Publications

Conservation planning for rare and threatened species is often made more difficult by a lack of research and monitoring data. In such cases, managers may rely on qualitative assessments of species risk that lack explicit acknowledgement of uncertainty. Snakes are a group of conservation concern that are also notoriously difficult to monitor. Here, we demonstrate a quantitative population

Neonicotinoids are considered a superior insecticide for agricultural pest management, although their impacts on non-target insects is a rising concern. Aside from laboratory and mesocosm studies, limited research has been directed towards the role neonicotinoids may have in structuring aquatic invertebrate communities in field settings. Therefore, we simultaneously collected aquatic...

Preventing or reversing population declines of rare species often requires an understanding of their complete annual life cycle, but this information is lacking for many species. Such has been the case for Yuma Ridgway’s Rails (Rallus obsoletus yumanensis), a federally endangered marsh bird endemic to the Lower Colorado River Basin and Salton Sink in California, Arizona, Nevada, and...

Small, surface-release dams are ubiquitous features of the landscape that typically slow water flow and decrease canopy cover through impounded reaches, potentially increasing stream temperatures. However, reported effects of small dams on water temperature are variable, likely due to differences in landscape and dam characteristics. To quantify the range of thermal effects of small dams...

Spatially distributed populations often rely on large-scale processes for long-term population stability. These processes are driven by individuals moving across the landscape through long-distance dispersal movements. However, as landscapes are continually altered by anthropogenic development, increased fragmentation and avoidance behavior can affect landscape permeability and limit...

Reservoirs are mostly managed at local scales as spatially independent units. A basin-scale perspective may increase awareness at a broader scope and generate insight not evident at local scales. We examined the array of reservoir attributes and fisheries in the Mississippi Basin to identify management opportunities. The basin is the third largest in the world and includes over 1,700...

Natural reproduction of pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus has been limited for decades and a recruitment bottleneck is hypothesized to occur during the larval stage of development. In this study, we evaluated the effects of water velocity and temperature on the swimming activity, energy use, settling behaviour and mortality of endogenously feeding larvae. The swimming activity of...

Burbot Lota lota were illegally introduced to the Green River, Wyoming, in the mid-1990s and pose a threat to recreational fisheries and native fish conservation. Although much is known about Burbot population dynamics, little is known about their movement patterns. Our objectives were to describe the movement dynamics of Burbot in the upper Green River system to provide information on...

Ontogenetic shifts represent important transitions that can influence how fish interact with their environment. However, ontogenetic shifts are rarely placed into a population context due to the difficulty of incorporating the vagaries of size-mediated interactions. As such, we evaluated the role of ontogenetic shifts in diet as they relate to potential competitive interactions between...

Emergent wetlands have declined in North America and, in response, many wetland-dependent animals have declined in abundance. For example, many species of secretive marsh birds in North America have declined during the last century. However, estimates of population decline and efforts to assess the effects of management actions are hampered because marsh birds are difficult to detect...

Bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) are challenging to detect as a result of the species cryptic behavior and coloration, relatively low densities in complex habitats, and affinity for cold, high clarity, low conductivity waters. Bull trout are also closely associated with the stream bed, frequently conceal in substrate, and this concealment behavior is poorly understood. Consequently...

Estimating abundance of wildlife populations can be challenging and costly, especially for species that are difficult to detect and that live at low densities, such as cougars (Puma concolor). Remote, motion-sensitive cameras are a relatively efficient monitoring tool, but most abundance estimation techniques using remote cameras rely on some or all of the population being uniquely...