Publications

The Big Creek Crayfish, Orconectes peruncus, is native to the St. Francis River drainage in Missouri, USA and is often absent where the introduced Woodland Crayfish, Orconectes hylas, has established. We performed a field experiment to determine whether effects of current abiotic conditions and interspecific competition with O. hylas were responsible for displacement of O. peruncus from...

Vertebrate insectivores such as bats are a pervasive top-down force on prey populations in forest ecosystems. Conservation focusing on forest-dwelling bats requires understanding of community-level interactions between these predators and their insect prey. Our study assessed bat activity and insect occurrence (abundance and diversity) across a gradient of forest disturbance and...

Shade-grown coffee contributes to biodiversity conservation and has many ecological benefits. We reviewed historical trends in coffee production and interviewed 100 coffee growers in 1999 to determine current management practices and attitudes toward the cultivation of sun and shade coffee in Puerto Rico. We discuss the outlook for the coffee industry in the 21st century and implications...

Migration can be a behavioural response to poor or declining home range habitat quality and can occur when the costs of migration are overcome by the benefi ts of encountering higher-quality resources elsewhere. Despite dramatic ecosystem-level changes in the benthic food web of the Laurentian Great Lakes since the colonization of dreissenid mussels, coincident changes in condition and...

Wetland loss in North America has been considerable and well documented, and the establishment of exotic species in remaining wetlands can further reduce their ability to support native flora and fauna. In the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes ecosystems, exotic mute swans (Cygnus olor) have been found to negatively impact wetlands through degradation of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV)...

Lead shot from hunting adds the toxic metal to environments worldwide. The United States banned lead shot for hunting waterfowl in 1991 and 26 states have lead shot restrictions beyond those mandated for waterfowl hunting. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) was interested in studying hunter attitudes about expanded restrictions on the use of lead shot for hunting small...

Lack of standard methods for quantifying impact has hindered risk assessments of high-impact invaders. To understand methodological strengths and weaknesses, we compared five approaches (in parentheses) for quantifying impact of nonnative fishes: reviewing documented impacts in a large-scale database (review); surveying fish biologists regarding three categories of impact (socioeconomic

Aerial surveys using line-intercept methods are one approach to estimate the extent of prairie dog colonies in a large geographic area. Although black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) construct conspicuous mounds at burrow openings, aerial observers have difficulty discriminating between areas with burrows occupied by prairie dogs (colonies) versus areas of uninhabited burrows

The purpose of this study was to continue annual monitoring of Roanoke logperch (Percina rex), an endangered fish, in the Smith River immediately upstream from Philpott Reservoir. This river reach is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which must ensure that appropriate actions are undertaken to aid in recovery of logperch. Monitoring of fish abundance and habitat...

The cross-scale resilience model states that ecological resilience is generated in part from the distribution of functions within and across scales in a system. Resilience is a measure of a system's ability to remain organized around a particular set of mutually reinforcing processes and structures, known as a regime. We define scale as the geographic extent over which a process operates...

State wildlife conservation programs provide a strong foundation for biodiversity conservation in the United States, building on state wildlife action plans. However, states may miss the species that are at the most risk at rangewide scales, and threats such as novel diseases and climate change increasingly act at regional and national levels. Regional collaborations among states and...

Although it has been widely documented that populations of cave-roosting bats rapidly decline following the arrival of white-nose syndrome (WNS), longer term reproductive effects are less well-known and essentially unexplored at the community scale. In West Virginia, WNS was first detected in the eastern portion of the state in 2009 and winter mortality was documented in 2009 and 2010...