Publications

Nest site selection has consequences for hatching success by mediating the temperature and moisture conditions that eggs experience during the incubation period. Understanding the potentially complex pathways by which nest placement influences these abiotic mediators, and therefore hatching success, is important for predicting which nests will be successful and which may require...

Outdoor recreation provides societal benefits that are often measured by the amount of use natural resource systems receive. Still, the amount of resource use natural resource systems receive is often unknown or unstudied. Monitoring and quantifying resource use is often logistically difficult and costly but is paramount to optimize societal benefits. Identifying a simple and readily...

Gila trout (Oncorhynchus gilae) represent an iconic species of the American Southwest. The salmonid has survived extensive logging, livestock grazing, and mining, and is currently threatened by climate change, wildfire, and extended drought. Long-term conservation and recovery of the species and its unique lineages rely on stocking and translocation into historically inhabited streams...

Line-transect distance sampling (LTDS) surveys are commonly used to estimate abundance of animals or objects. In terrestrial LTDS surveys of gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) burrows, the presence of ground-level vegetation substantially decreases detection of burrows of all sizes, but no field or analytical methods exist to control for spatially heterogeneous vegetation obstruction...

Diel migrations of zooplanktons occur in marine and freshwater systems and can complicate inferences from studies. If populations perform vertical or horizontal diel migrations, daytime-only sampling can mischaracterize distributions and abundances. Zooplanktons also often display reduced capture avoidance at night and occupy areas easier to sample near the surface and away from littoral...

Objective Nonnative fish, including Lake Trout Salvelinus namaycush and Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, are actively invading lakes and streams and threatening Cutthroat Trout O. clarkii and other native species in the western United States. Programs have been implemented to suppress invasive trout using netting, trapping, electrofishing, angling, or other traditional capture methods...

Nutrition is fundamental to white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) management given its relationship to habitat carrying capacity and population productivity. Ecological Sites (ESs) are a United States federal landscape management unit of specific land potential due to unique soils, topography, climate, parent material, and perhaps deer forage nutritional value. We present results of...

Estimates of sex- and age-specific survival are important for guiding population management decisions for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). However, differences in deer survival between public and private lands can exist and, if unaccounted for, may affect wildlife agencies' ability to effectively manage statewide and local deer populations. From 2014 to 2016, we radiocollared...

Biologists routinely fit novel and complex statistical models to push the limits of our understanding. Examples include, but are not limited to, flexible Bayesian approaches (e.g. BUGS, stan), frequentist and likelihood-based approaches (e.g. packages lme4) and machine learning methods.These software and programs afford the user greater control and flexibility in tailoring complex...

Small surface-release dams are prevalent across North American watersheds and can alter stream flow, thermal regimes, nutrient dynamics, and sediment transport. These dams are often implicated as a cause of negative water quality impacts—including reduced dissolved oxygen (DO)—and dam removal is increasingly employed to restore natural stream processes and improve DO. However, published...

Diverse communities of groundwater-dwelling organisms (i.e., stygobionts) are important for human wellbeing; however, we lack an understanding of the factors driving their distributions, making it difficult to protect many at-risk species. Therefore, our study objective was to determine the landscape factors related to the occurrence of cavefishes and cave crayfishes in the Ozark...

Understanding patterns of genetic structure and adaptive variation in natural populations is crucial for informing conservation and management. Past genetic research using 11 microsatellite loci identified six genetic stocks of lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) within Lake Michigan, USA. However, ambiguity in genetic stock assignments suggested those neutral microsatellite markers...