Publications

At over 2.5 million acres, Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness complex form one of the largest protected areas in the continental United States. Straddling the Continental Divide, these two areas form a vital linkage between vast areas of public land to the south towards Yellowstone, and contiguous protected areas north of the US-Canada border. However, US Highway 2...

Understanding the diet of deep-diving predators can provide essential insight to the trophic structure of the mesopelagic ecosystem. Comprehensive population-level diet estimates are exceptionally difficult to obtain for elusive marine predators due to the logistical challenges involved in observing their feeding behavior and collecting samples for traditional stomach content or fecal...

San Diego County is a hotspot of biodiversity, situated at the intersection of the Baja peninsula, the California floristic province, and the desert southwest. This hotspot is characterized by a high number of rare and endemic species, which persist alongside a major urban epicenter. San Diego County has implemented a strategic management plan that identifies species, based on low...

Exotic species are associated with a variety of impacts on biodiversity, but it is unclear whether impacts of exotic species differ from those of native species with similar growth forms or native species invading disturbed sites. We compared presence and abundance of native and exotic invaders with changes in wetland plant species diversity over a 28-year period by re-surveying 22 ponds...

Disaster research often focuses on how and why communities are affected by a discrete extreme event. We used the community capitals framework to understand how community characteristics influence their preparedness, response to, and recovery from successive or multiple disasters using the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake and the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill as case studies. This study assesses...

Temporary wetlands have value to both ecological and social systems. Interactions between local climate and the surrounding landscape result in patterns of hydrology that are unique to temporary wetlands. These seasonal and annual fluctuations in wetland inundation contribute to community composition and richness. Thus, predicting wetland community responses to environmental change is...

Land transformation can have cascading effects on hydrology, water quality, and human users of water resources, with serious implications for human health. An interdisciplinary analysis is presented, whereby remote-sensing data of changing land use and cover are related to surface hydrology and microbial contamination in domestic use areas of three indigenous Maya communities in Belize...

With the advent of small, low-cost environmental sensors, it is now possible to deploy high-density networks of sensors to measure hyper localized temperature variation. Here, we provide a detailed methodology for constructing a compact version of a previously described custom-fabricated radiation shield for use with inexpensive thermochrons.

In this chapter we present a hypothesis, and data supporting it, that vascular plants in diverse families possess symbiotic/endophytic bacteria that frequently vector on or within their seeds; seedlings degrade symbiotic bacteria within roots. Evidence of widespread microbivory was found in a survey for intracellular bacteria that we conducted including seedlings in 36 species of...

The mammalian taxonomic order Eulipotyphla is comprised of the living taxonomic families Erinaceidae (gymnures, hedgehogs, and moonrats), Solenodontidae (solenodonts), Soricidae (shrews), and Talpidae (desmans and moles). Morphological and molecular studies continue to alter our view of relationships within and among these families, and this research has added considerably to our...

Chemosynthetic ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) support dense communities of seep megafaunal invertebrates that rely on endosymbiotic bacteria for nutrition. Distinct infaunal communities are associated with the biogenic habitats created by seep biota, where habitat heterogeneity and sediment geochemistry influence local macrofaunal community structure. Here we examine the...

Rationale Stable hydrogen isotope (δ2H) ratios of animal tissues are useful for assessing movement and geographic origin of mobile organisms. However, it is uncertain whether heat and singeing affects feather δ2H values and thus subsequent geographic assignments. This is relevant for birds of conservation interest that are burned and killed at concentrating solar‐energy facilities that...