Publications

Passive acoustic monitoring is a promising method for monitoring rare and nocturnal species, and for tracking changes in forest wildlife biodiversity. We conducted simulations to compare and evaluate various passive acoustic sampling designs effectiveness for monitoring spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) population trends. We found that each design was effective for detecting a...

Dundee and Rossman (1989) published distribution maps of Louisiana herpetofaunal species in The Amphibians and Reptiles of Louisiana over 30 years ago. Since then many records have been published, mostly in Herpetological Review, documenting additions to these original maps. Though many are single species additions, several compilations of new Louisiana records have been published...

As an obligate salt marsh species, Seaside Sparrows (Ammospiza maritima) are vulnerable to numerous threats including climate change, coastal erosion, sea-level rise, and both natural and anthropogenic disasters. Of the 9 recognized subspecies, 2 are extinct and 1 is endangered. Previous genetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and microsatellite loci showed that current taxonomy...

Since the identification of 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol as a lampricide in the 1950s, control of sea lamprey populations in the Great Lakes has largely relied on lampricides, barriers, and traps. Lampricide treatments target larval lampreys in tributaries of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission oversees sea lamprey control efforts and has invested in technologies that...

Meat, fruit, seeds and other high-energy bear foods are often highly localized and briefly available and understanding which factors influence bear consumption of these foods is a common focus of bear conservation and ecology. However, the most common bear foods, graminoids and forbs, are more widespread but of lower quality. We poorly understand how herbage consumption impacts bear...

Biological assemblages in streams are affected by a wide variety of physical and chemical stressors associated with land-use development, yet the importance of combinations of different types of stressors is not well known. From 2013 to 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey completed multi-stressor/multi-assemblage stream ecological assessments in five regions of the United States (434...

Drought is an inescapable reality in many regions, including much of the western United States. With climate change, droughts are predicted to intensify and occur more frequently, making the imperative for drought management even greater. Many diverse actors – including private landowners, business owners, scientists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and managers and policymakers...

Population genomics has significantly increased our ability to make inferences about microevolutionary processes and demographic histories, which have the potential to improve protection and recovery of imperiled species. Freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionida) represent one of the most imperiled groups of organisms globally. Despite systemic decline of mussel abundance and diversity...

Environmental conditions on Earth are repeated in non-random patterns that often coincide with species from different regions and time periods having consistent combinations of morphological, physiological and behavioral traits. Observation of repeated trait combinations among species confronting similar environmental conditions suggest that adaptive trait combinations are constrained by

Characterizing variation in plant functional traits is often key to understanding community-level processes and predicting ecosystem responses to environmental change. Trait-based ecology has focused on interspecific trait variation, but sources and consequences of within-species ontogenetic trait variation, particularly during early stages of development, remain understudied.Using a...

Subarctic catchments underlain by permafrost sequester a major stock of frozen organic carbon (C), which may be mobilized as the Arctic warms. Warming can impact C export from thawing soils by altering the depth and timing of runoff related to changing storm and fire regimes and altered soil thaw depths. We investigated C export in a first order headwater stream (West Twin Creek) and its...

The steppe eagle (Aquila nipalensis) is a globally endangered, full migrant raptor that breeds in the southern temperate zone from European Russia in the west to eastern Mongolia, Dauria and adjacent north-eastern China in the east. It winters in Africa, the Middle East and Southern and South-Eastern Asia, and migrations can sometimes entail journeys > 10,000 km in length. Kazakhstan...