Publications

Context: Timing (mean birthdate) and synchrony (variance around that date) of births can influence survival of young and growth in ungulate populations. Some restored populations of ungulates may not adjust these life-history characteristics to environments of release sites until several years after release, which may influence success of reintroductions. Aims: We quantified timing and...

The Atlantic Horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, is a valuable resource along the Mid-Atlantic coast which has, in recent years, experienced new management paradigms due to increased concern about this species role in the environment. While current management actions are underway, many acknowledge the need for improved and updated parameter estimates to reduce the uncertainty within the...

The early life history of anadromous salmonid fishes, be they Atlantic (Salmo salar) or Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), trout of those genera, or charrs (Salvelinus spp.), appears much more complex than previously thought. The seaward movement or migration is extremely polymorphic among and within species. To help provide understanding of the processes involved, and implications for

Salinization of coastal freshwater environments is a global issue. Increased salinity from sea level rise, storm surges, or other mechanisms is common in coastal freshwater marshes of Louisiana, USA. The effects of salinity increases on aquatic macroinvertebrates in these systems have received little attention, despite the importance of aquatic macroinvertebrates for nutrient cycling...

Mercury (Hg) contamination in sport fish is a global problem. In freshwater systems, food web structure, sport fish sex, size, diet and growth rates influence Hg bioaccumulation. Fish stocking is a common management practice worldwide that can introduce external energy and contaminants into freshwater systems. Thus, stocking can alter many of the factors that influence Hg concentrations...

Many lotic fish species use natural patterns of variation in discharge and temperature as spawning cues, and these natural patterns are often altered by river regulation. The effects of spring discharge and water temperature variation on the spawning of shovelnose sturgeon Scaphirhynchus platorynchus have not been well documented. From 2006 through 2009, we had the opportunity to study...

Baseline measurements were made of the amount and weight of beached marine debris on Sand Island, Midway Atoll, June 2008–July 2010. On 23 surveys, 32,696 total debris objects (identifiable items and pieces) were collected; total weight was 740.4 kg. Seventy-two percent of the total was pieces; 91% of the pieces were made of plastic materials. Pieces were composed primarily of...

The authors tested the efficacy of elevated partial pressures of CO2 to kill invasive New Zealand mudsnails. The New Zealand mudsnails were exposed to 100 kPa at three water temperatures, and the survival was modeled versus dose as cumulative °C-h. We estimated an LD50 of 59.4°C-h for adult and juvenile New Zealand mudsnails. The results suggest that CO2 may be an effective and...

The North American population of king eiders (Somateria spectabilis) has declined by more than 50% since the late 1970s for unknown reasons. King eiders spend most of their lives in remote areas, forcing managers to make regulatory and conservation decisions based on very little information. We incorporated available published estimates of vital rates with new estimates to build a female...

Deep soil profiles containing permafrost (Gelisols) were characterized for organic carbon (C) and total nitrogen (N) stocks to 3m depths. Using the Community Climate System Model (CCSM4) we calculate cumulative probability functions (PDFs) for active layer depths under current and future climates. The difference in PDFs over time was multiplied by C and N contents of soil horizons in...

Identifying the ecological dynamics underlying human–wildlife conflicts is important for the management and conservation of wildlife populations. In landscapes still occupied by large carnivores, many ungulate prey species migrate seasonally, yet little empirical research has explored the relationship between carnivore distribution and ungulate migration strategy. In this study, we...

Understanding the social and ecological consequences of species invasions is complicated by nonlinearities in processes, and differences in process and structure as scale is changed. Here we use discontinuity analyses to investigate nonlinear patterns in the distribution of biomass of an invasive nuisance species that could indicate scale-specific organization. We analyze biomass...