Publications

Natural history museum records may provide unique information on the distribution of species that can supplement survey data collected by resource managers. However, there can be challenges to using museum data for analyses, such as spurious geographic information, misidentifications, and incorrect labeling. Museum records have been centralized by open-source repositories with flags for...

For nearly half a century, ecologists have sought to explain animal space use through characteristics of the environment (i.e., habitat). Recent evidence suggests animals also use memory of previous experiences to decide when and where to move. Yet, the relative influence of the two in explaining animal space use has not been resolved. Using six large ungulate species in the Rocky...

Secretive marsh birds experienced precipitous declines due to losses in wetland habitat across North America. However, from 1998 to 2004, wetland area increased, and between 2009 and 2019, the extent of emergent wetlands did not significantly decrease. This raises the question: how did secretive marsh birds, which are tied to emergent wetlands, respond to this period of relative...

Objective Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar remain at critically low levels in the United States, with the last remaining populations located in the state of Maine. In 2021, a pilot captive-rearing program, similar to a smolt-to-adult supplementation, was implemented to boost naturally spawning adults in support of recovery goals.Methods We conducted a 2-year acoustic telemetry study to track...

ABSTRACT

Floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems are emerging as a promising strategy for large-scale clean energy production worldwide. However, by altering key physical drivers such as solar radiation and wind mixing, FPV installations may have also unintended consequences for lakes and reservoirs. Given the wide diversity of freshwater systems globally, understanding the consistency in direction...

In large river basins, migratory fish populations are threatened by the combination of hydropower and climate change. With river temperatures rising and hydropower development increasing globally, the longstanding monitoring programs for threatened Pacific salmon populations in the Columbia River Basin present an opportunity to study these impacts over extended time scales. We fit a...

Collared pikas (Ochotona collaris) are cold adapted alpine lagomorphs of western Canada and Alaska, USA, that are vulnerable to direct and indirect effects of climate change. However, how and to what extent such changes influence persistence for this species is not well understood, particularly at fine spatial scales. Our goal was to evaluate how microclimate and microhabitat...

An assortment of animals inhabit wetlands, with many invertebrates, amphibians and reptiles, fishes, birds, and some mammals being wetland specialists. Wetlands provide ample water, food, and cover that benefits resident animals, but periodic high floods, frequent drying, and harsh water qualities (low-oxygen, acidic, saline) can stress wetland animals. Animals that rely on wetlands have...

Background 40,000 ha, yet the specific behavioral responses to fire and their fitness consequences remain unclear. We used data collected from 269 hens over a 6-year period under a multi-level before-after-control-impact design to test the hypothesis that sage-grouse mitigated fitness consequences of high-severity wildfire through adaptive behavioral responses and spatial redistribution...

Periodical cicada emergences can positively affect vertebrate reproduction and breeding behavior, yet this response is not well studied for bats. We examined the acoustic response of 6 species/phonic groups of bats in 2021 to the emergence of Brood X periodical cicadas, along the Potomac River corridor, in Maryland and Virginia. Using a before-after-control-impact study design, we...

Adult salmon enteritis (ASE), characterised by severe ulcerative enteritis, has been linked to prespawn mortality (PSM) in spring Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in certain rivers in Oregon, USA. Catastrophic losses of spring Chinook salmon have resulted from PSM, a significant threat to their population stability. Understanding the causes of ASE is therefore critical for...