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Adrianne Brand

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

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Field work sampling for disease

Assessing Amphibian Disease Risk in the Northeast

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.
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Ecosystems, Wildlife Program, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
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Assessing Amphibian Disease Risk in the Northeast

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.
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Spotted salamanders, Ambystoma maculatum

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, Adirondack...
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Ecosystems, Wildlife Program, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
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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, Adirondack...
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Field data to support speciation with gene flow in a narrow endemic West Virginia cave salamander (Gyrinophilus subterraneus)

This data set is comprised of 4 files consisting of field observations, morphological measurements, and water quality measurements relevant to a publication on the classification and population status of the WV Spring salamander, Gyrinophilius subterraneus.
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Eastern Ecological Science Center

Current use pesticides in larval amphibian tissues, amphibian pathogen and wetland sediment screening data from three northeastern National Wildlife Refuges, 2013-2014

The data include concentrations of current use pesticides in tissues of larval wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) and spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) and the presence of ranavirus in wood frogs and spotted salamanders from three northeastern National Wildlife Refuges sampled in 2013 and 2014. The data also include estrogenicity, protein phosphatase 2A inhibition and a suite of 15 major and
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New Jersey Water Science Center

Data from a national survey for the amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans

This dataset provides the results of a national survey of the conterminous U.S. for the salamander chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative from May 2014 to August 2017. Sites were sampled by capturing amphibians by hand or by traps or nets that were then swabbed individually using methods that prev
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Wetland and Aquatic Research Center
Filter Total Items: 15

Moving from decision to action in conservation science

Biodiversity loss is a major threat to the integrity of ecosystems and is projected to worsen, yet the path to successful conservation remains elusive. Decision support frameworks (DSFs) are increasingly applied by resource managers to navigate the complexity, uncertainty, and differing socio-ecological objectives inherent to conservation problems. Most published conservation research that uses DS
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) not detected in an intensive survey of wild North American amphibians

The salamander chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans [Bsal]) is causing massive mortality of salamanders in Europe. The potential for spread via international trade into North America and the high diversity of salamanders has catalyzed concern about Bsal in the U.S. Surveillance programs for invading pathogens must initially meet challenges that include low rates of occurrence on the l
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, National Wildlife Health Center, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

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 Salamander (Plethodon shenandoah), an endangered pl
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

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 reactive management approaches are not sufficient for
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

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 and shifts in response to interspecific interaction
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Ecosystems, Wildlife Program, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

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 shenandoah is a Federally Endangered salamander know
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Ecosystems, Wildlife Program, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

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 raw data are often reported, which may lead to ineffe
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

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 >500,000 time-series observations for 81 species across 8
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Ecosystems, Water Resources, Wildlife Program, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC), Southwest Biological Science Center, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis

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, even in the presence of competition. The relative impo
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Ecosystems, Wildlife Program, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

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 of the misidentification with another, closely rela
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

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 temperature) will be most sensitive to local shifts
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis

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 evaluate alternative distributions of sampling locati
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
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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...

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