Publications

Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) poses a pervasive global challenge, affecting livelihoods and threatening biodiversity. To better anticipate and mitigate HWC risk, we developed a large-scale predictive model using a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN). We surveyed 1,011 park rangers across 135 terrestrial protected areas in three Andean countries, documenting recent HWC incidents involving...

Conditions during one life-stage can carry over to influence fitness outcomes in later stages. How carryover effects manifest, however, may vary depending on the type and magnitude of risks that animals face in subsequent life-stages. The influence of carryover effects on cause-specific mortality remains largely unclear, particularly during vulnerable life-stages, including juvenile...

Papillomaviruses are small circular DNA viruses that infect epithelial cells of their hosts. Avian papillomaviruses are poorly sampled/documented compared to those infecting humans. We used a viral metagenomic approach to identify viruses from the oral swab taken from a deceased south polar skua (Stercorarius maccormicki) found at Cape Royds, Ross Island, Antarctica in late 2024. We...

Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and Clark's Grebe (Aechmophorus clarkii) populations have declined across their range, and they are species of high conservation concern. Cascade Reservoir in central Idaho supports one of the largest breeding colonies of Aechmophorus grebes in North America (and the largest in Idaho), but few offspring are produced from the colony in most years...

Global trade of freshwater turtles and tortoises presents substantial conservation, biosecurity, and regulatory challenges, particularly for long-lived species that are already highly imperiled. While the United States has historically played a key role in supplying the international chelonian trade, investigations into its role as an importer remain limited. We used import data from the...

Site occupancy models are widely used to estimate species distributions from presence–nondetection data, yet for mobile animals, the true proportion of sites occupied varies in time. Thus, true occupancy and estimates generated from different protocols are affected by temporal characteristics of survey design.Here we tested whether we could standardize occupancy estimates across...

Floating photovoltaic (FPV) arrays alter the methane (CH4) cycling dynamics of waterbodies on which they are deployed. Here, we investigated dissolved CH4 dynamics and associated CH4 cycling microbial communities (methanogens and methanotrophs) in the second year of FPV deployment (70% aerial coverage) in experimental ponds. We found that bottom-water CH4 concentrations were twice as...

Birds are sensitive to changes in environmental conditions, and metrics such as species diversity, abundance, and guild composition that describe community-level responses to anthropogenic disturbance can be useful indicators of ecosystem condition. We reviewed published studies (56) of bird-based biotic indices developed for diverse ecosystems in 14 countries to evaluate their efficacy...

Shovelnose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) and related endangered pallid sturgeon (S. albus) are species of interest in the highly modified Missouri River. Scaphirhynchus sturgeon require long distances of riverine habitat for the development of drifting free embryos along with suitable foraging habitat during the subsequent transition to exogenous feeding. Working with specimens...

The widespread occurrence and persistence of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment may pose significant health risks to humans. Fish consumption is a direct pathway for exposure, prompting extensive monitoring. In the United States and Europe, fish consumption advisories for PFAS generally focus on perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), the most frequent and...

Study region

“Actionable science” is a widely held standard for identifying the merits of natural resources research. Yet, science is often framed as actionable to a vaguely identified quintessential “manager” without defining either the intended manager or use. Generic descriptions lack precision for identifying end users or their needs, limiting methodological rigor in research design and leading...