Publications

The sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) biome, its wildlife, and the services and benefits it provides people and local communities are at risk. Development in the sagebrush biome, for many purposes, has resulted in multiple and often cumulative negative impacts. These impacts, ranging from simple habitat loss to complex, interactive changes in ecosystem function, continue to accelerate even as...

The Argentine Black and White Tegu (Salvator merianae, formerly Tupinambis merianae) is a large lizard from South America. Now established and invasive in southern Florida, and it poses threats to populations of many native species. Models suggest much of the southern United States may contain suitable temperature regimes for this species, yet there is considerable uncertainty regarding...

Tropical mountains harbor globally significant levels of biodiversity and endemism. Climate change threatens many tropical montane species, yet little research has assessed the effects of climate change on the demographic rates of tropical species, particularly in the Afrotropics. Here, we report on the demographic rates of 21 Afrotropical bird species over 30 years in montane forests in...

Invasive predators are known to have negative consumptive and non-consumptive effects on native species, but few examples show how the abundance of native prey may influence an established invasive predator. We compared invasive brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis; BTS) found in caves occupied by endangered Mariana swiftlets (Aerodramus bartschi) to snakes found in nearby forests and...

Context Given widespread population declines of birds breeding in North American grasslands, management that sustains wildlife while supporting rancher livelihoods is needed. However, management effects vary across landscapes, and identifying areas with the greatest potential bird response to conservation is a pressing research need.Objectives We developed a hierarchical modeling...

The purpose of this data series is to compile information on the occurrence and conservation status of the freshwater mussel fauna of Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma and to map the distribution of a freshwater mussel assemblage for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management Rapid Ecoregional Assessment (REA) program. The six focal species in the freshwater mussel...

Background Environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys are appealing options for monitoring aquatic biodiversity. While factors affecting eDNA persistence, capture and amplification have been heavily studied, watershed-scale surveys of fish communities and our confidence in such need further exploration.Methods We characterized fish eDNA compositions using rapid, low-volume filtering with replicate...

Feral horses (Equus ferus caballus) in the western United States are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and United States Forest Service in designated areas on public lands with a goal of maintaining populations in balance with multiple uses of the landscape. Small, isolated populations can be at risk of extirpation from stochastic events and deleterious genetic effects...

The plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, is a generalist pathogen of flea (Siphonaptera) vectors and mammalian hosts. In colonies of prairie dogs (PDs, Cynomys spp.), Y. pestis causes occasional epizootics, killing ≥90% of PDs within weeks to several months. We evaluated the effectiveness of deltamethrin, a pyrethroid insecticide, as a tool for preventing plague epizootics among three PD...

Loch Vale watershed was instrumented in 1983 with initial support from the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program to ask whether ecosystems of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) were affected by acidic atmospheric deposition. Research and monitoring activities were expanded in 1991 by the U.S. Geological Survey Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets program to understand the...

Hydrologic and irrigation regimes mediate the timing of selenium (Se) mobilization to rivers, but the extent to which patterns in Se uptake and trophic transfer through recipient food webs reflect the temporal variation in Se delivery is unknown. We investigated Se mobilization, partitioning, and trophic transfer along approximately 60 river miles of the selenium-impaired segment of the...

The brown treesnake (Boiga irregularis) was accidentally introduced to Guam and caused severe ecological and economic damages. Acetaminophen is an effective, low-risk oral toxicant for invasive brown treesnakes, and an automated aerial delivery system (ADS) has been developed for landscape-scale toxic bait distribution. A fixed dose of 80 mg of acetaminophen within a tablet inserted into...