Publications
Find out more about Species Management Research Program through our publications. Browse the entire list below or by specific topics at the links below.
Filter Total Items: 644
High female desert tortoise mortality in the western Sonoran Desert during California’s epic 2012–2016 drought
We conducted population surveys for desert tortoises Gopherus agassizii at 2 nearby sites in the western Sonoran Desert of California, USA, from 2015-2018, during the driest ongoing 22 yr period (2000-2021) in the southwestern USA in over 1200 yr. We hypothesized that drought-induced mortality would be female-biased due to water and energy losses attributable to egg production during protracted pe
Authors
Jeffrey E. Lovich, Michele (Shellie) R. Puffer, Kristy L. Cummings, Terence R. Arundel, Michael S. Vamstad, Kathleen D. Brundige
Moisture abundance and proximity mediate seasonal use of mesic areas and survival of greater sage-grouse broods
Water is a critical and limited resource, particularly in the arid West, but water availability is projected to decline even while demand increases due to growing human populations and increases in duration and severity of drought. Mesic areas provide important water resources for numerous wildlife species, including the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter, sage-grouse), an i
Authors
John P. Severson, Peter S. Coates, Megan C. Milligan, Shawn T. O'Neil, Mark A. Ricca, Steve C. Abele, John D. Boone, Michael L. Casazza
Priorities for translating goodwill between movement ecologists and conservation practitioners into effective collaboration
Addressing ongoing biodiversity loss requires collaboration between conservation scientists and practitioners. However, such collaboration has proved challenging. Despite the potential importance of tracking animal movements for conservation, reviews of the tracking literature have identified a gap between the academic discipline of movement ecology and its application to biodiversity conservation
Authors
Rascha J. M. Nuijten, Todd E. Katzner, Andrew M. Allen, Allert I. Bijleveld, Tjalle Boorsma, Luca Börger, Francesca Cagnacci, Tom Hart, Michelle Henley, Richard M. Herren, Eva Kok, Bronwyn Maree, Bruno Nebe, David Shohami, Susanne Marieke Vogel, Paul Walker, Ignas M. A. Heitkönig, E. J. Milner-Gulland
Impeding access to tributary spawning habitat and releasing experimental fall-timed floods increases brown trout immigration into a dam's tailwater
River ecosystems have been altered by flow regulation and species introductions. Regulated flow regimes often include releases designed to benefit certain species or restore ecosystem processes, and invasive species suppression programs may include efforts to restrict access to spawning habitat. The impacts of these management interventions are often uncertain. Here, we assess hypotheses regarding
Authors
Brian D. Healy, Charles Yackulic, Robert C. Schelly
Evolutionary and ecological connectivity in westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi) and mountain whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni) in relation to the potential influences of Boundary Dam, Washington, Idaho, and parts of British Columbia
In this report, we consider evolutionary and ecological connectivity for westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi) and mountain whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni) within the Pend Oreille River in northeastern Washington State, northern Idaho, and adjacent portions of southeastern British Columbia, Canada. Specifically, we focused on the rationale for active translocation of individual
Authors
Jason B. Dunham, Eric B. Taylor, Ernest R. Keeley
A review of supervised learning methods for classifying animal behavioural states from environmental features
Accurately predicting behavioural modes of animals in response to environmental features is important for ecology and conservation. Supervised learning (SL) methods are increasingly common in animal movement ecology for classifying behavioural modes. However, few examples exist of applying SL to classify polytomous animal behaviour from environmental features especially in the context of millions
Authors
Silas Bergen, Manuela Huso, Adam E. Duerr, Missy A Braham, Sara Schmuecker, Tricia A. Miller, Todd E. Katzner
Tough places and safe spaces: Can refuges save salmon from a warming climate?
The importance of thermal refuges in a rapidly warming world is particularly evident for migratory species, where individuals encounter a wide range of conditions throughout their lives. In this study, we used a spatially explicit, individual-based simulation model to evaluate the buffering potential of cold-water thermal refuges for anadromous salmon and trout (Oncorhynchus spp.) migrating upstre
Authors
Marcía N. Snyder, Nathan H. Schumaker, Jason B. Dunham, Joseph L. Ebersole, Mathew L Keefer, Jonathan Halama, Randy L Comeleo, Peter Leinenbach, Allen Brookes, Ben Cope, Jennifer Wu, John Palmer
Drought related changes in water quality surpass effects of experimental flows on trout growth downstream of Lake Powell reservoir
Flows released from reservoirs are often modified to mitigate the negative ecosystem effects of dams. We estimated the effects of two experimental flows, fall-timed floods and elimination of sub-daily variation in flows on weekends, on growth rates of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in the Colorado River downstream from Glen Canyon Dam. Experimental flow effects were compared to effects of wat
Authors
Josh Korman, Bridget Deemer, Charles Yackulic, Theodore Kennedy, Mariah Aurelia Giardina
Passage of adult coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) over Lake Creek Falls, Oregon, 2019
Across the Pacific Northwest, there are many examples of artificial structures created to allow passage of upstream-migrating salmon over natural barriers. We studied upstream passage across three structures installed in 1989 to allow passage of salmon over Lake Creek Falls, a series of three natural waterfalls at the outlet of Triangle Lake on Lake Creek, in the central Oregon Coast Range (lat 12
Authors
Reed B. Fischer, Jason B. Dunham, Nicholas Scheidt, Amy C. Hansen, Emily D. Heaston
Limited rigor in studies of raptor mortality and mitigation at wind power facilities
Wind power is an expanding source of renewable energy. However, there are ecological challenges related to wind energy generation, including collisions of wildlife with turbines. Lack of rigor, and variation in study design, together limit efforts to understand the broad-scale effects of wind power infrastructure on wildlife populations. It is not clear, however, whether these types of limitations
Authors
Tara Conkling, Christopher J. W. McClure, Sandra Cuadros, S. R. Loss, Todd E. Katzner
Level and pattern of overstory retention shape the abundance and long-term dynamics of natural and created snags
Standing dead trees, or snags, serve myriad functions in natural forests, but are often scarce in forests managed for timber production. Variable retention (VR), the retention of live and dead trees through harvest, has been adopted globally as a less intensive form of regeneration harvest. In this study, we explore how two key elements of VR systems — level (amount) and spatial pattern of live-tr
Authors
Charles B. Halpern, Allison K. Rossman, Joan Hagar
Demographic and environmental correlates of home ranges and long-distance movements of Mohave ground squirrels
Space use by mammals can differ among age-classes, sexes, or seasons, and these processes are recognized as adaptive behavioral strategies. Semi-fossorial ground squirrels, in particular, have shown age- and sex-specific patterns in their aboveground movement behaviors. We studied space use of Mohave ground squirrels (Xerospermophilus mohavensis) at the Freeman Gulch study site in the central regi
Authors
Sharon Poessel, Philip Leitner, Rich Inman, Todd C. Esque, Todd E. Katzner