Adrianne Brand
Biography
Adrianne Brand is a wildlife biologist with the Northeast Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (NEARMI). With a focus on threats and declines in amphibians populations, NEARMI seeks to better understand the factors contributing to changes in amphibian populations and provide information to resource managers on the status of amphibians on DOI lands in the region. The scope of work includes conducting annual monitoring surveys, carrying out research projects, and working with land managers to better inform natural resource decision making for both rare and common species.
Education:
- 2008 M.S. – Biology, Towson University, Towson, MD 21252.
- 2006 B.S. - Wildlife and Fisheries Resources & B.S. - Environmental Protection, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
Experience:
- 05/2009 – present Wildlife Biologist, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Turners Falls, MA
- 08/2006 - 12/2008 Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant, Towson University, Towson, MD
- 05/2005 – 08/2006 Field/Research Technician – West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
- 05/2004 – 08/2004 Biology Intern, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Lewisburg, WV
Science and Products
Assessing Amphibian Disease Risk in the Northeast
The Challenge: Disease in amphibian populations can have a range of effects, from devastating declines following introduction of a novel pathogen to recurring breakout events on a landscape. Elucidating mechanisms underlying the effects of diseases on amphibian populations is crucial to help managers make appropriate decisions to achieve management goals for amphibians.
Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI): Understanding Amphibian Populations in the Northeastern United States
Currently, 90 amphibian species are recognized in the Northeast, including 59 species in the Order Caudata (salamanders) and 31 species in the Order Anura (frogs and toads). Almost half of the amphibians in the Northeast are salamanders within the family Plethodontidae. Amphibians are found in all physiographic regions of the Northeast, from sea level to the heights of the Appalachian,...
Northeast Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative
The USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) is designed to determine where populations of amphibians are present, to monitor specific apex populations, and to investigate potential causes of amphibian declines, diseases, and malformations. The Northeast Region of ARMI encompasses thirteen states (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey...
Factors facilitating co-occurrence at the Range Boundary of Shenandoah and Red-backed Salamanders
The transition from species in allopatry to sympatry, i.e., the co-occurrence zone of competing species, allows for investigation of forces structuring range limits and provides evidence of the evolutionary and population responses of competing species, including mechanisms facilitating co-occurrence (e.g., character displacement). The Shenandoah...
Amburgey, Staci M.; Miller, David A. W.; Brand, Adrianne B.; Dietrich, Andrew E; Campbell Grant, Evan H. Proactive management of amphibians: Challenges and opportunities
Delaying species management reduces the chance of successful recovery, increases the risk of extinction, and can be expensive. Acting before major declines are realized affords access to a greater suite of cost-effective management actions to sustain populations, reducing the likelihood of declines warranting protected status. It is clear that...
Sterrett, SC; Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Katz R; Brand, Adrianne; Fields, William R.; Dietrich A; Hocking D; Foreman T; Wiewel A Knowing your limits: Estimating range boundaries and co-occurrence zones for two competing plethodontid salamanders
Understanding threats to species persistence requires knowledge of where species currently occur. We explore methods for estimating two important facets of species distributions, namely where the range limit occurs and how species interactions structure distributions. Accurate understanding of range limits is crucial for predicting range dynamics...
Amburgey, S. M.; Miller, D. A. W. ; Brand, Adrianne B.; Dietrich, Andrea M.; Campbell Grant, Evan H. North-facing slopes and elevation shape asymmetric genetic structure in the range-restricted salamander Plethodon shenandoah
Species with narrow environmental preferences are often distributed across fragmented patches of suitable habitat, and dispersal among subpopulations can be difficult to directly observe. Genetic data collected at population centers can help quantify gene flow, which is especially important for vulnerable species with a disjunct range. Plethodon...
Mulder, KP; Cortes-Rodriguez, Nandadevi; Brand, Adrianne B.; Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Fleischer, Robert C. Estimating occurrence, prevalence, and detection of amphibian pathogens: Insights from occupancy models
Understanding the distribution of pathogens across landscapes and their prevalence within host populations is a common aim of wildlife managers. Despite the need for unbiased estimates of pathogen occurrence and prevalence for planning effective management interventions, many researchers fail to account for imperfect pathogen detection. Instead...
Mosher, B. A.; Brand, Adrianne; Wiewel, ANM; Miller, DAW; Gray, MT; Miller, Debra L.; Campbell Grant, Evan H. Quantifying climate sensitivity and climate-driven change in North American amphibian communities
Changing climate will impact species’ ranges only when environmental variability directly impacts the demography of local populations. However, measurement of demographic responses to climate change has largely been limited to single species and locations. Here we show that amphibian communities are responsive to climatic variability, using >...
Miller, David A.W.; Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Muths, Erin L.; Amburgey, Staci M.; Adams, M.J.; Joseph, Maxwell B.; Waddle, J. Hardin; Johnson, Pieter T.J.; Ryan, Maureen E.; Schmidt, Benedikt R.; Calhoun, Daniel L.; Davis, Courtney L.; Fisher, Robert N.; Green, David M.; Hossack, Blake R.; Rittenhouse, Tracy A.G.; Walls, Susan C.; Bailey, Larissa L.; Cruickshank, Sam S.; Fellers, Gary M.; Gorman, Thomas A.; Haas, Carola A.; Hughson, Ward; Pilliod, David S.; Price, Steven J.; Ray, Andrew M.; Sadinski, Walter; Saenz, Daniel; Barichivich, William J.; Brand, Adrianne B.; Brehme, Cheryl S.; Dagit, Rosi; Delaney, Katy S.; Glorioso, Brad M.; Kats, Lee B.; Kleeman, Patrick M.; Pearl, Christopher; Rochester, Carlton J.; Riley, Seth P. D.; Roth, Mark F.; Sigafus, Brent Evidence that climate sets the lower elevation range limit in a high‐elevation endemic salamander
A frequent assumption in ecology is that biotic interactions are more important than abiotic factors in determining lower elevational range limits (i.e., the “warm edge” of a species distribution). However, for species with narrow environmental tolerances, theory suggests the presence of a strong environmental gradient can lead to persistence,...
Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Brand, Adrianne B.; De Wekker, Stephan F. J.; Lee, Temple R.; Wofford, John E.B. Two-species occupancy modeling accounting for species misidentification and nondetection
In occupancy studies, species misidentification can lead to false‐positive detections, which can cause severe estimator biases. Currently, all models that account for false‐positive errors only consider omnibus sources of false detections and are limited to single‐species occupancy.However, false detections for a given species often occur because...
Chambert, Thierry; Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Miller, David A. W.; Nichols, James D.; Mulder, Kevin P.; Brand, Adrianne B. Range position and climate sensitivity: The structure of among-population demographic responses to climatic variation
Species’ distributions will respond to climate change based on the relationship between local demographic processes and climate and how this relationship varies based on range position. A rarely tested demographic prediction is that populations at the extremes of a species’ climate envelope (e.g., populations in areas with the highest mean annual...
Amburgey, Staci M.; Miller, David A. W.; Grant, Evan H. Campbell; Rittenhouse, Tracy A. G.; Benard, Michael F.; Richardson, Jonathan L.; Urban, Mark C.; Hughson, Ward; Brand, Adrianne B.; Davis, Christopher J.; Hardin, Carmen R.; Paton, Peter W. C.; Raithel, Christopher J.; Relyea, Rick A.; Scott, A. Floyd; Skelly, David K.; Skidds, Dennis E.; Smith, Charles K.; Werner, Earl E. Design tradeoffs in long-term research for stream salamanders
Long-term research programs can benefit from early and periodic evaluation of their ability to meet stated objectives. In particular, consideration of the spatial allocation of effort is key. We sampled 4 species of stream salamanders intensively for 2 years (2010–2011) in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, Maryland, USA to...
Brand, Adrianne B.; Grant, Evan H. Campbell Climate-mediated competition in a high-elevation salamander community
The distribution of the federally endangered Shenandoah Salamander (Plethodon shenandoah) is presumed to be limited by competition with the Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus). In particular, the current distribution of P. shenandoah is understood to be restricted to warmer and drier habitats because of interspecific interactions. These...
Dallalio, Eric A.; Brand, Adrianne B.; Campbell Grant, Evan H. Plethodon cinerius (eastern red-backed salamander) movement
Lungless salamanders (family Plethodontidae) are relatively sedentary and are presumed to have limited dispersal ability (Marsh et al. 2004. Ecology 85:3396–3405). Site fidelity in Plethodontidae is high, and individuals displaced 90 m return to home territories (Kleeberger and Werner 1982. Copeia 1982:409–415). Individuals defend...
Sterrett, Sean; Brand, Adrianne B.; Fields, William R.; Katz, Rachel A.; Campbell Grant, Evan H.
Large-scale Review of Amphibian Species and Community Response to Climate Change
Amphibian species and community richness has been declining in North America and climate change may play a role in these declines. Global climate change has led to a range shift of many wildlife species and thus understanding how these changes in species distribution can be used to predict amphibian community responses that may improve conservation efforts.