Natural History Reservation Research Articles

“Letting the ancestors speak”: collaborative archaeology at the Hastings Natural History Reservation

Since 2021, collaborative research at the University of California (UC), Berkeley's Hastings Natural History Reservation between the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County, UC-Berkeley, and the University of Oregon has demonstrated the mutual benefits of a co-created and Indigenous-centered archaeological research program within North America. While initial archaeological studies on the Hastings Reservation occurred over five decades ago, our project represents one of the first Tribal-centered archaeological field programs within the UC Natural Reserve System and, therefore, a model of collaborative research in the post-NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA era. The broader purpose of our research is to work with the Esselen Tribe to collect historical ecological information about the legacies of Native people and their relationship with the environment to help inform contemporary stewardship goals in their Tribal territory. Our archaeological research has confirmed the Indigenous occupation at the Hastings Reserve before, during, and after the Spanish Colonial period (1769–1821) in central California. By weaving archaeology, ethnobotany, ethnohistory, historical documents, ethnography, and Indigenous knowledge, this project documents the critical role of maintaining a connection to cultural landscapes despite three successive waves of European and Euro-American colonialism in the region. These findings provide an alternative narrative of cultural persistence, survivance, and resilience contrary to the narratives of culture loss and erasure espoused by 20th-century California anthropology regarding the Indigenous societies that occupied the central California coast.

Vegetation Change in a Sand Prairie over Ten Years Following a Gas Pipeline Installation

Sand prairies experience relatively high rates of small-scale disturbance, feature a high complement of annual plant species, and are fairly dynamic in terms of year-to-year micro-scale species composition. In summer 2011, an underground natural gas pipeline was installed across Sand Prairie Natural History Reservation 19 km west of North Newton, KS. The resulting excavation left a strip 560 m long and 24 m wide devoid of aboveground vegetation. From August 2012 to 2021, I monitored vegetation composition in 60 0.75 × 0.75 m2 quadrats along six parallel transect lines: three lines along the center of the excavated area and three placed 20 m away in prairie unaffected by earth-moving vehicles. Quadrat species richness was higher in the undisturbed reference area in the first year, but higher in the pipeline area in four later years. There were no consistent area differences in species evenness. Annual species richness was higher within the pipeline area every year. In contrast, perennial species richness was higher in the reference area during the first seven years. Coverage by annuals was higher every year within the pipeline area, whereas coverage by perennials was consistently higher in the reference area. Bray-Curtis Similarity for the two areas ranged from 29.2 to 55.8% across years, but was not trending upward with time. Twenty-one species were restricted to the pipeline area; several other species were beginning to move from the reference area to the pipeline area. Both Floristic Quality Index and modified FQI were consistently higher for the reference area than for the pipeline area. It is too early to project the time frame for the pipeline area to recover a species composition indistinguishable from the undisturbed reference site, but clearly a period longer than ten years will be required.

Ross Natural History Reservation: A Review of Recent Dynamics from Aerial Photography

Ross Natural History Reservation (RNHR) is a Natural Area of Emporia State University, located at the eastern edge of the Flint Hills in east-central Kansas. Previous analysis of aerial photographs covered the period 1945 to 2006. More recent developments and trends are presented here for the period 2007 to 2020. We employ conventional, large-format National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery along with small-format aerial photography (SFAP) taken with kites, helium blimp, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to document qualitative changes in land cover and land use.A wildfire in July 2012 was a major event that burned >90% of RNHR. Other significant developments include a reduction in the number of human-built structures, establishment and later realignment of experimental disturbance plots, rediscovery of the 19th-century Fruitland Schoolhouse remains, and a severe wind storm in 2019. The combination of NAIP and SFAP provides spatial and temporal resolutions for general interpretation as well as detailed analyses, which have revealed a mosaic of botanical and archaeological footprints.

The 19th Century Fruitland Schoolhouse: Using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Technology to Investigate and Document Archaeological Ruins at the Ross Natural History Reservation in Lyon County, Kansas

The ruins of the 19thcentury Fruitland Schoolhouse were investigated and documented using unmanned aerial systems (UAS) technology to determine the extent of the ruins and to acquire high-resolution imagery of the archaeological site in its entirety, a perspective not obtainable using ground-based photography. The Fruitland Schoolhouse was a structure with a limestone foundation that was built by Quakers Thomas H. and Mary W. Stanley in the late-1860s on what is today known as the Ross Natural History Reservation (RNHR) in Lyon County, Kansas. The schoolhouse served as both an educational and religious center throughout the mid-to-late-19thcentury, but today lies abandoned and overgrown with dense vegetation, largely hidden from view. In 2012, the location of this archaeological site was rediscovered after a large wildfire exposed the schoolhouse's foundation stones, the only extant portion of the original schoolhouse structure.A scheduled burn at the Ross Reservation in the spring of 2017 allowed for an aerial investigation of the site and surrounding property via UAS. Aerial imagery revealed for the first time that, in addition to the 9 m x 9 m schoolhouse, the foundation of a limestone wall approximately 100 m x 50 m surrounds the Fruitland Schoolhouse property, and a hand-dug well also remains in the southeastern corner of the site. The use of small-format aerial photography, in concert with ground-based photography and ground-truthing methods, proved advantageous in the documentation of this historically significant archaeological site located in the eastern Flint Hills of Kansas. Remote-sensing via UAS has great potential in terms of site identification, and can be instrumental to both the physical and digital preservation of archaeological ruins.

Vegetation Recovers Slowly on a Deeply Disturbed Sand Prairie

Sand prairies experience relatively high rates of small scale disturbance, feature a high complement of annual plant species, and are fairly dynamic in terms of year-to-year microscale species composition. In summer 2011, a natural gas pipeline was installed across Sand Prairie Natural History Reservation 19 km west of North Newton, KS. The resulting excavation left a scar 560 m long and 24 m wide devoid of aboveground vegetation. From August 2012 to 2016, I monitored vegetation composition in 60 0.75 x 0.75 m2 quadrats along two parallel transect lines, one line along the center of the excavated area and the other placed 20 m away in prairie unaffected by construction vehicles. Quadrat species richness was higher in the undisturbed area in the first year, but higher in the pipeline site in the fifth year. There were no consistent site differences in species evenness. Across years, annuals averaged 73.60% of species (including three introduced species) at the pipeline site vs. 45.42% of species within the...

Emporia State University's Natural Areas: A General Overview of the Areas and Research Pertaining to Hydrogeology and Climate Change

Emporia State University (ESU) manages eight sites (5 – 81 ha) that serve as outdoor laboratories for our students, faculty, and visiting scientists. The sites provide regional representation of major ecological communities, including tallgrass prairie, forest, streams, ponds, and wetlands. The sites have been used for decades, with the oldest site, the Ross Natural History Reservation, having been acquired in 1958. Common uses of our Natural Areas include field courses in ecology, botany, zoology, geospatial analysis, soil science, geology, and hydrology. Recent research has included investigations of hydrogeology of the Neosho and Cottonwood River basins and the effects of shrub encroachment on carbon dynamics in tallgrass prairie. The former has included long-term monitoring of rivers and groundwater at ESU's on-campus Hydrogeology Teaching and Research Station. Hydrologic conditions at a newly acquired, riverine wetland site in the Flint Hills are also currently under investigation.

First North American Record of the Palearctic Microplax albofasciata (Costa) (Hemiptera: Lygaeoidea: Oxycarenidae)

Abstract Microplax albofasciata (Costa), a Palearctic (mainly Mediterranean) species of the small family Oxycarenidae, is reported from California as the first record for the New World. Adults of this little-known lygaeoid bug were found in 2012 and 2013 at the Hastings Natural History Reservation in northern Monterey County. It is suggested that this immigrant heteropteran arrived from the Mediterranean Basin in shipments of ceramic tiles (or quarry products) and that California’s similar Mediterranean climate aided its establishment. A diagnosis, description, and illustrations are provided to facilitate the recognition of M. albofasciata in the Nearctic Region.

The Funnelweb Spider GenusAgelenopsis(Araneae: Agelenidae) in Kansas

Cragin (1886) mentions Agelenopsis naevia (Walckenaer 1841) (listed as Agelena naevia Bosc.), as being “the commonest of spiders, building its geometric web in corners of houses and outbuildings” in Shawnee County. Although this species was reported as being common statewide by Scheffer (1904), this name was also applied to spiders that were subsequently described as separate species in the genus by later workers. A revision that became the standard taxonomic reference of the genus Agelenopsis contains Kansas records of several species, including Agelenopsis oklahoma (Gertsch 1936), Agelenopsis spatula Chamberlin and Ivie 1935, and A. naevia (Chamberlin and Ivie 1941). Fitch (1963) recorded aspects of the biology of the three species of Agelenopsis found on the University of Kansas Fitch Natural History Reservation (FNHR) in northeastern Kansas, namely Agelenopsis pennsylvanica (C. Koch 1843), A. naevia, and A. oklahoma. A synopsis of the spiders of Meade County reported observations of juvenile Agelenopsis presumed to be A. oklahoma in the short grass prairie ecosystem in the southwestern corner of the state (Fitch and Fitch 1966). More recent investigations by Ayoub et al. (2005) and Paison (1997) provided information concerning the biogeography, phylogeny, and speciation history of the genus, and included new Kansas records of Agelenopsis aleenae Chamberlin and Ivie1935, Agelenopsis emertoni Chamberlin and Ivie 1935, A. oklahoma and A. pennsylvanica. A range map of Agelenopsis aperta (Gertsch 1934) includes the extreme southwestern corner of the state, although no Kansas records are provided (Ayoub et al. 2005). Therefore, based on published accounts, Kansas is the home of 6 or possibly 7 species of funnelweb spiders of the genus Agelenopsis.

A Sanctuary for Science: The Hastings Natural History Reservation and the Origins of the University of California’s Natural Reserve System

In 1937 Joseph Grinnell founded the University of California's (U.C.) first biological field station, the Hastings Natural History Reservation. Hastings became a center for field biology on the West Coast, and by 1960 it was serving as a model for the creation of additional U.C. reserves. Today, the U.C. Natural Reserve System (NRS) is the largest and most diverse network of university-based biological field stations in the world, with 36 sites covering more than 135,000 acres. This essay examines the founding of the Hastings Reservation, and asks how it managed to grow and develop, in the 1940s and 1950s, during a time of declining support for natural history research. It shows how faculty and staff courted the support of key institutional allies, presented themselves as the guardians of a venerable tradition in nature study, and emphasized the station's capacity to document ecological change and inform environmental policy and management. In the years since, Hastings and other U.C. reserves have played crucial roles in California environmental politics. Biological field stations in the post-war era deserve more attention not only from historians of biology, but also from environmental historians and other scholars interested in the role of science in society.

A Half Century of Forest Invasion on a Natural Area in Northeastern Kansas

Ten study plots on the Fitch Natural History Reservation were checked for invading arborescent vegetation in 1999 after 50 years of protection as a natural area. These plots were treeless or nearly so in 1948. Plots were one hectare (8), 0.52 hectare (1), and 1.30 hectare (1). All trees of 6 cm or more in diameter breast high were counted, and totaled 6,530 of 25 species with American elm, Osage orange, white ash, black walnut, common hackberry, honey locust, red cedar, Plains cottonwood, black oak, black cherry, redbud, and red mulberry as the most important species, and with 13 other species each less than one percent. The climax oaks and hickory constituted 3.5% of the total. Trees reached maximum abundance on two bottomland plots that earlier had been cultivated. Upland areas, including prairie, old-fields and former pasture were somewhat less productive in terms of tree numbers, but some were more diverse or were characterized by a larger average basal area per tree than the old-field bottomlands.

Kite Aerial Photography for Environmental Site Investigations in Kansas

Aerial photographs taken from kites provide a versatile and low-cost method to acquire high-resolution, large-scale imagery for environmental site investigations. Kite aerial photographs (KAP) typically are taken from heights of 50-100 m using light-weight automatic cameras. Pictures may be acquired in vertical and oblique vantages. For accurate mapping, survey markers may be located with differential GPS equipment. Scanning of photographs and digital processing allow for resampling, enhancement, and analysis of images. We have utilized KAP for environmental investigations for two situations: (1) forest cover at Fort Leavenworth military reservation in northeastern Kansas, and (2) stream channel characteristics at Ninnescah Experimental Tract and Natural History Reservation in south-central Kansas. At Fort Leavenworth, oblique KAP views revealed the irregular structure and marked shadow effects within the canopy of upland deciduous forest. This information proved useful for interpreting satellite imagery in connection with a climate-forest study. At the Ninnescah study site, vertical KAP was the basis for accurate mapping of intricate, small, meandering stream channels and the locations of potholes within the drainage system. In both examples, KAP provided an intermediate level of observation between ground studies and conventional topographic maps, air photos, or satellite images.

Long‐Term Patterns in Coastal California Grasslands in Relation to Cultivation, Gophers, and Grazing

Grasslands at the Hastings Natural History Reservation (HNHR) and in adjacent Santa Lucia coastal range of Monterey County, California were sampled from 1971 to 1991. Grasslands on HNHR showed two distinct and stable associations: stands with and without historical cultivation (≈ 1865‐1937$). Relict stands dominated by native, perennial grasses (e.g., Nassella pulchra, Poa secunda) are limited to uncultivated, steeper stands, often where soils have more clay. Abandoned agricultural fields have stable compositions dominated by Avena fatua, Bromus mollis, B. diandrus, Erodium spp., Hypochaeris glabra, Vulpia spp., Eremocarpus setigerus, and Amsinckia spp. Patterns in species composition were associated with gradients in soil texture, gopher abundance, and slope. Gophers provide a significant and continuous source of soil disturbance and may slow successional processes in old fields. Where gophers are excluded, aboveground biomass accumulates. Germination and establishment of native perennial grasses (compared to introduced, annual grasses) are reduced on gopher tailings in old fields. Species composition patterns reflecting past cultivation on both grazed and ungrazed stands are apparent. Relict (uncultivated) stands of native grasses persist under many historical levels of grazing. Effects of grazing are often only seen on old fields, and not on relict grasslands. Compared to stands where grazing was removed in 1937, stands currently or recently grazed by cattle show higher soil nitrogen, but reductions in cover of gopher tailings, species diversity, soil phosphate, and sulphate.

Spiders of the Kansas Ecological Reserves

Spiders are a conspicuous and ecologically important group of predators although they may serve as prey for other species. Despite their importance, research in araneology has been hampered by the difficulty of making accurate identifications and the lack of natural history information for even many common species. Information concerning the spider fauna of Kansas is limited. The only surveys of this group within the state are those by Cragin (1886), Scheffer (1904, 1905), Fitch (1963, 1965), Fitch and Fitch (1966), Guarisco and Kinman (1990), Guarisco and Mott (1990), and Guarisco and Fitch (1991). Although a thorough knowledge of the Kansas spider fauna is a distant goal, intensive study in the relatively small area of the Kansas Ecological Reserves (KER) has provided a working knowledge of the identity and habits of the local fauna. The KER consists of 1625 acres of land in several locations in Douglas and Jefferson Counties in northeastern Kansas. This land, which is used for education and environmental research at the University of Kansas, contains examples of tallgrass prairie, eastern deciduous forest, climax oak-hickory forest, and areas under agricultural management (Fitch and Kettle, 1988). This checklist is based on earlier work at the Fitch Natural History Reservation (FNHR) and Rockefeller Experimental Tract (Fitch, 1963), collections by the first author, primarily from the FNHR and Nelson Environmental Study Area, from 1972 to the present, and recent pitfall trap samples taken during a study of the effect of habitat fragmentation upon species diversity (Robinson and others, 1992). Only limited collecting has been done in the Baldwin Woods area. More field work, especially in the Baldwin

An Experimental Test of Offspring Recognition in Western Bluebirds

An Experimental Test of Offspring Recognition in Western Bluebirds

An Annotated List of the Herpetofauna of the F. B. and Rena G. Ross Natural History Reservation

A two-year study of the herpetofauna of the F. B. and Rena G. Ross Natural History Reservation was conducted. A list of the herpetofauna of the Reservation was prepared, and notes were made on the natural histories of these animals. Field observations by the author, as well as recorded field observations in the Reservation files, were used to compile the herpetofauna list. In all, 10 amphibian species and 27 reptilian species were found to occur, consisting of 2 salamanders, 8 frogs, 4 turtles, 6 lizards, and 17 snakes.

Social organization and nest co-occupancy in Peromyscus californicus, a monogamous rodent

Home ranges, social organization, and nest co-occupancy of Peromyscus californicus were studied using radiotelemetry at the Hastings Natural History Reservation, California. Mated pairs were ascertained by the transfer of fluorescent pigments from lactating females to putative fathers. Mated pairs had largely overlapping home ranges that were not statistically distinguishable, whereas adjacent adults had mostly exclusive, statistically distinguishable home ranges. There was no difference in the mean home range of males and females, but mated females tended to have smaller ranges than their mate. Home range size was extremely variable (range: 150–3788 m2) and averaged 1161 m2 across all individuals. Male home range size was inversely correlated with population density, suggestive of a social influence on home range. Putative fathers spent comparable amounts of time to females in the nest — presumably caring for the young — which supports previous laboratory reports of paternal care in this species. All data collected in this study are consistent with previous suggestions that P. californicus live in semi-permanent family groups and are monogamous.

Five New Additions to the Spider Fauna of Kansas

In the course of compiling a list of the spider fauna of Kansas, five species in the family Gnaphosidae are reported for Kansas for the first time: Herpyllus bubulcus Chamberlin, Orodrassus coloradensis (Emerton), Sergiolus cyaneiventris Simon, Sosticus loricatus (L. Koch), and Zelotes pseustes Chamberlin. Information on the composition of the spider fauna of Kansas is very limited. Early works by Cragin (1886) and Scheffer (1904a, 1904b, 1905a, 1905b) represent the first systematic attempts to compile a list of species found in the state. In 1963, a survey of the spiders of the University of Kansas Natural History Reservation and Rockefeller Experimental Tract revealed the presence of 192 different species in an area of 750 acres in northeastern Kansas (Fitch, 1963). A brief survey of the spider fauna of Meade County in the southwestern part of Kansas included natural history observations of the 82 species encountered (Fitch and Fitch, 1966). In the course of compiling a current, comprehensive list of the spider fauna of Kansas, the author discovered five species in the family Gnaphosidae not previously reported from Kansas. Details of these records are presented below. Herpyllus bubulcus Chamberlin is a southwestern species which occurs from Chihuahua, Mexico northward through Texas, New Mexico and the western half of Colorado (Platnick and Shadab, 1977). An adult female was collected on 18 April 1980, 15.5 miles west of Hardtner in Barber County, Kansas. More field work is needed to determine if this species is found outside of the Red Hills physiographic province (Kiichler, 1974). Orodrassus coloradensis (Emerton) is a western species ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the west coast of North America, and also is found in North Dakota and Manitoba. Specimens have been found under stones, logs and bark in aspen, spruce, and pine forests and in cabins (Platnick and Shadab, 1975). An adult female of this species was collected in Douglas County, Kansas, on 14 July 1933 and was recently discovered in the UniThis content downloaded from 157.55.39.162 on Thu, 11 Aug 2016 06:26:41 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms VOLUME 92, NUMBERS 1-2 61 versity of Kansas Snow Entomological Museum spider collection. Since the nearest recorded locality is in the vicinity of Denver, Colorado, this first Kansas record is a range extension of approximately 600 miles to the east. More field work is needed to determine its distribution and habitat within

Wichita State University Natural Area

In 1984 the Wichita State University Endowment Association acquired 330 acres south and adjacent to a one-mile stretch of the Ninnescah River in southwestern Sedgwick County. The area is principally located in the SE 1/4 of Sec. 7 and SW 1/4 of Sec. 8, T29S, R3W. At the time of acquisition, much of the Ninnescah Tract (Research Station and Natural History Reservation) was under cultivation to wheat and milo and occasionally alfalfa and oats. In addition to the agricultural land the Ninnescah Tract consists of two original prairie segments of 40 and 28 acres, a 17-acre riparian woodland on the east quarter-section, and an intermittent stream having two tributaries that periodically flow through both prairie segments and the woodland.

Kansas Ecological Reserves (University of Kansas Natural Areas)

The University of Kansas has secured approximately 1625 acres of land for environmental research and education. Known collectively as the Kansas Ecological Reserves, the land is located in several separate tracts. Some tracts are treated exclusively as nature reserves (i.e., protected from human disturbance and manipulation of the environment) whereas portions of the other tracts may be experimentally manipulated or afford development of research facilities. The Kansas Ecological Reserves are under the administration of the Experimental and Applied Ecology Program. The individual tracts comprising the Kansas Ecological Reserves are located in one of two general geographic groupings. One grouping, consisting of 200 acres approximately 12 miles south of Lawrence, Kansas, is in an area generally referred to as Baldwin Woods. In 1980, the entire Baldwin Woods area was designated as National Natural Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior. The designation was given because the area was judged to be nationally significant example of the natural heritage of the Nation. The natural value of the Baldwin Woods area is described as, a unique remnant oak-hickory stand approaching climax condition, located at the western edge of the eastern deciduous Three different, but effectively contiguous, tracts make up the portion of the Kansas Ecological Reserves known as the Baldwin Woods Area: Breidenthal Biological Reserve, Rice Woodland, and Wall Woods (Fig. 1). Much of the Baldwin Woods Area could be characterized as relatively undisturbed eastern deciduous forest. The three tracts in the Baldwin Woods Area are treated collectively as biological reserve; no experimental manipulations are permitted. The second grouping (Fig. 2), containing approximately 1425 acres approximately 5-8 miles north of Lawrence, consists of the Robinson Tract and three other distinct, but contiguous tracts: Fitch Natural History Reservation, Nelson Environmental Study Area, and Rockefeller Experimental Tract. A wide variety of habitats are found on these areas including eastern deciduous forest, tallgrass prairie, and lands under current agricultural management. With the exception of the Fitch Natural History Reservation which is protected from human disturbance, these lands may be used for experi-

Emporia State University Natural Areas

Emporia State University owns five natural areas varying in size from 10 to 200 acres. The areas are: Campus Woods (10 acres), Howe Natural Area (12 acres), Reading Woods Natural Area (32 acres), Coughlen Natural Area (44 acres), and Ross Natural History Reservation (200 acres). All the areas are within Lyon County with the closest to the University being on campus and the most distant being 18 miles from the campus. The following are brief physical and biological descriptions of the tracts.