Publications

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an invariably fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, and moose. Despite a 100% fatality rate, areas of high prevalence, and increasingly expanding geographic endemic areas, little is known about the population-level effects of CWD in deer. To investigate these effects, we tested the null hypothesis that high...

Implanted biologging devices, such as satellite-linked platform transmitter terminals (PTTs), have been used widely to delineate populations and identify movement patterns of sea ducks. Although in some cases these ecological studies could reveal transmitter effects on behavior and mortality, experiments conducted under controlled conditions can provide valuable information to understand...

The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is a grassland grouse of semiarid regions. Use of free water has been hypothesized as necessary for egg formation during drought. We assessed the use of hydrogen isotopes (deuterium, δ2H) to determine if female lesser prairie-chickens use and incorporate free water during egg formation by testing the relationship between isotope...

Conservation efforts, environmental planning, and management must account for ongoing ecosystem alteration due to a changing climate, introduced species, and shifting land use. This type of management can be facilitated by an understanding of the thermal ecology of aquatic organisms. However, information on thermal ecology for entire taxonomic groups is rarely compiled or summarized, and...

Sand shinnery oak (Quercus havardii) prairies are increasingly disappearing and increasingly degraded in the Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico. Restoring and managing sand shinnery oak prairie can support biodiversity, specific species of conservation concern, and livestock production. We measured vegetation response to four treatment combinations of herbicide (tebuthiuron...

In the last decade, unconventional drilling for natural gas from the Marcellus-Utica shale has increased exponentially in the central Appalachians. This heavily forested region contains important breeding habitat for many neotropical migratory songbirds, including several species of conservation concern. Our goal was to examine effects of unconventional gas development on forest habitat...

Factors affecting feeding and growth of early life stages of the federally endangered pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) are not fully understood, owing to their scarcity in the wild. In this study was we evaluated the performance of a combined foraging-bioenergetics model as a tool for assessing growth of age-0 pallid sturgeon in the Missouri River. In the laboratory, three size...

Ultimate causes of animal dispersal have been hypothesized to benefit the dispersing individual because dispersal reduces competition for local resources, potential for inbreeding, and competition for breeding partners. However, proximate cues influence important features of dispersal behavior, including when dispersal occurs, how long it lasts, and direction, straightness, and distance...

Wetland connectivity provides migratory shorebirds varying options to meet energy requirements to survive and complete their annual cycle. Multiple factors mediate movement and residency of spatially segregated wetlands. Information on these factors is lacking in the tropics, yet such information is invaluable for conservation design. The influence of seven biotic and abiotic factors on...

Breeding ecology studies of boreal waders have been relatively scarce in North America. This paucity is due in part to boreal habitats being difficult to access, and boreal waders being widely dispersed and thus difficult to monitor. Between 2008 and 2014 we studied the nesting ecology of Whimbrels Numenius phaeopus hudsonicus in interior Alaska, a region characterized by an active...

No abstract available.

Tandem hoop nets have become the primary gear for sampling channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus, but suffer from high incidences of bycatch, particularly aquatic turtles that usually drown as a result. We sought to determine if bait type, ZOTE© soap and ground cheese logs, would influence catch of channel catfish (CPUE and mean TL) and bycatch of fishes and aquatic turtles. We sampled...