Publications

Overall Assessment Status: Fair Trends 10-Year Trend: Unchanging Long-term Trend (1973-2017): Undetermined Rationale: Great Lakes prey fish community status remains ”Fair” based on diversity and percent native species, but individual lake status varied. Both diversity and percent native metrics were classified as “Good” in Lake Superior, but “Poor” in Lake Ontario (Table 1). Lakes Huron...

Biodiversity contributes to and depends on ecosystem structure and associated function. Ecosystem structure, such as the amount and type of tree cover, influences fundamental abiotic variables such as near-ground incoming solar radiation (e.g., Royer et al. 2011), which in turn affects species and associated biodiversity (e.g., Trotter et al. 2008). In many systems, foundational...

Birds select critical resources to meet needs that vary in response to spatial, temporal, and individual variation. As an example, perch or roost sites may be at locations that provide protection from predators, mobbing, or inclement weather. Applied to large, soaring predators, this theory suggests that they may select perch and roost sites near food resources or at sites where...

We tested extended‐spectrum β‐lactamase producing bacteria from wild gulls (Larusspp.) sampled in 2009 for the presence of mcr‐1. We report the detection of mcr‐1 and describe genome characteristics of four Escherichia coli and one Klebsiella pneumoniaeisolate from Spain and Portugal that also exhibited colistin resistance. Results represent the earliest evidence for colistin‐resistant...

Understanding susceptibility of seabirds to fisheries bycatch requires quantifying overlap of seabird at-sea habitat with fisheries’ distribution and effort. Pink-footed Shearwaters (Ardenna creatopus) are vulnerable seabirds that breed only in Chile. Recently, high rates of Pink-footed Shearwater bycatch (i.e. >1,500 observed mortalities 2015–2017) were documented by observers in...

Several species and subspecies of toads are endemic to small spring systems in the Great Basin, and their restricted ranges and habitat extent make them vulnerable to environmental perturbations. Very little is known about several of these toad populations, so a group of stakeholders including the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Nevada...

Estimating the distribution and abundance of wildlife is an essential task in species conservation, wildlife management and habitat prioritization. Although a host of methods and tools have been proposed to accomplish this undertaking, several challenges remain in accurately forecasting occurrence and abundance for highly mobile species. Exhibiting extensive geographic ranges with...

Understanding the response of forests to climate change is important for predicting changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services, including carbon storage. Seedlings represent a key demographic stage in these responses, because seedling establishment is necessary for population persistence and spread, and because the conditions allowing seedlings to survive and grow are often more...

Tackifiers are long‐chain carbon compounds used for soil stabilization and hydroseeding and could provide a vehicle for biological soil crust restoration. We examined the sensitivity of two dryland mosses, Bryum argenteum and Syntrichia ruralis, to three common tackifiers ‐ guar, psyllium, and polyacrylamide (PAM) ‐ at 0.5x, 1.0x, and 2.0x of recommended (x) concentrations for erosion...

Abstract Nitrogen‐fixing microorganisms are among the epiphytic communities in Cladophora, potentially benefitting the algae in nutrient‐deficient waters, but their abundance and diversity remain unexplored. In this study, we determined the abundance and taxonomic composition of these nitrogen‐fixing microorganisms in Cladophora growing on rocks, breakwall structures, or submerged...

The apparent failure of ecosystems to recover from increasingly widespread disturbance is a global concern. Despite growing focus on factors inhibiting resilience and restoration, we still know very little about how demographic and population processes influence recovery. Using inverse and forward demographic modelling of 531 post‐fire sagebrush populations across the western US, we show...

Determining how to best manage an epidemiological outbreak may be hindered by both epidemiological uncertainty (i.e. about epidemiological processes) and operational uncertainty (i.e. about the effectiveness of candidate interventions). These two uncertainties are rarely addressed concurrently in epidemic studies, impeding decision-making. We present an approach to simultaneously address...