Intermittent streams and rivers account for over half of the world's waterways and yet they are still vastly understudied compared to permanent streams and rivers. Wichita State University Biological Field Station: Youngmeyer Ranch presents an opportunity to study intermittent streams and stream pools across 1902 hectares of Flint Hills tall grass prairie ecosystems. We used a freely available satellite imagery program (Google Earth Pro©) to map and provide an initial inventory of streams, intermittent stream pools, and cattle ponds. We also used historic images to create connectivity (percent of downstream length with water) and hydroperiod indices (number of years out of four that pools held water). In total, we mapped 58.2 km of major (2^nd to 3^rd order) and minor (1^st order) streams, and 13 cattle pond impoundments on the property. We used a systematic random sample to select a subset of seven stream reaches (out of 83) within the property for on-the-ground surveys of intermittent stream pools. Within selected streams, a subset of 117 stream pools were sampled in the summer of 2020 and data was collected on the average stream pool width, max depth, length, volume, and biological communities. Stream pools averaged 6.5 ± 9.7 m3 (mean ± SD) in volume, 12.50 ± 9.3 m in length, 2.97 ± 1.7 m in width, and 0.38 ± 0.26 m in depth. Stream and stream pool permanence varied widely across the landscape with pools holding water 3.2 ± 0.8 out of the four years with high resolution satellite imagery. We provided an initial baseline of aquatic systems at Youngmeyer Ranch and characterized representative intermittent stream pools in the Flint Hills and the Great Plains. We also demonstrated the viability of using Google Earth Pro© for mapping and taking inventory of aquatic systems without proprietary software or on-site access.

Blue Catfish Ictalurus furcatus are native to the Kansas and Missouri River basins in eastern Kansas. Recognizing their potential to support recreational fisheries, a stocking program was initiated in the state in 1972. Through 1990, over 35,000 individuals were stocked in 16 small impoundments (< 100 ha) but failed to create persistent fisheries. From 1990 to 2005, over 200,000 individuals were stocked in five impoundments >2500 ha and relative successes of these stockings resulted in over 1,000,000 individuals being stocked in 10 additional impoundments > 2500 ha spanning the state from 2006 to 2022. Rapid proliferation of these populations resulted in implementation of many studies designed to gain understanding of these populations and inform effective management plans to develop and sustain recreational fisheries. These studies are summarized here with a history of management actions over the last 50 years to consolidate available knowledge. Additionally, information gaps are identified and discussed to inform future management and research and ensure recreational angling opportunities for Blue Catfish persist in Kansas.

Approximately 400,000 anglers participate in recreational fishing in Kansas annually. Of those, 89% identify as at least part-time shoreline anglers. Shoreline angling is often promoted and managed at small Kansas impoundments with landscaping, jetties, and vehicle access. However, shoreline angling in large impoundments (> 400 ha) is largely limited to maintained areas in federal and state parks due to ease of accessibility. Tailwater fisheries represent a shoreline angling opportunity often associated with large impoundments but are largely unregulated and unstudied by fisheries managers in Kansas. To assess shoreline angling in tailwater fisheries, data were consolidated from 23 paired impoundment/tailwater creel surveys that occurred between 1999 and 2018. Results suggest that shoreline angling effort and catch were greater in impoundments than tailwaters; however, when standardized by shoreline availability, these metrics were greater in tailwaters. Composition of fish taxa targeted and caught also differed between shoreline anglers in impoundments and tailwaters suggesting the coupled pair generally provided diverse angling opportunities. Anglers that participated in both types of fisheries were predominantly males between ages 16 and 64. Anglers were largely local (> 90% in-state) and out-of-state participation was dominated by anglers from border states. These findings demonstrate the role of shoreline angling and access in large Kansas impoundments and tailwaters. Findings will be valuable to inform future management plans and increase angling accessibility to a diverse constituent base.

A floristic inventory of Mead Island in Wichita, Kansas, is presented. This 1.87 hectare man-made island in the Little Arkansas River consists of non-flooded and seasonally flooded areas. A total of 15 visits over parts of two growing seasons resulted in 109 collections, representing 51 families, 88 genera, and 98 species (species + infraspecific taxa). The flora exhibits relatively high proportions of woody (35%) and non-native plants (26%) and a relatively low average coefficient of conservation value (1.7) for native species. Many dominant and characteristic species of the Floodplain Forest and Savannah vegetation type were observed. Collectively, these observations are indicative of a highly-invaded Arkansas River floodplain forest. Several notable invasive species observed on the island are discussed.

The tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus) once commonly occurred throughout the eastern and central United States, but is now experiencing range-wide population declines primarily due to white-nose syndrome and forest fragmentation. Conservation efforts for this species require more information regarding summer maternity roost characteristics, especially in the Ozark Highlands of Missouri, where the species has declined precipitously. Herein we report the capture and tracking of one female tricolored bat to two summer roosts in southeastern Missouri. Tree roosts differed by their substrates, as one was within a cluster of dead leaves on a snag and the other was located under exfoliating bark; otherwise, the roosts and surrounding vegetation were similar. Both roosts were located in large (>30 cm diameter breast height) oak (Quercus spp.) trees under a dense canopy of trees with similar basal areas. While our capture success was limited over two years, details regarding tricolored bat roost ecology are imperative for the species' conservation and management.

In wet environments a portion of ambient inorganic mercury (Hg) is transformed to methylmercury (MeHg); a neurotoxin that readily concentrates in fish. Public health entities monitor Hg levels in fish to inform consumers of the types and amounts of fish that are safe to eat. In this study, monitoring data collected from stream and lakes across Kansas were used to summarize fillet tissue total mercury (THg = MeHg + Hg) levels in 36 fish species and hybrids. Data associated with eleven food fish taxa (genus and species) were presented in detail and statewide risk-based monthly safe consumption limits (SCLs) protective of Hg sensitive individuals were calculated, including two size categories (< or ≥ 508 mm) for larger growing taxa. Linear mixed effects models (LMEMs) were used to generate least squares (LS) mean fish THg values for between habitat (lakes and streams) and within habitat (waterbody size, ecoregion, and major river basin) categorical variables, and for individual sample sites. Sample site LS means were used to identify potential fish THg hotspots among lakes (LS means ≥ 90^th percentile) and streams (Getis-Ord Gi* statistic). Across all samples (n = 2,106) a more than 200-fold difference existed between the highest (2.1 mg/kg) and lowest THg (0.01 mg/kg) concentrations, but most samples were below the Kansas Department of Health and Environment's (KDHE) human health screening level (HSL) (0.23 mg/kg). Statewide safe consumption limits ranged from 1 meal/month in ≥ 508 mm flathead catfish to 8 meals/mo. in crappie spp. Least squares mean fish THg was significantly higher in streams than lakes, and significantly higher in small lakes (< 10 surface acres) than larger lakes. Stream size did not affect fish THg levels. In both lakes and streams, ecoregion and major river basin significantly affected fish THg levels with higher levels more prevalent in eastern geographic areas. Lakes identified as potential fish THg hotspots were widely distributed throughout the study area, but all stream hotspot sites were clustered in the southeast portion of the state.

The Broad-headed Skink is listed as Threatened in the state of Kansas under the Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1975 and recent surveys have focused on this species. In Kansas, a similar species, the Common Five-lined Skink, occurs in the same range and habitats as the Broad-headed Skink. Visual characteristics of the two species overlap in hatchlings and sub-adults, where their bodies are black with five olive-colored lines that extend the length of their backs. Both species have bright blue tails until they reach maturity. The use of supralabial scale and postlabial scale counts is the most reliable way to distinguish between the two species; however, an individual may not represent the species exactly as stated in keys found within field guides. In the summers of 2016 and 2017, we collected genetic samples from Broad-headed Skinks and Common Five-lined Skinks and compared the genetic identification to meristic data collected in the field. We found Broad-headed Skinks express more variation in scale counts than Five-lined Skinks and the keys we used account for this variation.

Isolated sandstone and siltstone outcrops of the Late Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) Fox Hills Formation occur at the Poison Springs Locality in northeastern Colorado. These nearshore deposits document the western margin of the Fox Hills Sea and have yielded elasmobranch and osteichthyan remains. Seventeen elasmobranch species from eleven families including Squatina hassei, Plicatoscyllium derameei, Cretorectolobus olsoni, Carcharias samhammeri, Odontaspis aculeatus, Cretalamna cf. C. feldmanni, Palaeogaleus navarroensis, Galeorhinus girardoti, Archaeotriakis rochelleae, Pseudomyledaphus sp., Pseudohypolophus mcnultyi, Ischyrhiza avonicola, Ptychotrygon winni, Ptychotrygon greybullensis, Ptychotrygon sp., Dasyatis sp., and Rhombodus levis and five osteichthlyan species from four families including Melvius sp., Paralbula casei, Enchodus dirus, Enchodus sp., and Hadrodus sp. were identified. This paleofauna is essentially the same as the Fox Hills Formation paleofauna recovered from North Dakota and extends the geographic range of the Late Cretaceous Fox Hills fish paleocommunity to far western shores of the Fox Hills Sea.

The Poison Springs fish paleofauna consists of a mix of freshwater, brackish water/estuarine and shallow marine, and open marine taxa reflecting the dynamic Fox Hills Sea coastal margin. This fish paleocommunity included predaceous, durophagous bottom feeders, shallow marine piscivores, and open water ambush predators. Some taxa are restricted to the northern Western Interior Seaway, but most are more cosmopolitan and range to the Texas-Gulf Coast, Mississippi Embayment, and Atlantic Coastal Plain. A few have also been found in Europe and North Africa. This Late Cretaceous Fox Hills Formation fish paleofauna provides additional evidence for extinctions of marine fish at the end of the Cretaceous.

A partial elasmosaurid plesiosaur skeleton (DMNH V.90000) recovered from the Juana Lopez Member, Carlile Shale of southeastern Colorado is stratigraphically unique. The contextual occurrence of the ‘Juana Lopez elasmosaur’ is rare both in terms of geologic age (late Middle Turonian) and paleoecology (littoral shore deposit). The skeletal anatomy contains diagnostic characters of an ‘intermediate’ grade of derivation although the paucity of material prevents formal naming of a new taxon. Another partial elasmosaurid skeleton (UNSM 50134, also known as the ‘Holyrood elasmosaur’) from the Lincoln Limestone (Middle Cenomanian), Greenhorn Limestone of central Kansas is similarly unique in terms of context. The ‘Holyrood elasmosaur’ also occurs in littoral shore deposits and possesses a unique suite of plesiomorphic characters previously undocumented within Elasmosauridae of the Western Interior Seaway. Dimensional data for vertebrae and appendicular elements leads to a refined generalization that there are minimally three lineages of elasmosaurids present in the Western Interior Seaway; a plesiomorphic group (equidimensional mid-cervical centra, elongate podials), a group intermediate in morphology (elongate mid-cervicals, equidimensional podials), and a derived group (highly elongate mid-cervicals, foreshortened podials). The plesiomorphic group is represented by UNSM 50134 (Holyrood elasmosaur), a new genus and species described herein (Plesioelasmosaurus walkeri, gen. et sp. nov.). Gastroliths are present with both specimens, reinforcing the prevalence of silicic stones routinely occurring within elasmosaurid partial skeletons, and the link of elasmosaurid ecology to nearshore environments. Shared plesiomorphic limb traits among early (Cenomanian) representatives of both elasmosaurid and polycotylid lineages may serve as an indicator of shared heritage (Xenopsaria) and subsequent convergent evolution of foreshortened limb elements.