Publications

Identifying, protecting, and restoring habitats for declining wildlife populations is foundational to conservation and recovery planning for any species at risk of decline. Resource selection analysis is a key tool to assess habitat and prescribe management actions. Yet, it can be challenging to map suitable resource conditions across a wide range of ecological contexts and use the...

System-scale restoration efforts within the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge have included annual monitoring of submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) since 1998 in four representative reaches spanning ∼ 440 river kilometers. We developed predictive models relating monitoring data (site-scale SAV abundance indices) to diver-harvested SAV biomass, used the models to...

Across many global drylands, biocrusts form a protective barrier on the soil surface and fill many critical roles in these harsh yet fragile environments. Previous short-term research suggests that climate change and invasive plant introduction can damage and alter biocrust communities, yet few long-term observations exist. Using a globally unique long-term record of continuous biocrust...

One consequence of global change causing widespread concern is the possibility of ecosystem conversions from one type to another. A classic example of this is vegetation type conversion (VTC) from native woody shrublands to invasive annual grasslands in the biodiversity hotspot of Southern California. Although the significance of this problem is well recognized, understanding where, how...

The Pink-footed Shearwater’s life history is tied to the Humboldt and California upwelling currents in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. It is larger than other shearwaters in its range, other than Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carneipes. It is also distinct in appearance with pinkish bill and feet, pale underparts, and brown to grayish upperparts. It is known to breed on the Juan Fernández...

Peer review is the formal means by which the scientific community assesses the originality, reproducibility, validity, and quality of a research study (Bakker and Traniello 2019). As such, peer review assures nonexperts that they can trust a study's findings (Jamieson et al. 2019). Despite the critical importance of peer review, graduate students, postdocs, and other early career...

Species with especially close dependence on the environment to meet physiological requirements, such as ectotherms, are highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Climate change is occurring rapidly in the Subarctic and Arctic, but there is limited knowledge on ectotherm physiology in these landscapes. We investigated how environmental conditions and habitat characteristics...

The relationship between phoretic diskfishes and their hosts is a classic example of marine symbiosis, yet surprisingly few studies have quantified this trophic relationship. We investigated the hypothesis that by consuming host parasites and prey scraps phoretic diskfishes (Echeneidae) feed at a higher relative trophic position than free-living individuals through expanded foraging...

Estimates of demographic rates for animal populations and individuals have many applications for ecological and conservation research. In many animals, survival is size-dependent, but estimating the form of the size–survival relationship presents challenges. For elusive species with low recapture rates, individuals’ size will be unknown at many points in time. Integrating growth and...

Amphibian populations are sensitive to environmental temperatures and moisture, which vary with local weather conditions and may reach new norms and extremes as contemporary climate change progresses. Using long-term (11–16 years) mark-recapture data from 10 populations of the Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) from across its U.S. range, we addressed hypotheses about how...

Dam-created reservoirs are common landscape features that can provide habitat for amphibians, but their water level fluctuations and nonnative predators can differ markedly from more natural habitats. We compared fall movement and habitat use by the Oregon Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa) in the reservoir pool with nearby river and pond habitats at Crane Prairie Reservoir in central Oregon...

Conservation plans designed to sustain North American duck populations prominently feature a key hypothesis stating that the amount of the landscape in perennial cover surrounding upland duck nests positively influences nest survival rates. Recent conflicting research testing this hypothesis creates ambiguity regarding which management actions to pursue and where to prioritize...