Publications

Research on fishes sometimes requires that individual fish be captured and subjected to invasive procedures multiple times over a relatively short time span. Electrofishing is one of the most common techniques used to capture fish, and it is known to cause injury to fish under certain circumstances. We evaluated the relationship of growth rates in Columbia River Redband Trout...

When provisioning chicks, parents trade-off their time, energy, and other resources to maximize reproductive success. As parents adjust investment to maximize their fitness, impacts on offspring growth can occur. We investigated provisioning and chick growth of Adélie Penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) at one of the largest colonies (∼175,000 pairs), during one year of normal chick growth and...

Documenting the spatial distribution of high-quality habitat patches, the distributions of threats and protected areas, and the vulnerability of habitat patches to changes in environmental conditions is vital for conservation of rare species. Range-wide species distribution models were developed for Black Rails (Laterallus jamaicensis) to predict the distribution of high-quality habitat...

The rapid technological development of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) has led to an increase in capabilities of aerial image collection and analysis for monitoring a variety of wildlife species including waterfowl. Biologists mainly rely on conducting ocular surveys from fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters to estimate waterfowl abundance. sUAS provide an alternative that is safer...

Chemical contamination of riverine ecosystems is largely a result of urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural activities occurring on adjacent terrestrial landscapes. Land management activities (e.g., Best Management Practices) are an important tool used to reduce point and non-point sources of pollution. However, the ability to confidently make inferences about the efficacy of...

The Taeniidae tapeworms are a family of helminths that have a similar life cycle, with intermediate hosts developing characteristic cysts in visceral organs. We describe here a case in Pennsylvania, USA, of fatal Versteria infection in a muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus), which, to our knowledge, has not been reported to develop disease associated with infection. Postmortem examination...

Amphibians are declining and disappearing worldwide at an alarming rate, emphasizing the need for accurate surveys to document the distribution and abundance of this imperiled taxon. Automated recorders are a powerful tool for surveyors to continuously monitor for calling amphibians. However, we are discovering that many species of frog call when submerged underwater making it...

Migrating animals may benefit from social or experiential learning, yet whether and how these learning processes interact or change over time to produce observed migration patterns remains unexplored. Using 16 years of satellite-tracking data from 105 reintroduced whooping cranes, we reveal an interplay between social and experiential learning in migration timing. Both processes...

We investigated how lake thermal processes responded to whole lake warming manipulation in an arctic lake through observations and numerical modeling. The warming manipulation was conducted by artificially heating the epilimnion as a proxy for climate warming. We performed numerical modeling with an improved lake scheme based on the Community Land Model (CLM). We simulated a control run...

Understanding ecological relationships among fishes and their environments are important for informing management policies. We conducted a statewide assessment of cisco (Coregonus artedi) in inland lakes of Wisconsin to better understand the status of this pelagic, coldwater forage fish. We then used long-term (2005–2014), standardized walleye (Sander vitreus) survey data from the Ceded...

Demographic studies of many bird species are challenging because their nests are cryptic, resulting in few nests being found. To maximize statistical power, methods are needed that minimize disturbance while yielding as much information per nest as possible. One way to meet these objectives is to use miniature thermal data loggers to precisely date nest fates. Our objectives, therefore...

Early detection and rapid response (EDRR) are essential to identifying and decisively responding to the introduction or spread of an invasive species, thus avoiding population establishment and improving the probability of achieving eradication. However, detection can be challenging at the onset of a species invasion as low population densities can reduce detection probability and...