Publications

Identifying how species respond to system drivers such as weather, climate, habitat, and resource availability is critical in understanding population change. In coastal areas, the transfer of nutrients across the marine and terrestrial interface increases complexity. Nesting populations of bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) along the Pacific coast of North America, although...

The Snake River in Idaho, USA, supports a popular sport fishery for nonnative Smallmouth Bass Micropterus dolomieu, but there are limited studies on the population dynamics of this introduced species in Idaho and other water systems in the western United States. The purpose of this study was to describe the population dynamics and demographics of Smallmouth Bass in the Snake River, Idaho...

The Interior Population (IP) of Cygnus buccinator (Trumpeter Swan), formerly extirpated by market hunting, was re-established in eastern North America by releasing individuals from both migratory and non-migratory populations. Their current annual movement patterns are largely unknown. We deployed 113 GPS-GSM transmitters on IP C. buccinator in 6 U.S. states and 1 Canadian province...

The diagnosis of anthrax, a zoonotic disease caused by Bacillus anthracis can be complicated by detection of closely related species. Conventional diagnosis of anthrax involves microscopy, culture identification of bacterial colonies and molecular detection. Genetic markers used are often virulence gene targets such as B. anthracis protective antigen (pagA, also called BAPA, occurring on...

Anadromous fishes play important roles in nutrient dynamics for freshwater ecosystems; however, the trophic pathways have been less documented for iteroparous species like river herring (Alosa pseudoharengus and A. aestivalis) compared to semelparous species like Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.). Given recent increases in restoration activities to improve connectivity, an understanding...

The southern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger niger) is a subspecies of fox squirrel that ranges from southeastern Virginia to northern Florida. Throughout its Southeastern range, southern fox squirrel habitat of natural mixed pine-hardwood forests has been fragmented by agriculture and short-rotation pine plantations. In Virginia, remaining habitat has been transformed by fire suppression on...

Animal diel activity patterns can aid understanding of (a) how species behaviourally adapt to anthropogenic and natural disturbances, (b) mechanisms of species co-existence through temporal partitioning, and (c) community or ecosystem effects of diel activity shifts.Activity patterns often vary spatially, a feature ignored by the kernel density estimators (KDEs) currently used for...

Four decades of data on rodent species composition and hantavirus prevalence across a changing urban–agricultural landscape demonstrate that long-term data are key for understanding links between biodiversity loss and disease dynamics

Continuous processes in most applications are measured discretely with error. This complicates the task of detecting intersections and the number of intersections between two continuous processes (i.e., when the processes have the same value). Intersections of continuous processes are scientifically important but challenging to estimate from data. For example, in the field of animal...

Invasive species have substantial ecological and economic costs and removing them can require large investments by management agencies. Optimal spatial allocation of removal effort is critical for efficient and effective management of invasive species. Using a series of ecologically informed model simulations, we evaluated and compared different spatially explicit removal strategies for...

Prairie streams of North America support native fishes that are adapted to the dynamic environment that characterizes these ecologically and economically important ecosystems. However, prairie streams have been altered by landscape changes that may affect the proportions of native and introduced species in fish communities. Herein, we investigate drivers of introduced fish in prairie...

Barrier removal restores physical stream processes and improves accessibility of critical habitats to migratory fishes. Although increasing connectivity benefits stream systems and migratory fishes, barrier removals may also lead to increased production of undesirable or invasive migratory species, as well as myriad other concerns (e.g., reduced recreational opportunities). Few studies...