Publications

This case study considers two tern species that breed within the San Francisco Bay Estuary, Forster’s Terns (Sterna forsteri) and California Least Terns (Sternula antillarum browni). Forster’s Terns are medium-sized (140 g) terns that breed in coastal and interior marshes of North America. Forster’s Terns can exploit ephemeral habitats, and colony locations often move among years with...

This case study includes representative macroinvertebrates that live in the marsh plain, its associated channels and pannes (ponds), and the marsh-upland transition zone. While less visible than animals such as birds, invertebrates play important roles in physical and biological processes (e.g., burrowing activity and channel bank erosion, and detritivores breaking down organic matter)...

Dabbling ducks are the most abundant group of waterfowl that overwinter in the shallow wetlands and ponds of San Francisco Bay (SFB). Species within this group are primarily omnivorous, feeding on both plant material and macroinvertebrate prey by “tipping” to access benthic foods in bottom sediments or by foraging in the water column. Although the majority of these ducks are migratory...

Covering 130,000 square miles and a wide range of elevations from desert to alpine in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, the Colorado Plateau has long fascinated researchers. The Colorado Plateau VI provides readers with a plethora of updates and insights into land conservation and management questions currently surrounding the region. The Colorado Plateau VI’s contributors show...

Western sandpipers (Calidris mauri) are small (22-35 g) sexually dimorphic sandpipers, with males typically smaller than females. Western sandpipers frequently occur in mixed species flocks along with other Calidris species, including least sandpipers (Calidris minutilla) and dunlin (Calidris alpina), in the San Francisco Bay Estuary (SFBE) and are the most abundant shorebird species...

The clapper rail (Rallus longirostris) recently was split into two sister groups (Chesser et al. 2014) on the basis of phylogenetic analyses (Maley and Brumfield 2013). The original grouping is now represented on the East Coast of North America by the Clapper rail (Rallus crepitans) and on the West Coast by the Ridgway’s rail (Rallus obsoletus). The California Ridgeway’s rail (Rallus...

The trophic niches of Arctic charr and brown trout differ when the species occur in sympatry. Their trophically transmitted parasites are expected to reflect these differences. Here, we investigate how the infections of Diphyllobothrium dendriticum and D. ditremum differ between charr and trout. These tapeworms use copepods as their first intermediate hosts and fish can become infected...

The role of behavioral ecology in improving wildlife conservation and management has been the subject of much recent debate. We aim to answer two foundational questions about the current use of behavioral knowledge in conservation: 1. To what extent is behavioral knowledge used in wildlife conservation and management? 2. How does the use of behavior differ among conservation fields in...

Methylmercury is a global pollutant of aquatic ecosystems, and monitoring programs need tools to predict mercury exposure of wildlife. We developed equations to estimate methylmercury exposure of piscivorous birds and sport fish using mercury concentrations in prey fish. We collected original data on western grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and Clark’s grebes (Aechmophorus clarkii) and

The Bell’s Vireo (Vireo bellii) is a widespread North American species of bird that has declined since the mid-1960s primarily due to habitat modification. Throughout its range, Bell’s Vireo populations are regulated under varying degrees of protection; however, the species has never been characterized genetically. Therefore, the current taxonomy used to guide management decisions may...

Increasing concern over sea-level rise impacts to coastal tidal marsh ecosystems has led to modeling efforts to anticipate outcomes for resource management decision making. Few studies on the Pacific coast of North America have modeled sea-level rise marsh susceptibility at a scale relevant to local wildlife populations and plant communities. Here, we use a novel approach in developing...

No abstract available.