Publications

Conservation planners use a variety of decision-making tools, many of which require identifying and prioritizing spatial units based on their biodiversity and levels of imperilment. Turtles are highly imperiled, but present schemes for determining global priority areas are focused mostly on broad regional scales. We conduct the first global evaluation of turtle biodiversity and...

In this experimental series, we studied the swimming capabilities and response of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) larvae to flow turbulence in a laboratory flume. We compared three different experimental configurations, representing in‐stream obstructions commonly found in natural streams (e.g., a gravel bump, a single vertical cylinder, and patches of submerged rigid vegetation)...

Understanding transmission dynamics that link wild and domestic animals is a key element of predicting the emergence of infectious disease, an event that has highest likelihood of occurring wherever human livelihoods depend on agriculture and animal trade. Contact between poultry and wild birds is a key driver of the emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), a process that...

Mysis diluviana is one of the most abundant zooplankton by biomass in the Laurentian Great Lakes of North America, a predator of other zooplankton and an important prey for fishes. Studies of long-term trends in Lake Michigan have shown 2005–2016 densities to be 50–80% lower than 1990s densities, but these observations have been based on annual monitoring that is either spatially or...

Obstacle marks are instream bedforms, typically composed of an upstream frontal scour hole and a downstream sediment accumulation in the vicinity of an obstacle. Local scouring at infrastructure (e.g. bridge piers) is a well‐studied phenomenon in hydraulic engineering, while less attention is given to the time‐dependent evolution of frontal scour holes at instream boulders and their...

Drought and warming increasingly are causing widespread tree die-offs and extreme wildfires. Forest managers are struggling to improve anticipatory forest management practices given more frequent, extensive, and severe wildfire and tree die-off events triggered by “hotter drought”—drought under warmer than historical conditions. Of even greater concern is the increasing probability of...

The impacts of climate change on cold-water fishes will likely negatively manifest in populations at the trailing edge of their distributions. Rio Grande cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii virginalis, RGCT) occupy arid south-western U.S. streams at the southern-most edge of all cutthroat trout distributions, making RGCT particularly vulnerable to the anticipated warming and drying in...

Floodplain forest on the upper Mississippi River (UMR), a unique habitat in the Midwest that is important for many bird species, has been reduced and is undergoing continued reduction and changes in structure and species diversity because of river engineering and invasive species. Hydrological changes are causing tree diversity to decline favoring Acer saccharinum (silver maple) and...

Wildfire affects many types of communities. Improved understandings of urban conflagrations are leading some fire-prone communities, such as Ashland, Oregon, to expand their attention from focusing solely on the intermix fringe to managing wildfire threats across more urbanized wildland urban interface (WUI) communities. The core intent of this project was to build a partnership between...

No abstract available.

The Gulf Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi is an anadromous species that inhabits Gulf of Mexico coastal waters from Louisiana to Florida and is listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Seasonal cues (e.g., freshwater discharge) determine the timing of spawning and migration and may influence the availability of critical habitat during winter months in six...

An assessment of a drainage basin and its stream corridor will provide the data and information needed to understand current biophysical conditions and trends. Developing an understanding of the drivers of change is the next essential step for restoration success (Osterkamp and Toy, 1997; Corenbilt et al., 2007; Briggs and Osterkamp, 2003), Shields et al. 2003; Osterkamp et al., 2011)