Publications

Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter sage-grouse) are at the center of State and national land-use policies largely because of their unique life-history traits as an ecological indicator for the health of sagebrush ecosystems. This updated population analysis provides State and Federal land and wildlife managers with the best available science to help guide...

Habitat loss and limited upland nesting cover likely constrain waterfowl productivity in intensively managed wetland landscapes in California, USA. We evaluated whether experimental manipulations of upland habitats, including the seeding of native plants, dense nesting cover, or cereal grains, could enhance nesting vegetation and improve duck nest density and nest survival in a...

Forest demography is difficult to describe accurately. Tree recruitment and mortality are uncommon events, so that rates based on these observations often require long survey periods using large numbers of trees. Demographic rates can scale with tree size, so challenges describing demography are pronounced in coast redwood forests that are dominated by extremely large Sequoia...

Ornithodoros ticks, a genus of soft ticks in the family Argasidae, occur worldwide including throughout deserts in the Southwestern United States. In the Mojave Desert, Ornithodoros parkeri and O. turicata are common ectoparasites of Mojave desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii). These two tick species are vectors of Borrelia spp. that cause tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) in people...

Optimizing environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding to maximize species detection while minimizing costs and effort remains a challenge, particularly in high-throughput workflows. In the marine intertidal zone off Point Conception, California, we compared eDNA richness accumulation between filtration approaches that differed in filter type and downstream processing, field and laboratory...

Although biologging has transformed seabird ecology, bird-borne devices could alter the behaviors being studied, including parental care. We tested for effects of leg-mounted light-level geolocators ( 1% of body mass) on chick growth and adult return rates in Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (‘ua‘u kani, Ardenna pacifica) breeding on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i during two consecutive breeding seasons that...

The ongoing global outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus (HPAIv) Clade 2.3.4.4 H5N1 in poultry, which was first detected in the United States (USA) in February 2022, underscores the importance of improving food biosecurity and wild bird surveillance. The Delmarva Peninsula is vital to wintering waterfowl and to poultry production, thereby increasing the risk of HPAIv...

Premature mortality of spawning adult Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus species) can strongly influence population dynamics and complicate escapement-based management. Heat stress and Ichthyophonus infections have been identified as probable drivers of premature mortality in Yukon River Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and likely contributors to low spawning abundance. We leveraged a

The southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) population at San Nicolas Island, California, has been monitored annually since the translocation of 140 sea otters to the island was completed in 1990. Monitoring efforts have varied in frequency and method across years. In 2017, in accordance with the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Fish...

Palmyra Atoll is considered a well-conserved and relatively pristine area with high fish diversity. Since digenean trematodes represent one of the most abundant and diverse parasites of marine fish, the aim of this study was to perform taxonomic analysis of adult digeneans in fishes from the intertidal lagoon of Palmyra Atoll. Parasitological analyses were conducted on 653 individual...

We fit a binomial mixture (N-mixture) model to lek (breeding area) count data to estimate annual population sizes of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) within Oregon between 2017 and 2024. Population estimates were delineated among 24 priority areas for conservation, and additional sources of information were considered, including male-to-female sex ratios, lek...

Common ravens (Corvus corax; ravens) are generalist avian predators whose populations have rapidly increased across North America, concomitant with anthropogenic development. Raven populations are bolstered by anthropogenic food and nesting resources in areas outside of their historical range and are impactful predators for many prey species of conservation concern, including greater...