Publications

The spread of Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basin by way of the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS) is a pressing concern to resource managers in the Midwest region. Augmenting this spread are watercrafts traveling through the CAWS locks and dams. AIS are able to attach to boat hulls, equipment, or are present in the surrounding water during...

The conservation of many wildlife species requires understanding the demographic effects of climate change, including interactions between climate change and harvest, which can provide cultural, nutritional or economic value to humans.We present a demographic model that is based on the polar bear Ursus maritimus life cycle and includes density-dependent relationships linking vital rates...

Experimental studies evaluating the effects of food availability on the movement of free-ranging animals generally involve food supplementation rather than suppression. Both approaches can yield similar insights, but we were interested in the potential for using food suppression for the management and control of invasive predators, in particular, the brown treesnake (Boiga irregularis)...

The disturbance history, plant species composition, productivity, and structural complexity of a site can exert bottom-up controls on arthropod diversity, abundance, and trophic structure. Regulation alters the hydrology and disturbance regimes of rivers and affects riparian habitats by changing plant quality parameters. Fifty years of regulation along the Colorado River downstream of...

Managing an invasive species is particularly challenging as little is generally known about the species’ biological characteristics in its new habitat. In practice, removal of individuals often starts before the species is studied to provide the information that will later improve control. Therefore, the locations and the amount of control have to be determined in the face of great...

Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) is an icon of the southeastern United States and has been considered a foundation species in forests, woodlands, and savannas of the region (Schwarz 1907; Platt 1999). Longleaf pine is an avatar for the extensive pine-dominated, fire-dependent ecosystems (Figure 2.1) that provide habitats for thousands of species and have largely vanished from the...

This is the first comprehensive region wide, spatially explicit epidemiologic analysis of surveillance data of the aquatic viral pathogen infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) infecting native salmonid fish. The pathogen has been documented in the freshwater ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest of North America since the 1950s, and the current report describes the disease ecology...

Examination of food webs and trophic niches provide insights into organisms' functional ecology, yet few studies have examined trophodynamics within submarine canyons, where the interaction of canyon morphology and oceanography influences habitat provision and food deposition. Using stable isotope analysis and Bayesian ellipses, we documented deep-sea food-web structure and trophic...

Natural resource management is conducted in the context of multiple anthropogenic stressors and is further challenged owing to changing climate. Experiments to determine the effects of climate change on complex ecological systems are nearly impossible. However, using a simulation model to synthesize current understanding of key ecological processes through the life cycle of a fish...

The 2017 census of southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) was conducted between late April and early July along the mainland coast of central California and in April at San Nicolas Island in southern California. The 3-year average of combined counts from the mainland range and San Nicolas Island was 3,186, down by 86 sea otters from the previous year. This is the second year that...

American Alligators are opportunistic predators and their food habits have been well studied (Elsey et al. 1992. Proc. Annu. Conf. Southeast. Assoc. Fish Wildl. Agencies 46:57–66, and references therein and below). Composition of A. mississippiensis diet often varies due to regional limitation in prey availability (Neill 1971. The Last of the Ruling Reptiles. Alligators, Crocodiles, and...

Executive Summary We surveyed for Least Bell’s Vireos (LBVI) (Vireo bellii pusillus) and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (SWFL) (Empidonax traillii extimus) along the San Luis Rey River, between College Boulevard in Oceanside and Interstate 15 in Fallbrook, California (middle San Luis Rey River), in 2016. Surveys were done from March 30 to July 11 (LBVI) and from May 18 to July 30 (SWFL)...