Publications

Early resolution of uncertainty during an epidemic outbreak can lead to rapid and efficient decision making, provided that the uncertainty affects prioritization of actions. The wide range in caseload projections for the 2014 Ebola outbreak caused great concern and debate about the utility of models. By coding and running 37 published Ebola models with five candidate interventions, we...

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in lakes reduces light penetration and limits fish production in low nutrient lakes, reportedly via reduced primary and secondary production. Alternatively, DOC and light reductions could influence fish by altering their visual feeding. Previous studies report mixed effects of DOC on feeding rates of zooplanktivorous fish, but most investigators tested...

Trace element contamination (17 elements; Be, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Mo, Cd, Ba, Hg, Tl, and Pb) of live (feather samples only) and deceased (feather and tissue samples) Anna's hummingbirds (Calypte anna) was evaluated. Samples were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS; 17 elements) and atomic absorption spectrophotometry (Hg only). Mean...

Fire is a dynamic ecosystem process of mixed-conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada, but there is limited scientific information addressing wildlife habitat use in burned landscapes. Recent studies have presented contradictory information regarding the effects of stand-replacing wildfires on Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis) and their habitat. While fire promotes heterogeneous forest...

Freshwater ecosystems provide numerous services for communities worldwide, including irrigation, hydropower, and municipal water; however, the services provided by inland fisheries – nourishment, employment, and recreational opportunities – are often comparatively undervalued. We provide an independent estimate of global lake harvest to improve biological and socioeconomic assessments of...

Prioritizing habitats for conservation is a challenging task, particularly for species with fluctuating populations and seasonally dynamic habitat needs. Although the use of resource selection models to identify and prioritize habitat for conservation is increasingly common, their ability to characterize important long-term habitats for dynamic populations are variable. To examine how...

Use of telemetry data to inform fisheries conservation and management is becoming increasingly common; as such, fish typically must be sedated before surgical implantation of transmitters into the coelom. Given that no widely available, immediate-release chemical sedative currently exists in North America, we investigated the feasibility of using electricity to sedate Lake Trout...

Acoustic cameras were used to assess the behavior and abundance of bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus)-size fish at the entrance to the North Fork Reservoir juvenile fish floating surface collector (FSC). The purpose of the FSC is to collect downriver migrating juvenile salmonids at the North Fork Dam, and safely route them around the hydroelectric projects. The objective of the acoustic...

Human activity may mimic predation risks for wildlife by causing abandonment of foraging sites and increasing expenditure of energy. Animals that can tolerate nonlethal disturbance may minimize these fitness costs. We examine this aspect of the risk—disturbance hypothesis by first analyzing recent habitat use of desert bighorn sheep relative to areas of attraction and disturbance. We...

Fibropapillomatosis (FP) is a tumor disease of marine turtles associated with Chelonid herpesvirus 5 (ChHV5) that has historically been refractory to growth in tissue culture. Here, we show for the first time de novo formation of ChHV5-positive intranuclear inclusions in cultured green turtle cells, which is indicative for active lytic replication of the virus. The minimal requirements...

Sylvatic plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, frequently afflicts prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.), causing population declines and local extirpations. We tested the effectiveness of bait-delivered sylvatic plague vaccine (SPV) in prairie dog colonies on 29 paired placebo and treatment plots (1–59 ha in size; average 16.9 ha) in 7 western states from 2013 to 2015. We compared relative abundance...

Condit Dam, at river kilometer 5.3 on the White Salmon River, Washington, was breached in 2011 and removed completely in 2012, allowing anadromous salmonids access to habitat that had been blocked for nearly 100 years. A multi-agency workgroup concluded that the preferred salmonid restoration alternative was natural recolonization with monitoring to assess efficacy, followed by a...