Publications

Wetland managers in the Central Valley of California, a dynamic hydrological landscape, require information regarding the amount and location of existing wetland habitat to make decisions on how to best use water resources to support multiple wildlife objectives, particularly during drought. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Point Blue

Invasive species can exert rapid depletion of resources after introduction and, in turn, affect their own population density. Additionally, management actions can have direct and indirect effects on demography. Physiological variables can predict demographic change but are often restricted to snapshots-in-time and delayed confirmation of changes in population density reduces their...

Herein we provide direct evidence for the consumption of Pomacea maculata (Giant Applesnail) eggs by ants in the genus Crematogaster. The observations were made during removal of snail egg masses at the Hudson Woods Unit of the Texas Mid-Coast National Wildlife Refuge, TX. We observed acrobat ants (Crematogaster sp.) removing snail eggs from an egg mass and carrying eggs back to their...

Understanding patterns of biodiversity is a key goal of ecology and is especially pressing in the current human‐caused biodiversity crisis. In wetland ecosystems, human impacts are centered around hydrologic manipulation including the common practice of wetland diking and impoundment. Constraining how wetland management influences plant biodiversity patterns across spatial scales will...

Plague is a flea-vectored disease introduced to North America c. 1900. It is lethal to many American mammal species, causes major die-offs (epizootics) in some populations, and may be ecologically disruptive even at lower interepizootic (enzootic) levels of transmission. We sought to determine the effects of enzootic plague on survival of Mexican woodrats (Neotoma mexicana) and to test...

The diversification of modern birds has been shaped by a number of radiations. Rapid diversification events make reconstructing the evolutionary relationships among taxa challenging due to the convoluted effects of incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) and introgression. Phylogenomic data sets have the potential to detect patterns of phylogenetic incongruence, and to address their causes...

Tropical forests have evolved under relatively narrow temperature regimes, and therefore may be more susceptible to climatic change than forests in higher latitudes. Recent evidence shows that lowland tropical forest canopies may already be exceeding thermal maxima for photosynthesis. Height can strongly influence both the microclimate and physiology of forest canopy foliage, yet...

We reviewed the scientific literature to inventory existing studies of common raven (Corvus corax; raven) ecology in western North America. We conducted an intial literature review between June 2015 and March 2018. Prior to completing our review, we revisited the published literature for any additional relevant studies in July 2021. Our goal was to identify knowledge gaps and to...

During migration, transient birds usually find themselves stopping in unfamiliar habitats in order to rest and refuel before resuming migratory flight. Here we document the first case, to our knowledge, of a Tennessee Warbler (Leiothlypis peregrina) entrapped in a spiderweb. The warbler's tarsus became caught in the mooring thread of a golden silk orb-weaver (Trichonephila clavipes) web...

Snow avalanches affect transportation corridors and settlements worldwide. In many mountainous regions, robust records of avalanche frequency and magnitude are sparse or non-existent. However, dendrochronological methods can be used to fill this gap and infer historical avalanche patterns. In this study, we developed a tree-ring-based avalanche chronology for large magnitude avalanche...

Multicultural representation is a stated goal of many global scientific assessment processes. These processes aim to mobilize a broader, more diverse knowledge base and increase legitimacy and inclusiveness of these assessment processes. Often, enhancing cultural diversity is encouraged through involvement of diverse expert teams and sources of knowledge in different languages. In this...

Floodplain forests of large rivers in the midwestern United States are naturally fragmented by sloughs, backwaters, wetlands, and shrub carr. On the highly altered Upper Mississippi River (UMR), resource managers want to protect and manage floodplain forests to benefit forest “interior” bird species. To discover bird relations with interior and edge floodplain forest, we characterized...