Publications

The endangered American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus, was monitored on Block Island, RI, USA, from 1991–2003 using mark-recapture population estimates of adults collected in pitfall traps. Populations increased through time, especially after 1994 when a program was initiated that provided carrion for beetle production. Beetle captures increased with increasing temperature and...

Planning land-use for biodiversity conservation frequently involves computer-assisted reserve selection algorithms. Typically such algorithms operate on matrices of species presence?absence in sites, or on species-specific distributions of model predicted probabilities of occurrence in grid cells. There are practically always errors in input data?erroneous species presence?absence data

Statistical thinking in wildlife biology and ecology has been profoundly influenced by the introduction of AIC (Akaike?s information criterion) as a tool for model selection and as a basis for model averaging. In this paper, we advocate the Bayesian paradigm as a broader framework for multimodel inference, one in which model averaging and model selection are naturally linked, and in...

We combined Breeding Bird Survey point count protocol and distance sampling to survey spring migrant and breeding birds in Vicksburg National Military Park on 33 days between March and June of 2003 and 2004. For 26 of 106 detected species, we used program DISTANCE to estimate detection probabilities and densities from 660 3-min point counts in which detections were recorded within four...

Globally, tidal marshes are found in small pockets or narrow bands totaling only approximately 45,000 square kilometers. The combination of salinity, low floristic and structural complexity, and regular tidal inundation, as well as unpredictable catastrophic flooding, provides a unique selective environment that shapes local adaptations, including those that are morphological...

Aim Based on a priori hypotheses, we developed predictions about how avian communities might differ at the edges vs. interiors of ecoregions. Specifically, we predicted lower species richness and greater local turnover and extinction probabilities for regional edges. We tested these predictions using North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data across nine ecoregions over a 20-year...

Models for estimating the probability of occurrence of a species in the presence of imperfect detection are important in many ecological disciplines. In these ?site occupancy? models, the possibility of heterogeneity in detection probabilities among sites must be considered because variation in abundance (and other factors) among sampled sites induces variation in detection probability...

Mid Atlantic coastal salt marshes contain a matrix of vegetation diversified by tidal pools, pannes, and creeks, providing habitats of varying importance to many species of breeding, migrating, and wintering waterbirds. We hypothesized that changes in marsh elevation were not sufficient to keep pace with those of sea level in both vegetated and unvegetated Spartina alterniflora sites at...

The first commercial pesticide derived from a class of compounds known as halogenated pyrroles was registered for use in the United States in 2001. Chlorfenapyr degrades slowly in soil, sediment, and water and is highly toxic to birds. Information on biochemical or histological endpoints in birds is lacking; therefore, a two‐year study was conducted to provide information needed to...

No abstract available.

Disseminated visceral coccidiosis (DVC) was unexpectedly recognized in a wild white-naped crane (Grits vipio) killed by phosphamidon insecticide. On gross pathologic examination, widely disseminated white nodules were found on the serosa of the proventriculus, gizzard, and intestine, as well as on the surface and in the parenchyma of liver, spleen, and cardiac muscle. Microscopically...

Knowledge of animal abundance is fundamental to many ecological studies. Frequently, researchers cannot determine true abundance, and so must estimate it using a method such as mark-recapture or distance sampling. Recent advances in abundance estimation allow one to model heterogeneity with individual covariates or mixture distributions and to derive multimodel abundance estimators that