Publications

Even a fleeting mention of the Everglades conjures colorful images of alligators, panthers, flamingos, and manatees. Over the centuries, this familiar cast of characters has become synonymous with life in south Florida. But the workings of a changing climate have the potential to significantly alter the menagerie of animals that call this area home. Global projections suggest south...

No abstract available.

Crocodylus acutus (American Crocodile) is the most widely distributed New World crocodilian species with its range extending from Peru in the south to the southern tip of peninsular Florida in the north. Crocodylus acutus occupies primarily coastal brackish water habitat, however it also occurs in freshwater to hypersaline habitats (Thorbjarnarson 2010. In Crocodiles. Status Survey and

No abstract available

Forests comprise approximately 37% of the terrestrial land surface and influence global water cycling. However, very little attention has been directed towards understanding environmental impacts on stand water use (S) or in identifying rates of S from specific forested wetlands. Here, we use sapflow techniques to address two separate but linked objectives: (1) determine S in four...

Identifying the scale of dispersal among habitats has been a challenge in marine ecology for decades (Grantham et al., 2003; Kinlan & Gaines, 2003; Hixon, 2011). Unlike terrestrial habitats in which barriers to dispersal may be obvious (e.g. mountain ranges, rivers), few absolute barriers to dispersal are recognizable in the sea. Additionally, most marine species have complex life cycles...

We consider the putative tradeoff between optimization and resilience in the management of natural resources, using a framework that incorporates different sources of uncertainty that are common in natural resources management. We address one-time decisions, and then expand the decision context to the more complex problem of iterative decision making. For both cases we focus on two key...

No abstract available.

Climate, sea level rise, and urbanization are undergoing unprecedented levels of combined change and are expected to have large effects on natural resources—particularly along the Gulf of Mexico coastline (Gulf Coast). Management decisions to address these effects (i.e., adaptation) require an understanding of the relative vulnerability of various resources to these stressors. To meet...

Reserve design is a process that must address many ecological, social, and political factors to successfully identify parcels of land in need of protection to sustain wildlife populations and other natural resources. Making land acquisition choices for a large, terrestrial protected area is difficult because it occurs over a long timeframe and may involve consideration future conditions...

Coastal ecosystems in the eastern U.S. have been severely altered by processes associated with human development, including drainage of coastal wetlands, changes in hydrology that alter sediment and freshwater delivery to the coast, land clearing, agricultural and forestry activity, and the construction of seawalls and other structures that “harden” the coast. Sea-level rise and the...

Artificial pipe-like refugia have been used for more than 40 years in anuran studies, and have captured 28 species, primarily (82%) hylid treefrogs. Early pipe-like refugia were made using cut pieces of bamboo in the tropical forests of Puerto Rico, but most recent studies have used synthetic pipes and have occurred primarily in the southeastern United States. Characteristics of...