Publications

Wildlife disease transmission, at a local scale, can occur from interactions between infected and susceptible conspecifics or from a contaminated environment. Thus, the degree of spatial overlap and rate of contact among deer is likely to impact both direct and indirect transmission of infectious diseases such chronic wasting disease (CWD) or bovine tuberculosis. We identified a strong

Valley fills associated with mountaintop-removal mining bury stream headwaters and affect water quality and ecological function of reaches below fills. We quantified relative abundance of streamside salamanders in southern West Virginia during 2002 in three streams below valley fills (VFS) and in three reference streams (RS). We surveyed 36 10- × 2-m stream transects, once in summer and...

The Singing-ground Survey (SGS) is the primary monitoring tool used to assess population status and trends of American woodcock (Scolopax minor). Like most broad-scale surveys, the SGS cannot be directly validated because there are no independent estimates of abundance of displaying male American woodcock at an appropriate spatial scale. Furthermore, because locations of individual SGS...

We used 25 years of conventional tagging (n = 6173 recoveries) and 3 years of ultrasonic telemetry data (n = 105 transmitters deployed) to examine movement rates and directional preferences of four age classes of red drum Sciaenops ocellatus in North Carolina. Movement rates of tagged red drum were dependent on the age, region, and season of tagging. Age-1 and age-2 red drum tagged along...

In the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM), reefs built by eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica, provide critical habitat within shallow estuaries, and recent efforts have focused on restoring reefs to benefit nekton and benthic macroinvertebrates. We compared nekton and benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages at historic, newly created (

We used video cameras in 2008–2009 to record provisioning activities at Dickcissel (Spiza americana) nests in and around Conservation Reserve Program field buffers in north-central Mississippi, USA. We simultaneously observed foraging flight distances of parents. Provisioning rate (P  =  0.412), biomass (P  =  0.161), and foraging distance (P  =  0.159) did not increase with nestling age...

Little is known about mate selection and lek dynamics of Lesser Prairie-Chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus). We collected data on male territory size and location on leks, behavior, and morphological characteristics and assessed the importance of these variables on male Lesser Prairie-Chicken mating success during spring 2008 and 2009 in the Texas Southern High Plains. We used discrete...

Salamanders of the North American plethodontid genus Plethodon are important model organisms in a variety of studies that depend on a phylogenetic framework (e.g., chemical communication, ecological competition, life histories, hybridization, and speciation), and consequently their systematics has been intensively investigated over several decades. Nevertheless, we lack a synthesis of

Contractions in the geographic distributions of the American marten ( Martes americana) and fi sher ( M. pennanti) in eastern North America south of the St. Lawrence River between Colonial times (ca. 1650–1800) and the fi sher’s recent range expansion (ca. 1930–present) are well documented, but causal factors in these range contractions have only partially been studied. Traditional...

Copper contamination in surface waters is common in watersheds with mining activities or agricultural, industrial, commercial, and residential human land uses. This widespread pollutant is neurotoxic to the chemosensory systems of fish and other aquatic species. Among Pacific salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.), copper-induced olfactory impairment has previously been shown to disrupt behaviors...

1. Impermeable barriers to migration can greatly constrain the set of possible routes and ranges used by migrating animals. For ungulates, however, many forms of development are semi-permeable, and making informed management decisions about their potential impacts to the persistence of migration routes is difficult because our knowledge of how semi-permeable barriers affect migratory...

The physical habitat used during spawning may potentially be an important factor affecting reproductive output of broadcast spawning marine fishes, particularly for species with complex, substrate-oriented mating systems and behaviors, such as Atlantic cod Gadus morhua. We characterized the habitat use and behavior of spawning Atlantic cod at two locations off the coast of southwestern...