands, peatlands and tidal flats) from the first week of September when returning south. Shallow and deep water habitats were used as resting sites during both migrations. In spring, molt migrants were mostly harvested in June well after the migration of sub‐arctic breeding geese whereas in autumn, both subspecies were harvested in September. Molt migrant temperate‐breeding geese can increase harvest opportunities and represent supplementary wildlife food for Cree communities. However, the current number of molt migrant geese harvested by Cree hunters is not sufficient to significantly impact populations of temperate‐breeding geese.

Who Should Read This Journal?

Human interactions with wildlife are a defining experience of human existence. These interactions can be positive or negative. People compete with wildlife for food and resources, and have eradicated dangerous species; co-opted and domesticated valuable ...Read More

Remote Sensing of Coastal Vegetation Phenology in a Cold Temperate Intertidal System: Implications for Classification of Coastal Habitats

Intertidal vegetation provides important ecological functions, such as food and shelter for wildlife and ecological services with increased coastline protection from erosion. In cold temperate and subarctic environments, the short growing season has a significant impact on the phenological response of the different vegetation types, which must be considered for their mapping using satellite remote sensing technologies. This study focuses on the effect of the phenology of vegetation in the intertidal ecosystems on remote sensing outputs. The studied sites were dominated by eelgrass (Zostera marina L.), saltmarsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), creeping saltbush (Atriplex prostrata), macroalgae (Ascophyllum nodosum, and Fucus vesiculosus) attached to scattered boulders. In situ data were collected on ten occasions from May through October 2019 and included biophysical properties (e.g., leaf area index) and hyperspectral reflectance spectra (Rrs(λ)). The results indicate that even when substantial vegetation growth is observed, the variation in Rrs(λ) is not significant at the beginning of the growing season, limiting the spectral separability using multispectral imagery. The spectral separability between vegetation types was maximum at the beginning of the season (early June) when the vegetation had not reached its maximum growth. Seasonal time series of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values were derived from multispectral sensors (Sentinel-2 multispectral instrument (MSI) and PlanetScope) and were validated using in situ-derived NDVI. The results indicate that the phenology of intertidal vegetation can be monitored by satellite if the number of observations obtained at a low tide is sufficient, which helps to discriminate plant species and, therefore, the mapping of vegetation. The optimal period for vegetation mapping was September for the study area.

Economic incentives for the wildlife trade and costs of epidemics compared across individual, national, and global scales

AbstractThe wildlife trade drives biodiversity loss and zoonotic disease emergence, and the health and economic impacts of COVID‐19 have sparked discussions over stricter regulation of the wildlife trade. Yet regulation for conservation and health purposes is at odds with the economic incentives provided by this multibillion‐dollar industry. To understand why the wildlife trade persists despite associated biodiversity and global health threats, we used a benefit–cost approach using simple calculations to compare the economic benefits of the wildlife trade at the individual, national, and global scales to the costs of COVID‐19, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and Ebola disease across scenarios of epidemic frequency. For COVID‐19, benefits of the wildlife trade outweigh costs at individual scales, but costs far exceed benefits at national and global scales, particularly if epidemics were to become frequent. For SARS and Ebola, benefits outweigh costs at all scales, except if Ebola‐like epidemics were to become frequent. The wildlife trade produces net benefits for people who depend on wildlife for food and income but incurs net costs on stakeholders at larger scales from increased epidemic risk. While our analysis omits a variety of costs and benefits that are difficult to quantify and contrast, our analysis is meant to illustrate the distributional outcomes across stakeholder groups that could result from increased wildlife trade regulation. Importantly, the feasibility of trade regulatory policies will depend on how these benefits and costs compare across groups and would therefore need to involve accessible and attractive alternative sources of food and livelihoods for those who depend on the wildlife trade.

Population genetics of a lethally managed medium‐sized predator

AbstractGlobally, levels of human–wildlife conflict are increasing as a direct consequence of the expansion of people into natural areas resulting in competition with wildlife for food and other resources. By being forced into increasingly smaller pockets of suitable habitat, many animal species are at risk of becoming susceptible to loss of genetic diversity, inbreeding depression and the associated inability to adapt to environmental changes. Predators are often lethally controlled due to their threat to livestock. Predators such as jackals (black backed, golden and side striped; Canis mesomelas, C. aureus and C. adustus, respectively), red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and coyotes (C. latrans) are highly adaptable and may respond to ongoing persecution through compensatory reproduction such as reproducing at a younger age, producing larger litters and/or compensatory immigration including dispersal into vacant territories. Despite decades of lethal management, jackals are problematic predators of livestock in South Africa and, although considered a temporary measure, culling of jackals is still common. Culling may affect social groups, kinship structure, reproductive strategies and sex‐biased dispersal in this species. Here, we investigated genetic structure, variation and relatedness of 178 culled jackals on private small‐livestock farms in the central Karoo of South Africa using 13 microsatellites. Genetic variation was moderate to high and was similar per year and per farm. An absence of genetic differentiation was observed based on STRUCTURE, principal component analysis and AMOVA. Relatedness was significantly higher within farms (r = 0.189) than between farms (r = 0.077), a result corroborated by spatial autocorrelation analysis. We documented 18 occurrences of dispersal events where full siblings were detected on different farms (range: 0.78–42.93 km). Distance between identified parent–offspring varied from 0 to 36.49 km. No evidence for sex‐biased dispersal was found. Our results suggest that in response to ongoing lethal management, this population is most likely able to maintain genetic diversity through physiological and behavioural compensation mechanisms.

Exposure to crop production alters cecal prokaryotic microbiota, inflates virulome and resistome in wild prairie grouse

Chemically intensive crop production depletes wildlife food resources, hinders animal development, health, survival, and reproduction, and it suppresses wildlife immune systems, facilitating emergence of infectious diseases with excessive mortality rates. Gut microbiota is crucial for wildlife's response to environmental stressors. Its composition and functionality are sensitive to diet changes and environmental pollution associated with modern crop production. In this study we use shotgun metagenomics (median 8,326,092 sequences/sample) to demonstrate that exposure to modern crop production detrimentally affects cecal microbiota of sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus: 9 exposed, 18 unexposed and greater prairie chickens (T. cupido; 11, 11). Exposure to crop production had greater effect on microbiota richness (t=6.675, P<0.001) and composition (PERMANOVA r2=0.212, P=0.001) than did the host species (t=4.762, P<0.001; r2=0.070, P=0.001) or their interaction (t=3.449; r2=0.072, both P=0.001), whereas sex and age had no effect. Although microbiota richness was greater in exposed (T. cupido chao1=152.8±20.5; T. phasianellus 115.3±17.1) than in unexposed (102.9±15.1 and 101.1±17.2, respectively) birds, some beneficial bacteria dropped out of exposed birds' microbiota or declined and were replaced by potential pathogens. Exposed birds also had higher richness and load of virulome (mean±standard deviation; T. cupido 24.8±10.0 and 10.1±5.5, respectively; T. phasianellus 13.4±6.8/4.9±2.8) and resistome (T. cupido 46.8±11.7/28.9±10.2, T. phasianellus 38.3±16.7/18.9±14.2) than unexposed birds (T. cupido virulome: 14.2±13.5, 4.5±4.2; T. cupido resistome: 31.6±20.2 and 13.1±12.0; T. phasianellus virulome: 5.2±4.7 and 1.4±1.5; T. phasianellus resistome: 13.7±16.1 and 4.0±6.4).

Viral haemorrhagic disease: RHDV type 2 ten years later

Until the early 1980s, it was totally unknown that lagomorphs were the hosts of several caliciviruses, which were included in the genus Lagovirus by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) in 2000. In those years, two new diseases appeared, with very similar clinical and pathological profiles and associated high mortality rates: rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) in rabbits and European Brown Hare Syndrome (EBHS) in European brown hares. It took a few years to ascertain that both diseases, actually acute and fatal forms of hepatitis, were caused by two genetically related caliciviruses, but they were finally classified by ICTV into two distinct viral species on the basis of their molecular characterisation and epidemiological data: RHDV in rabbit and EBHSV in brown hare. RHD has had a devastating effect on rabbit farms, causing great economic damage, especially in China, where RHD was first noticed around 1982, and in Europe. RHD has also severely affected wild rabbit populations, whose drastic decline has caused serious ecological imbalances in territories such as Spain, where rabbits are a central link in the wildlife food chain. Since the early 1990s, with the increased availability on the market of RHDV vaccines effective in protecting rabbits from RHD, the impact of the disease on rabbit farms has been significantly reduced. In the following years, also considering that RHDV is an endemic virus that cannot be eradicated, farmers learned how to manage the continuous use of RHDV vaccine in relation to the epidemiological situation, the type of breeding farm and the costs of vaccination prophylaxis. Although precarious, management of the RHD risk for rabbit farmers reached an acceptable equilibrium, which was, however, completely upset starting from 2010 by the emergence of another lagovirus also causing RHD. The genome of the newly emerged virus shows limited differences from that of RHDV, but the phenotypic traits of the two viruses are distinctive in at least three main respects: 1) The antigenic profile of the virus (the “face” of the virus recognised by the antibodies) is largely different from that of RHDV. 2) Newborn rabbits only a couple of weeks old die of RHD when infected with the new virus, while RHDV infections run asymptomatic until 7-8 wk of age. 3) The new virus, which started in Europe, has spread over the years to several continents, affecting wild and/or domestic rabbit populations. During this worldwide distribution, the new virus infected several lagomorph species and was shown to cause RHD in most of them. Considering these marked differences and the fact that the new virus is not a variant of RHDV, we proposed the name RHDV type 2 (RHDV2). All these main distinctive traits that differentiate RHDV from RHDV2 have the following consequences in practice: 1) The antigenic difference between RHDV and RHDV2 (their ‘faces’) is so great that we need “new” specific vaccines to control RHDV2 (i.e. RHDV2 is a new serotype). 2) In the event of an RHDV2 infection in suckling rabbits, the presence of maternal antibodies to RHDV2 in the blood is the only way to prevent RHD. In contrast, newborns are naturally resistant to RHD if infected with RHDV and therefore, in terms of protection, the presence of maternal antibodies is useless. 3) When RHD outbreaks occur in territories where rabbits live in sympatry with populations of other lagomorphs, viral contamination in the environment reaches sufficiently high levels to facilitate the transmission of RHDV2 to other lagomorphs, including those with a lower susceptibility to infection than the rabbit. Taken together, these phenotypic traits characteristic of RHDV2 are the reason for its rapid spread across the territory and the concomitant disappearance of RHDV. Probably the most striking example of the epidemiological consequences related to the peculiar features of RHDV2 is its rapid spread in the USA and Mexico, where it is now practically endemic. There, despite repeated isolated outbreaks of RHD caused by RHDV from 2000 onwards in small rabbit farms, RHDV has never been able to become endemic.

Change in Doctoral Dissertation Topics in Forest Resources from US Universities Over Four Decades

Abstract Changes in forest resources expertise from 1978 to 2017, as measured by annual number of doctoral dissertations published on twenty topics, were examined. Using the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global database, titles and abstracts from 11,530 dissertations produced by fifty-six universities in the United States were selected. Automated content analysis and latent Dirichlet allocation were used to identify the optimal number of topic groupings among 7,742 dissertations that met selection criteria. Substantial differences were found in the pattern of publication among the twenty topics over time. The number of dissertations related to forest growth and silviculture; tree seedling propagation, physiology, and regeneration; and forest soil nutrients, ecology, and management declined over the past two decades. Dissertations related to forest wildlife management, including terrestrial wildlife ecology and management; wildlife food and nutrition; and fish ecology and management also declined during the same period. The number of dissertations in the fields of forest policy, politics, and social science; forest modeling, biometrics, and statistics; wood science; forest vegetation ecology; and avian ecology increased during the four decades. Dissertations published in the fields of forest economics, and forest entomology and pathology, remained relatively stable. Study Implications: We found decreasing production of doctoral dissertations focused on applied forest and wildlife management topics in recent decades. Declining doctoral-level expertise in applied fields after the early 2000s suggest that there may be reduced capacity to address practical problems facing both forest and wildlife managers. This decline also suggests that finding university instructors qualified to teach more applied forest and wildlife courses may have been more difficult over the past decade and possibly into the future. Our analysis indicated that the increased number of dissertations in adjacent sciences supporting forest resources has substantially increased capacity in these areas.