Publications

Lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis are a native coldwater species supporting important recreational and commercial fisheries in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Climate-related changes in water temperature may have important implications for the future sustainability of these fisheries. However, projecting future habitat availability is difficult because limited information is available on...

The endangered California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is negatively affected by lead poisoning from spent lead-based hunting ammunition. Because lead poisoning is the primary mortality factor affecting condors, the California Fish and Game Commission banned lead hunting ammunition during 2008 in the southern California condor range followed by a statewide ban implemented in 2019. In...

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease caused by infectious prions (PrPCWD) affecting cervids. Circulating PrPCWD in blood may pose a risk for indirect transmission by way of hematophagous ectoparasites acting as mechanical vectors. Cervids can carry high tick infestations and exhibit allogrooming, a common tick defense strategy between conspecifics. Ingestion...

Urban stream restoration is growing globally, but there is much to learn from successes, failures, and evaluating tradeoffs in restoration practices. Significant time and resources have been invested towards restoring the structure and function of urban ecosystems and understanding and slowing the drivers of degradation. However, the rapid pace of urbanization and its effects on urban...

Many bat species are highly social, forming groups of conspecifics, particularly during the maternity season. In temperate North America, these social groups are typically comprised of closely related individuals or individuals that share some common trait (i.e. reproductive state or shared hibernacula from the previous winter). In the summer, when bats use forests for day-roosts, these...

Feral and free-roaming domestic cats (Felis catus) are invasive predators throughout the world. In some areas, cats occur in higher densities than native mammalian predators and can have severe effects upon prey populations. We set 48 wildlife game cameras in residential yards in Arkansas, USA, to evaluate which landscape and yard features influenced cat abundance occurring in yards. In...

Recovering species are not returning to the same environments or communities from which they disappeared. Conservation researchers and practitioners are thus faced with additional challenges in ensuring species resilience in these rapidly changing ecosystems. Assessing the resilience of species in these novel systems can still be guided by species’ ecology, including knowledge of their...

Earth has been labeled the blue planet because of its abundance of water that covers most of its surface, but the majority is salt water in our oceans. Oceans account for ~352 million km2 or 69% of the planet's surface, land for 150 million km2 or 29%, and fresh water for 9 million km2 or 2% (Shiklomanov, 2000). Most of the fresh water is locked away in glaciers and ice sheets on...

Effective fishery management in large systems relies on understanding how individual stocks contribute to a fishery over spatial and temporal scales. The current conceptual model for management of Walleye Sander vitreus in Green Bay designates Walleye in the northern and southern parts of the bay as distinct stocks, with little mixing between the northern and southern fisheries, and...

A growing body of evidence shows that some ungulates alternate between migratory and nonmigratory behaviors over time. Yet it remains unclear whether such short-term behavioral changes can help explain reported declines in ungulate migration worldwide, as opposed to long-term demographic changes. Furthermore, advances in tracking technology reveal that a simple distinction between...

The parasitic copepod Salmincola californiensis infects Pacific salmon and trout (Oncorhynchus spp.) and often reaches high prevalence and intensity in reservoirs compared to stream systems. Recent research indicates that temperature plays a fundamental role in copepod development and fish susceptibility. Here, we expand a linked foraging and bioenergetics model to simulate infection...

Discussed in this chapter are seven significant tributaries of the Lower Mississippi River and its major distributary. As a group, these eight rivers and their basins encompass substantial variation in physical form, hydrology, biota, ecology, and human impacts. The Current River, Ouachita River, and Saline River, flow to the Mississippi out of the U.S. Interior Highlands. The Cache...