Blake Hossack
Biography
Ph.D. Fish and Wildlife Biology. 2011. University of Montana, Missoula
M.S. Wildlife Biology. 1998. University of Idaho, Moscow
B.S. Wildlife Biology. 1996. University of Montana, Missoula
Blake Hossack's research is focused on measuring population and community responses to climate change, energy development, invasive species, and wetland mitigation and management. Most of his research is focused on wetlands and amphibians, with long-term research areas in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem (Montana), Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Wyoming), southern Arizona and Mexico, the northern Great Plains, and the subarctic (Manitoba). To improve conservation success, Blake has increasingly sought to integrate research into management applications. He is stationed at the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana, where he coordinates activities for the Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI).
Current Research Projects:
- Long-term research on amphibians and wetlands in the Desert Southwest, Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and Crown of the Continent Ecosystem
- Effects of disease on imperiled amphibian populations
- Designing citizen science programs for research on effects of climate change on wetland communities in the Canadian Subarctic
- Measurement of the threat of climate to aquatic species, their capacity for local adaptation, and adaptive management to reduce threats.
- Integrating metapopulation ecology and landscape ecology for improved population viability analysis and conservation decision-making.
- Quantifying the ecological value of mitigation and other constructed wetlands
- Informing recovery of threatened and endangered amphibians in the US-Mexico Borderlands
- Effects of energy development on wetland communities in the Prairie Pothole Region
- Using environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect and monitor pathogens and rare herpetofauna
- Documenting responses of aquatic communities to installation of beaver dam analog structures in headwater streams in prairie and sagebrush lands
Science and Products
Western Waters Invasive Species and Disease Research Program
Researchers at the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center's Western Waters Invasive Species and Disease Research Program work extensively with federal, state, tribal, regional, and local partners to deliver science to improve early detection and prevention of invasive species and disease; understand complex interactions that promote invasive species and disease, and their impacts (and...
Modeling Colonization of a Population of Chiricahua Leopard Frogs
Managing a species with intensive tools like reintroduction may focus on single sites or entire landscapes. For mobile species like the federally-threatened Chiricahua leopard frog (Lithobates chiricahuensis [CLF]), both suitable colonization sites and suitable dispersal corridors between sites are needed. Following the eradication of the invasive American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)...
Amphibian Chytrid Fungus Sampling in Arizona and Mexico
Information on disease presence can be of use to natural resource managers, especially in areas supporting threatened and endangered species that occur coincidentally with species that are suspected vectors for disease. A general sense of pathogen presence (or absence) can inform management directed at threatened and endangered species, especially in regions where disease is suspected to have...
Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative: Rocky Mountain Region
The Rocky Mountain Region of Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) encompasses Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. Two USGS Science Centers initiate and develop ARMI projects in this region. Investigations at NOROCK are headed by Dr. Blake Hossack. Investigations at the Fort Collins Science Center (FORT), Colorado, are headed by Dr. Erin Muths. The ARMI program is based...
RARMI: Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK) Apex Sites
In contrast to RARMI study areas in Colorado that have 10 or more years of records of continuous population monitoring, there are fewer long-term datasets for amphibian populations in the northern Rocky Mountains. The exception is an ongoing study of Columbia spotted frogs at Lodge Creek, Yellowstone National Park. Three other long-term research and monitoring areas have been established in...
Elucidating mechanisms underlying amphibian declines in North America using hierarchical spatial models
Amphibian populations are declining globally at unprecedented rates but statistically rigorous identification of mechanisms is lacking. Identification of reasons underlying large-scale declines is imperative to plan and implement effective conservation efforts. Most research on amphibian population decline has focused on local populations and local factors. However, the ubiquity of declines...
Amphibian chytrid prevalence on boreal toads in SE Alaska and NW British Columbia: Tests of habitat, life stages, and temporal trends
Tracking and understanding variation in pathogens such as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis ([Bd]), which causes amphibian chytridiomycosis and has caused population declines globally, is a priority for many land managers. However, there has been relatively little sampling of amphibian communities at high latitudes. We used skin swabs collected...
Hossack, Blake R.; Adams, Michael J.; Honeycutt, R Ken; Belt, Jami J; Pyare, S Species-specific responses to wetland mitigation among amphibians in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Habitat loss and degradation are leading causes of biodiversity declines, therefore assessing the capacity of created mitigation wetlands to replace habitat for wildlife has become a management priority. We used single season occupancy models to compare the occurrence of larvae of four species of pond‐breeding amphibians in wetlands created for...
Swartz, LK; Lowe, WH; Muths, Erin L.; Hossack, Blake R. Contrasting demographic responses of toad populations to regionally synchronous pathogen (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) dynamics
We used long-term capture-recapture data from 3 boreal toad populations in western Montana to estimate how apparent survival is affected by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a fungal pathogen that causes disease and has been implicated in amphibian population declines globally. Despite similar levels of Bd prevalence and synchronous pathogen...
Hossack, Blake R.; Russell, Robin E.; Mccaffery, Rebecca A statistical forecasting approach to metapopulation viability analysis
Conservation of at‐risk species is aided by reliable forecasts of the consequences of environmental change and management actions on population viability. Forecasts from conventional population viability analysis (PVA) are made using a two‐step procedure in which parameters are estimated, or elicited from expert opinion, and then plugged into a...
Howell, Paige E.; Hossack, Blake R.; Muths, Erin L.; Sigafus, Brent; Chenevert-Steffler, A; Chandler, Richard B. Drought-mediated extinction of an arid-land amphibian: Insights from a spatially explicit dynamic occupancy model
Understanding how natural and anthropogenic processes affect population dynamics of species with patchy distributions is critical to predicting their responses to environmental changes. Despite considerable evidence that demographic rates and dispersal patterns vary temporally in response to an array of biotic and abiotic processes, few...
Muths, Erin L.; Zylstra, Erin R; Swann, Don E; Hossack, Blake R.; Steidl, Robert J Using full and partial unmixing algorithms to estimate the inundation extent of small, isolated stock ponds in an arid landscape
Many natural wetlands around the world have disappeared or been replaced, resulting in the dependence of many wildlife species on small, artificial earthen stock ponds. These ponds provide critical wildlife habitat, such that the accurate detection of water and assessment of inundation extent is required. We applied a full (linear spectral mixture...
Jarchow, Christopher; Sigafus, Brent H.; Muths, Erin L.; Hossack, Blake R. Spatial capture-recapture reveals age- and sex-specific survival and movement in stream amphibians
Life history information sets the foundation for our understanding of ecology and conservation requirements. For many species, this information is lacking even for basic demographic rates such as survival and movement. When survival and movement estimates are available, they are often derived from mixed demographic groups and do not consider...
Honeycutt, R. Ken; Garwood, Justin M; Lowe, Winsor H.; Hossack, Blake R. Predicting attenuation of salinized surface- and groundwater-resources from legacy energy development in the Prairie Pothole Region
Oil and gas (energy) development in the Williston Basin, which partly underlies the Prairie Pothole Region in central North America, has helped meet U.S. energy demand for decades. Historical handling and disposal practices of saline wastewater co-produced during energy development resulted in salinization of surface and groundwater at numerous...
Preston, Todd M.; Anderson, Chauncey W.; Thamke, Joanna N.; Hossack, Blake R.; Skalak, Katherine; Cozzarelli, Isabelle M. Effect of amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) on apparent survival of frogs and toads in the western USA
Despite increasing interest in determining the population-level effects of emerging infectious diseases on wildlife, estimating effects of disease on survival rates remains difficult. Even for a well-studied disease such as amphibian chytridiomycosis (caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis [Bd]), there are few estimates of...
Russell, Robin E.; Halstead, Brian J.; Mosher, Brittany; Muths, Erin L.; Adams, Michael J.; Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Fisher, Robert N.; Kleeman, Patrick M.; Backlin, Adam R.; Pearl, Christopher; Honeycutt, R. Ken; Hossack, Blake R. Aquatic macroinvertebrate community responses to wetland mitigation in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
1. Wetlands are critical components of freshwater biodiversity and provide ecosystem services, but human activities have resulted in large-scale loss of these habitats across the globe. To offset this loss, mitigation wetlands are frequently constructed, but their ability to replicate the functions of natural wetlands remains uncertain. Further,...
LEAH K. SWARTZ; Hossack, Blake R.; Muths, Erin L.; Robert L. Newell; Winsor H. Lowe Associations between environmental pollutants and larval amphibians in wetlands contaminated by energy-related brines are potentially mediated by feeding traits
Energy production in the Williston Basin, located in the Prairie Pothole Region of central North America, has increased rapidly over the last several decades. Advances in recycling and disposal practices of saline wastewaters (brines) co-produced during energy production have reduced ecological risks, but spills still...
Smalling, Kelly L.; Anderson, Chauncey W.; Honeycutt, R. Ken; Cozzarelli, Isabelle M.; Preston, Todd M.; Hossack, Blake R. Status of the threatened Chiricahua Leopard Frog and conservation challenges in Sonora, Mexico, with notes on other ranid frogs and non-native predators
In North America, ranid frogs (Ranidae) have experienced larger declines than any other amphibian family, particularly species native to the southwestern USA and adjacent Mexico; however, our knowledge of their conservation status and threats is limited in Mexico. We assessed the status of the federally listed as threatened (USA) Chiricahua...
James C. Rorabaugh; Hossack, Blake R.; Muths, Erin L.; Sigafus, Brent H.; Julio A. Lemos-Espinal
A Unified Research Strategy for Disease Management
As wildlife diseases increase globally, an understanding of host-pathogen relationships can elucidate avenues for management and improve conservation efficacy. Amphibians are among the most threatened groups of wildlife, and disease is a major factor in global amphibian declines.
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.