Publications

Bees play a key role in the functioning of human-modified and natural ecosystems by pollinating agricultural crops and wild plant communities. Global pollinator conservation efforts need large-scale and long-term monitoring to detect changes in species’ demographic patterns and shifts in bee community structure. The objective of this project was to test a molecular sequencing pipeline...

Birds free from nest predators for long periods may either lose the ability to recognize and respond to predators or retain antipredator responses if they are not too costly. How these alternate scenarios play out has rarely been investigated in an avian community whose members have different evolutionary histories. We presented models of two nest predators (rat and snake) and a negative...

Use of the first fish pheromone biopesticide, 3-keto petromyzonol sulfate (3kPZS) in sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) control requires an understanding of both how the amount 3kPZS applied to a trap relates to catch, and how that relationship varies among stream types. By conducting 3kPZS dose-response experiments over two years and across six varied trapping contexts, we conclude (1)...

Invasive species are a leading driver of global change, with consequences for biodiversity and society. Because of extraordinary rates of endemism, introduction, and extinction, Hawaii offers a rich platform for exploring the cross-disciplinary challenges of managing invasive species in a dynamic world. We highlight key successes and shortcomings to share lessons learned and inspire...

Blue oak woodlands in California have been a focus of conservation concern for many years. Numerous studies have found that existing seedling and sapling numbers are inadequate to sustain current populations, and recent work has suggested that blue oak woodlands might be particularly vulnerable to a warming climate. California has recently experienced a drought of historically...

Fire is a critical ecosystem process that has played a key role in shaping forests throughout the Beartooth Mountains in northwestern Wyoming. The highly variable topography of the area provides ideal conditions to compare fire regimes across contiguous forest types, yet pyro-dendrochronological research in this area is limited. We reconstructed fire frequency, tree age structure, and...

The genus Corbicula contains one of the most common and successful aquatic invasive species to North America. Prior to 2015 two predominant species of Corbicula were known from the United States—C. fluminea and C. largillierti, referred to as Forms A and B, respectively. Form A has spread throughout most of the U.S., while Form B is mainly contained in the Midwest and southern U.S. In...

The geomorphological formation of the Baja California peninsula and the Gulf of California is a principal driver of diversification for the reptiles of North America’s warm deserts. The western banded gecko, Coleonyx variegatus, is distributed throughout the Mojave, Sonoran and Peninsular deserts. In this study we use multilocus sequence data to address deep phylogeographic structure...

Globally temperature of marine environments is on the rise and temperature plays an important role in the life-history of reptiles. In this study, we examined the relationship between sea surface temperature and average date of hatching for American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) over a 37-year period at two nesting sites, Everglades National Park and Florida Power and Light Turkey Point...

Detection has been a long-standing challenge to monitoring populations of cryptic herpetofauna, which often have detection probabilities that are closer to zero than one. Burmese Pythons (Python bivittatus =Python molurus bivittatus), a recent invader in the Greater Everglades Ecosystem of Florida, are cryptic snakes that have long periods of inactivity. In addition, management actions...

Habitat fragmentation can alter species distributions and lead to reduced diversity at multiple scales. Yet, the literature describing fragmentation effects on biodiversity patterns is contradictory and inconclusive, possibly because most studies fail to integrate spatial scale into experimental designs and statistical analyses. As a result, it is difficult to extrapolate the effects of

Although hybrids between captive Accipiter species are known, and hybrids between wild Accipiter species in North America have long been suspected, none have been confirmed to date. However, in 2014, a hatching year Accipiter captured at Cape May, New Jersey, during fall migration, appeared intermediate in size and plumage between a Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) and a Cooper's...