Publications

Tropical deforestation continues to cause population declines and local extinctions in centers of avian diversity and endemism. Although local species extinctions stem from reductions in demographic rates, little is known about how habitat fragmentation influences survival of tropical bird populations or the relative importance of survival and fecundity in ultimately shaping communities...

The neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid (IMI) has been proposed as an alternative to carbaryl for controlling indigenous burrowing shrimp on commercial oyster beds in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor, Washington. A focus of concern over the use of this insecticide in an aquatic environment is the potential for adverse effects from exposure to non-target species residing in the Bay, such...

We investigated the efficacy, fate, and potential for direct effects on salmonids of 4 common mosquito larvicides (Mosquito Dunks® and Bits® (AI: Bacillis thuringiensis var. israelensis, [Bti]), VectoLex® WSP (AI: Bacillus sphaericus [Bs], VectoLex CG [AI: Bs], and Altosid® Briquets [AI: s-methoprene]) in Seattle, WA, during 3 summers. During efficacy trials in 2006, all treatments...

Located on the floor of Death Valley (CA, USA), Salt Creek harbors a single fish species, the Salt Creek pupfish, Cyprinodon salinus salinus, which has adapted to this extremely harsh environment. Salt Creek is fed by an underground spring and is comprised of numerous pools, runs, and marshes that exhibit substantial variability in temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen...

We used variance components to assess allocation of sampling effort in a hierarchically nested sampling design for ongoing monitoring of early life history stages of the federally endangered Devils Hole pupfish (DHP) (Cyprinodon diabolis). Sampling design for larval DHP included surveys (5 days each spring 2007–2009), events, and plots. Each survey was comprised of three counting events...

Successful oyster reef restoration, like many conservation challenges, requires not only biological understanding of the resource, but also stakeholder cooperation and political support. To measure perceptions of oyster reef restoration activities and priorities for future restoration along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast, a survey of 1500 individuals representing 4 user groups (oyster

Continuous harvest over an annual period is a common assumption of continuous biomass dynamics models (CBDMs); however, fish are frequently harvested in a discrete manner. We developed semidiscrete biomass dynamics models (SDBDMs) that allow discrete harvest events and evaluated differences between CBDMs and SDBDMs using an equilibrium yield analysis with varying levels of fishing...

Hatchery-induced fin erosion can be used to identify recently stocked catchable-size brown trout Salmo trutta during annual surveys to qualitatively estimate contributions to a fishery. However, little is known about the longevity of this mark and its effectiveness as a short-term (≤ 1 year) mass-marking technique. We evaluated hatchery-induced pectoral fin erosion as a mass-marking...

Sandbars are an important aquatic terrestrial transition zone (ATTZ) in the active channel of rivers that provide a variety of habitat conditions for riverine biota. Channelization and flow regulation in many large rivers have diminished sandbar habitats and their rehabilitation is a priority. We developed sandbar-specific models of discharge-area relationships to determine how changes...

Stable isotope analysis of fishes is often performed using muscle or organ tissues that require sacrificing animals. Non-lethal sampling provides an alternative for evaluating isotopic composition for species of concern or individuals of exceptional value. Stable isotope values of white muscle (lethal) were compared with those from fins and scales (non-lethal) in walleye, Sander vitreus...

Gill Na+,K+-ATPase activity is a widely used measure of osmoregulatory preparedness in salmonid smolts. The degree to which this measure may predict long term performance is uncertain. In order to assess the relationship of this enzyme to long term growth and ion homeostasis, a cohort of Atlantic salmon hatchery smolts was used in a controlled environment with no salinity perturbations...

Programs to monitor lake area change are becoming increasingly important in high latitude regions, and their development often requires evaluating tradeoffs among different approaches in terms of accuracy of measurement, consistency across multiple users over long time periods, and efficiency. We compared three supervised methods for lake classification from Landsat imagery (density...