Publications

Land managers and conservation practitioners need practical tools to protect rare species in light of rapidly changing climate and land use patterns. Habitat suitability models are tools that can inform multiple-use land management decisions and target conservation actions. The narrow endemic Zuni fleabane, Erigeron rhizomatus, occurs on lands managed for multiple uses and was listed as...

Drippy blight, an emergent bacterial disease of oaks, was described recently from urban oaks in the Front Range of Colorado, U.S.A. This disease, which causes branch dieback and oozing of bacterial exudates from cankers, is caused by Lonsdalea quercina and primarily affects red oaks, with northern red oak (Quercus rubra) being the most susceptible. Drippy nut is a similar, less acute...

In cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey Southwest Biological Science Center employed ground-based light detection and ranging (lidar) during February 2022 to help meet two resource management objectives at the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge (CPNWR), Arizona. The two objectives are (1) characterize the water storage capacity for one...

Amphibians such as frogs, toads, and salamanders provide important services in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and have been proposed as useful indicators of progress and success for ecological restoration projects. Limited guidance is available, however, on the costs and benefits of different amphibian monitoring techniques that might be applied to sites restored in compensation for

Control and elimination of invasive fishes, like carps (Order Cypriniformes), may be possible by using chemical stimuli to congregate them for removal. To this end, we tested behavioral responses of grass (Ctenopharyngodon idella), bighead (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), and silver carp (H. molitrix) to L-alanine, L-arginine, L-glutamic acid, and L-aspartic acid. In grass carp, the first...

Overexploitation, habitat conversion, and introduced species have caused unprecedented extinctions and heavily degraded native bird populations in island ecosystems. In the Hawaiian Islands, stemming these losses has proven difficult as the highly specialized avifauna are often impacted – among other things – by poorly understood trophic disruptions as well as persistent climatic shifts...

Increasing wildfire has motivated the construction of fuel breaks on many rangelands to improve prospects for wildfire suppression. However, the linear shape of fuel breaks greatly increases treatment perimeter: area and thus increased potential for edge effects, e.g., invasions by exotic plants. Potential for edge effects are further increased by the disturbances associated with fuel...

Human-carnivore conflicts pose significant challenges in the management and conservation of carnivores across the globe. Abundant research has led to generalizable insights into the causes of such conflicts. For example, conflicts predictably occur when carnivores have access to human food resources, particularly when their natural foods are scarce. However, similar insights into the...

Context Widespread ecological degradation has prompted calls for massive global investments in ecological restoration, yet limited resources necessitate efficient application of restoration efforts. In western North America, altered fire regimes are increasing the scale of restoration needed to preserve the sagebrush (Artemisia species) biome but prioritizing and implementing effective...

Disease may be both a cause and consequence of stress, and physiological responses to infectious disease may involve stress coping mechanisms that have important fitness consequences. For example, glucocorticoid and glycemic responses may affect host fitness by altering resource allocation and use in hosts, and these responses may be affected by competing stressors. To better understand...

Environmental DNA (eDNA) offers a novel approach to supplement traditional surveys and provide increased spatial and temporal information on species detection, and it can be especially beneficial for detecting at risk or threatened species with minimal impact on the target species. The transport of eDNA in lotic environments is an important component in providing more informed...

Previously published research indicated that predation by piscivorous colonial waterbirds in the Upper Klamath Basin was a source of mortality for Lost River suckers (Deltistes luxatus) and Shortnose suckers (Chasmistes brevirostris), including mortality of Sucker Assisted Rearing Program (SARP) fish. Avian predation on recently released Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the...