Publications

Background Among the most widely predicted climate change-related impacts to biodiversity are geographic range shifts, whereby species shift their spatial distribution to track their climate niches. A series of commonly articulated hypotheses have emerged in the scientific literature suggesting species are expected to shift their distributions to higher latitudes, greater elevations, and...

Loss of habitat and human disturbance are major factors in the worldwide decline of shorebird populations, including that of the threatened migratory piping plover (Charadrius melodus). From 2013 to 2018, we conducted land-based surveys of the shorebird community every other week during the peak piping plover season (September to March). We assessed the ability of a thin plate spline...

Troglichthys (= Amblyopsis) rosae (Ozark Cavefish) is currently known from 83 locations within the Ozark Highlands ecoregion. We found a cavefish at a new location in the Grand Lake O' the Cherokees on the western side of the Neosho River (Delaware County, OK), which is on the northwest periphery of the Ozark Cavefish range. Examination of the mitochondrial ND2 gene supports that the...

Length limits are often used in recreational fisheries management to prevent overharvest and manipulate fish size distributions. These regulations are ideally customized to meet water-specific stock dynamics and fishery objectives. However, in districts with numerous discrete waters, fisheries are commonly managed with a universal regional regulation. Evaluating alternative regional...

Arctic freshwater ecosystems and fish populations are largely shaped by seasonal and long-term watershed hydrology. In this paper, we hypothesize how changing air temperature and precipitation will alter freeze and thaw processes, hydrology, and instream habitat to assess potential indirect effects, such as the change to the foraging and behavioral ecology, on Arctic fishes, using Broad...

No abstract available.

Nitrate concentrations have been rising in surface waters over the last century and now frequently exceed drinking water standards and environmental safety benchmarks globally. Health-wise, these trends are concerning because nitrate has been shown to disrupt endocrine function and developmental outcomes. The present study investigated potential sublethal effects of nitrate on developing...

Unusual wildlife mortality events provide a unique opportunity to collect information on demographics, disease, and body condition in affected wildlife, which may be useful for informing oil spill damage assessments and future spill responses. In November 2007, the Cosco Busan Oil Spill occurred in San Francisco Bay, California, a globally important wintering area for waterfowl. The...

The value of information is a central concept in decision analysis, used to quantify how much the expected outcome of a decision would be improved if epistemic uncertainty could be resolved prior to committing to a course of action. One of the challenges, however, in quantitative analysis of the value of information is that the calculations are demanding, especially in requiring...

Kings Bay in northwest Florida, USA, is an important winter home of the largest aggregation of Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris), and the only location in the United States where visitors legally swim and interact with manatees. In addition to ambient conditions, visitors to the area and management actions have the potential to influence manatee behaviors. We tracked 32...

Egg size is an important avian life history parameter, with larger eggs indicating greater investment of resources in the chick. Prey availability can affect such investment. We investigated the effects of oceanographic conditions and laying sequence on Scripps's Murrelet Synthliboramphus scrippsi egg size at Santa Barbara Island, California during 2009-2017. We evaluated oceanographic...

Billions of animals migrate to track seasonal pulses in resources. Optimally timing migration is a key strategy, yet the ability of animals to compensate for phenological mismatches en route is largely unknown. Using GPS movement data collected from 72 adult female deer over a 10-year duration, we study a population of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in Wyoming that lack reliable cues on...