Publications

The dog was the first domesticated animal. Its derivation from grey wolves Canis lupus is important to the study of mammalian domestication, and wolf domestication is an active area of investigation. Recent popular books have promoted a hypothesis that wolves domesticated themselves as opposed to the earliest hypothesis that featured pup collection, adoption, and artificial selection...

Since 2014, widespread, annual mortality events involving multiple species of seabirds have occurred in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Chukchi Sea. Among these die-offs, emaciation was a common finding with starvation often identified as the cause of death. However, saxitoxin (STX) was detected in many carcasses, indicating exposure of these seabirds to STX in the marine environment...

Adaptive capacity (AC)—the ability of a species to cope with or accommodate climate change—is a critical determinant of species vulnerability. Using information on species’ AC in conservation planning is key to ensuring successful outcomes. We identified connections between a list of species’ attributes (e.g., traits, population metrics, and behaviors) that were recently proposed for...

Premise Ecologists have an incomplete understanding of the factors that select for deciduous, evergreen, and marcescent leaf habits. Evergreens have more opportunities for photosynthesis but may experience costs when abiotic conditions are unfavorable such as during ice and windstorms.Methods We documented branch loss for species of oaks (Quercus spp.) in a common garden in California...

Histopathological assessments of young-of-the-year (age-0) Smallmouth Bass Micropterus dolomieu in the Susquehanna River drainage identified a high prevalence of the myxozoan Myxobolus inornatus. This myxozoan infects the connective tissue of the muscle below the skin but is sometimes observed in the esophagus and buccal cavity. In some instances, shallow infections cause breaks in the...

The Florida Everglades is a vast and iconic wetland ecosystem in the southern United States that has undergone dramatic changes from habitat degradation, development encroachment, and water impoundment. Starting in the past few decades, large restoration projects have been undertaken to restore the landscape, including improving conditions for threatened and imperiled taxa. One focus of

We determined the efficacy of carbon dioxide (CO2) for preventing larval (veliger) settlement of the invasive zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) and compared the response of native juvenile mussels and macroinvertebrate and periphyton communities to hypercapnia. A microcosm system of control (ambient Camb) and CO2 treatments [low PCO2 (Clow)=35,094 µatm, and high PCO2 (Chigh)=66,685...

Genome-wide evaluations of genetic diversity and population structure are important for informing management and conservation of trailing-edge populations. North American moose (Alces alces) are declining along portions of the southern edge of their range due to disease, species interactions, and marginal habitat, all of which may be exacerbated by climate change. We employed a...

In 2020, the fire season affecting the western United States reached unprecedented levels. The 116 fires active in September consumed nearly 20,822 km2 (https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/accessible-view/ Accessed 2020-09-29) with eighty percent of this footprint (16,567 km2) from 68 fires occurring within California, Oregon, and Washington. Although the 2020 fire season was the most extreme on...

Rediscovery of living populations of a species that was presumed to be extirpated can generate new narratives for conservation in areas suffering from losses in biodiversity. We used field observations and DNA sequence data to verify the rediscovery of the Critically Endangered scincid lizard Emoia slevini on Dåno′, an islet off the coast of Guam in the southern Mariana Islands, where...

Energy infrastructure, particularly for wind power, is rapidly expanding in Africa, creating the potential for conflict with at-risk wildlife populations. Raptor populations are especially susceptible to negative impacts of fatalities from wind energy because individuals tend to be long-lived and reproduce slowly. A major determinant of risk of collision between flying birds and wind...

Walleye (Sander vitreus) is an economically and culturally important species in Lake Erie that has experienced large interannual variability in recruitment. We examined the importance of prey biomass during the larval period to walleye recruitment while also considering the importance of temperature. Using nine years of field data over a 22-year period (1994–2016) for larval walleye and