Publications

The Smoky Madtom Noturus baileyi is a federally endangered species, whose native distribution includes lower Abrams Creek in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) and Citico Creek in nearby Cherokee National Forest. Due to challenges for bio-monitoring posed by its nocturnality and cryptic life history, an environmental DNA (eDNA)-based approach for detection would be useful to...

Biodiversity conservation efforts have been criticized for generating inequitable socio-economic outcomes. These equity challenges are largely analyzed as place-based problems affecting local communities directly impacted by conservation programs. The conservation of migratory species extends this problem geographically since people in one place may benefit while those in another bear...

Little is known about water movement, volume, or residence time (RT), and how those characteristics affect sediment trapping efficiency (TE) and dissolved oxygen concentrations (DO) in the United States' largest remaining bottomland hardwood swamp, the Atchafalaya River Basin. To better understand these dynamics, this study used bathymetry, lidar, and stage records to determine volumes...

We developed new bull trout genetic markers using Restriction-site Associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) to improve our ability to address questions important for their conservation and management. Samples from across the species range were sequenced and 5020 high quality single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci were discovered, including hundreds with high heterozygosity (H > 0.30). We...

Environmental contamination is widespread and can negatively impact wildlife health. Some contaminants, including heavy metals, have immunosuppressive effects, but prior studies have rarely measured contamination and disease simultaneously, which limits our understanding of how contaminants and pathogens interact to influence wildlife health. Here, we measured mercury concentrations...

1. The relationships between macrophytes and the physical and biological characteristics of the environments that aquatic organisms inhabit are complex. Previous studies have shown that the macrophytes, Ranunculus (subgenus Batrachium), which are dominant in lowland chalk streams and widespread across Europe, can enhance juvenile Atlantic salmon abundance and growth to a greater degree...

Rabies virus (RABV) transmitted by the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) poses a threat to agricultural development and public health throughout the Neotropics. The ecology and evolution of rabies host-pathogen dynamics are influenced by two infection-induced behavioral changes. RABV-infected hosts often exhibit increased aggression which facilitates transmission, and rabies also...

Climate change is expected to have a major hydrological impact on the core breeding habitat and migration corridors of many amphibians in the twenty-first century. The Yosemite toad (Anaxyrus canorus) is a species of meadow-specializing amphibian endemic to the high-elevation Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Despite living entirely on federal lands, it has recently faced severe...

Since 2008, large-scale restoration programs have been implemented along the Willamette River, Oregon, to address historical losses of floodplain habitats caused by dam construction, bank protection, large wood removal, land conversion, and other anthropogenic influences. The Willamette Focused Investment Partnership (WFIP) restoration initiative brings together more than 16...

Heterogeneity is a central feature of ecosystem resilience, but how this translates to socioeconomic resilience depends on people’s ability to track shifting resources in space and time. Here, we quantify how climatic extremes have influenced how people (fishers) track economically valuable ecosystem services (fishing opportunities) across a range of spatial scales in rivers of the...

Wetlands deliver a suite of ecosystem services to society. Anthropogenic activities, such as wetland drainage, have resulted in considerable wetland loss and degradation, diminishing the intrinsic value of wetland ecosystems worldwide. Protecting remaining wetlands and restoring degraded wetlands are common management practices to preserve and reclaim wetland benefits to society...

Understanding the effects of extreme weather on animal populations is fundamental to ecological and conservation sciences and species management. Climate change has resulted in both warm and cold temperature extremes, including an increased frequency of severe cold snaps at middle latitudes in North America. These unusually cold air masses cause rapid declines in nearshore ocean...