Publications

Fieldwork is a critical tool for scientific research, particularly in applied disciplines. Yet fieldwork is often unsafe, especially for members of historically marginalized groups and people whose presence in scientific spaces threatens traditional hierarchies of power, authority, and legitimacy. Research is needed to identify interventions that prevent sexual harassment and assault...

Accurate estimation and monitoring of wildlife population trends is foundational to evidence-based conservation. Here, we use hierarchical modelling to estimate population trends for six species of management interest (coyotes; red foxes, white-tailed deer, gray foxes; eastern wild turkey, and bobcats) while accounting for observation error from a long-term camera trap survey conducted...

Noncommercial, shore-based fisheries provide economic, social, and cultural services to communities throughout the Hawaiian Islands. The State of Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) routinely conducts surveys to monitor noncommercial fisheries such that estimates of fishing effort and catch by gear type can be generated and used to...

The field of “Conservation Culturomics” uses large datasets of freely available web-data to understand cultural patterns and public interests related to conservation topics. We used a popular culturomics tool based on search engine usage to investigate how the U.S. Endangered Species Act listing actions may influence public interest in imperiled freshwater taxa. Yet questions remain...

Many animals follow annual cycles wherein physiology and behavior change seasonally. Hibernating mammals undergo one of the most drastic seasonal alterations of physiology and behavior, the timing of which can have significant fitness consequences. The environmental cues regulating these profound phenotypic changes will heavily influence whether hibernators acclimate and ultimately adapt...

Scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) decline caused by habitat loss and fragmentation increased interest in translocation to reestablish populations. Yet factors determining translocation success are poorly understood. We tested hypotheses concerning the influence of source population and variation in delayed release strategy (1–9 weeks) on mortality and dispersal of wild-caught...

Human-caused mortality can be pervasive and even highly selective for individuals in groups of cooperative breeders. Many studies of cooperative breeders, however, do not address human-caused mortality. Similarly, studies focused on the effects of human-caused mortality on wildlife populations often do not consider the ecology of cooperative breeders. We searched the literature and...

Floating photovoltaic (FPV) solar energy offers promise for renewable electricity production that spares land for other societal benefits. FPV deployment may alter greenhouse gas (GHG) production and emissions from waterbodies by changing physical, chemical, and biological processes, which can have implications for the carbon cost of energy production with FPV. Here, we use an ecosystem...

Denil fishways have been used with varying success to help fish pass impediments to upstream passage such as low head dams or irrigation diversion structures. They have been tested for hydraulic and fish passage performance in laboratory and field settings, usually with only minor modifications to the fishway geometry or dimensions. We tested a reduced (0.6) scale prototype of the...

Bonneville Cutthroat Trout (BCT) Oncorhynchus clarkii utah in Bear Lake, Idaho–Utah, is an important endemic and recreational species and plays a vital ecological role in systems throughout the basin. Although the distribution and abundance of BCT have declined due to anthropogenic disturbances, production of wild BCT in Bear Lake has increased over the past decade as a result of...

Successful species reintroduction requires restoration of receiving habitats to support growth, survival, and reproduction that reverse the initial causes of decline. Little is known about whether present habitat conditions can support all life stages of reintroduced southern Lake Sturgeon populations that were possibly extirpated by the mid-1900s due to overharvest and habitat...

Offspring sex ratios can vary widely across species, and the reasons for such variation have long intrigued ecologists. For group-living animals, predicting offspring sex ratios as a function of group and environmental characteristics can be challenging. Additionally, mortality of group members can upend traditional theory used to explain offspring sex ratios observed in populations...