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A requirement for ecological information to identify, quantify, and evaluate the potential impact of land-use decisions on ecosystems has been recognized for some time (Everett et al. 1994; O’Callaghan 1996;Boyce and Haney 1997; Lyle 1999; Treweek 1999; Jensen et al. 2001). The process of integrated ecological assessment (IEA) has been developed to provide a comprehensive description of the ecosystem patterns, processes, and functions, including relevant socio-political factors, needed to synthesize our knowledge of ecological and human systems. IEA techniques are rooted in ecological, social, and economic sciences. IEAs incorporate evaluation of the implications of human activities, including production of land-management scenarios. They should be part of integrated systems of environmental regulation that include strategic planning, objective setting, performance standards, monitoring, and review of the entire process (Treweek 1999). Recent applications of IEAs (see case studies in [1998] and [2001]) represent the integration of a number of approaches developed in response to specific problems, socio-political contexts, national legislation, and international accords (see review in [1999]; see also [1999]; and [1999]). Various terms have been used to describe all or part of the process of assessing the state of the environment and its relationship to economic development.

Blood samples were collected from 118 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) shot on the Fort Riley Military Installation in northeastern Kansas. Values for these deer for hematocrit, glucose, alkaline phosphatase, uric acid, total protein, albumin, and calcium were within the ranges reported in previous studies for undrugged white-tailed deer. Abnormally high concentrations of serum glutamic oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT) and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) were attributed to general trauma and tissue damage caused by shooting the deer. Fawns had higher concentrations of alkaline phosphatase than adults and had lower concentrations in winter than at other times of the year. Serum urea nitrogen (SUN) concentrations fluctuated seasonally. Elevated concentrations of SUN in adult males killed in December were attributed to an increased catabolism of muscle protein caused by low dietary intake and high energy requirements during the rut. Cholesterol concentrations varied seasonally without regard to age or sex.

Twenty-five female and 13 male white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus texanus ) were radio-tracked for an average of 2.2 months each on the Rob and Bessie Welder Wildlife Refuge during the period between February 1966 and August 1970. Two does and one buck were tracked twice. Home range areas were determined for animals using two methods of analysis. Grid home ranges, based on an analysis developed during the present study, provided an average estimated home-range size of 62 ± 6 ha among 12 does and 66 ± 8 ha among five bucks. Twenty-seven home ranges of does, determined by means of Jennrich and Turner's (1969) home-range ellipse technique, averaged 84 ± 8 ha, and 14 determined for bucks averaged 139 ± 37 ha. In neither case was there a significant difference between the sexes. Grid home ranges delineated home-range areas consisting mainly of combinations of small-scale, intensively used localities, activity centers (∼ fixpunkte of Hediger as cited by Ewer, 1968), within a more extensive action area (Walther, 1972). Shirts in the positions of the home ranges occurred in response to changes in the activity centers that were in use from time to time. The diameter of action areas must be estimated roughly by the “most distant fixes” (Hahn, 1945; Hahn and Taylor, 1950) obtained during the study. The ellipse technique provided a more theoretical, but statistically stable, estimate of home ranges. The difference in results from the two techniques was an orderly outgrowth of their underlying theories. All but eight of the 38 deer made exploratory excursions, termed trips , outside of their home ranges. As a function of differences in brush availability, some deer showed a temporal dichotomy of areas in use. Other deer, in more homogeneous habitats, failed to show such a dichotomy. Linearity of home range seemed to be a function of such dichotomies.