Clint R Otto

Genetic detection of Lake Sinai Virus in honey bees (Apis mellifera) and other insects

Lake Sinai Viruses (LSV) are common ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses of honey bees (Apis mellifera) that frequently reach high abundance but are not linked to overt disease. LSVs are genetically heterogeneous and collectively widespread, but despite frequent detection in surveys, the ecological and geographic factors structuring their distribution in A. mellifera are not understood. Even less is known about their distribution in other species. Better understanding of LSV prevalence and ecology have been hampered by high sequence diversity within the LSV clade. We developed a new genetic assay that detects all currently known lineages. We also performed pilot metagenetic sequencing to quantify the diversity of LSV...

Tags: California, Genetics, Insects, Maryland, Nebraska, All tags... North Dakota, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Viruses, Wildlife Disease, biota, farming, Fewer tags

Pollinators in the Great Plains: the past role, and future outlook, of the Conservation Reserve Program in supporting honey bees datasets

The datasets show the amount of Conservation Reserve Program land around registered apiaries in North and South Dakota from 2006-2016.

Categories: Data; Tags: Ecology, Energy Resources, Environmental Health, Land Use Change, North Dakota, All tags... Remote Sensing, South Dakota, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), agriculture, economy, environment, farming, habitat destruction, insects, organisms, Fewer tags

Colony Collapse Disorder has resulted in widespread loss of US honey bee colonies and heightened societal concern over honey bee health and reduced pollination services for agricultural crops. The Farm Service Agency has expressed substantial interest in promoting habitat for honey bee colonies residing on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands throughout the Great Plains. Our team is conducting a multi-state study to identify specific plants that can be readily implemented into the CRP for improving pollinator health in North Dakota. This study will provide managers with a means to evaluate cost-effective seeding mixes to benefit pollinators for multiple conservation programs. This project was started in 2015...

Categories: Project

Our team will estimate the effects of anthropogenic land use modification on the distributions of grassland birds in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR), USA. The models we develop will improve understanding of how local land use decisions impacts grassland bird populations. Our models will allow stakeholders to estimate how the diversity of grassland birds changes across a landscape with varying land use practices. Our study will focus on grassland bird species with varying conservation needs and include areas of the PPR that have a broad spectrum of land use conditions. We will utilize modern Bayesian techniques to develop species distribution models that fully integrate environmental data layers and species distribution...