Publications

Extinction-risk assessments play a major role in prioritizing conservation action at national and international levels. However, quantifying extinction risk is challenging, especially when including the full suite of adaptive responses to environmental change. In particular, evolutionary potential (EP), the capacity to evolve genetically based changes that increase fitness under changing

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As we advance into the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, understanding the relationship between science, management, and policy is increasingly important given the paucity of research evaluating the ability of existing policy to address contemporary environmental challenges. Despite their inherent interdependence, restoration ecology as a scientific discipline, ecological...

We report on the discovery of a wild, reproducing population of Channa aurolineata (Pisces: Channidae) in west-central Florida (USA), and first documented occurrence of snakeheads in the Gulf Coast region. Channa aurolineata is a large, predatory fish of the bullseye snakehead “Marulius group” species complex from Asia. Adult and juvenile specimens were captured in June 2020 in a 1.8...

To advance national efforts for the detection and biosurveillance of aquatic invasive species (AIS), we employed a community consensus process to enable the incorporation of environmental DNA (eDNA) detection data into the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) database (https://nas.er.usgs.gov/eDNA/). Our goal was to identify minimum standards and best...

A collaborative acoustic telemetry study was conducted to describe behavior and movement patterns of juvenile green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) in the lower Sacramento River, California during 2016–19. For the study, juvenile green sturgeon were collected, tagged, and released in the Sacramento River between river kilometer (rkm) 467 and rkm 419 near Red Bluff, California. Telemetry

Seasonal movements cued by environmental variables are a critical component of riverine fish life history. Life-history events for species such as blue sucker Cycleptus elongatus are likely cued by discharge and temperature and may be disrupted if those life-history events and environmental regimes are mismatched. However, this effect may be dependent upon the habitat occupied when...

Hidden Markov models (HMMs) are broadly applicable hierarchical models that derive their utility from separating state processes from observation processes yielding the data. Multistate models such as mark–recapture and dynamic multistate occupancy models are HMMs frequently used in ecology. In their early formulations, states, such as pathogen infection status, were assumed to be...

NOAA’s Deep-Sea Coral Research Technology Program (DSCRTP) began a 4-year funding initiative for the U.S. West Coast in 2018. The goals of the West Coast Deep-Sea Coral Initiative were to: 1) gather baseline information on DSCS in areas subject to fishing regulation changes prior to the implementation of Amendment 28; 2) improve our understanding of known DSCS bycatch “hot spots”; and 3)...

During an occupancy study of Northwestern Pond Turtles (Actinemys marmorata) and Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) in California’s Sacramento Valley in 2018, we tested the relative effectiveness of 2 bait types: sardines packed in soybean oil and Meow Mix® Original Choice dry cat food. We sampled 116 sites with 2 traps each: one baited with sardines and one baited with dry...

Marking birds with transmitters allows for the collection of data that are critical for fully understanding avian life history, but researchers must also be confident that performing such studies is as safe as possible for transmittered individuals. While much could be learned from tracking juveniles across dependency periods and first migration, doing so would require a harness-based...

Monitoring changes in the distribution of large carnivores is important for managing human safety and supporting conservation. Throughout much of their range, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are increasingly using terrestrial habitats in response to Arctic sea ice decline. Their increased presence in coastal areas has implications for bear-human conflict, inter-species interactions, and...