The Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge spans Virginia and North Carolina. Photo by Craig Stricker (USGS).
Craig A Stricker, PhD
Craig Stricker is an ecologist at the Fort Collins Science Center that specializes in the application of chemical and isotopic tracers for addressing societally relevant questions related to ecosystem ecology. His research interests are focused on biogeochemistry, food webs, and animal resource allocation and movement.
Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Stable Isotope Laboratory (GSIL)
Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Stable Isotope Laboratory (GSIL)
The GSIL is a state-of-the-art facility located on the Denver Federal Center that specializes in the measurement of light stable isotope — Hydrogen (H), Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N), Oxygen (O), and Sulfur (S) — compositions and other chemical and biomarker analytes in matrices relevant to the Earth sciences.
Research Highlights
Research Highlights
- Continental-scale nutrient and contaminant delivery by Pacific salmon
- Diet and macronutrient assimilation in an Arctic predator
- Animal tracing with sulfur isotopes
- Effects of protein overconsumption limit dietary adaptation in an apex predator
- Carbon chemistry of peatlands in the southeastern USA
- Design, development, and implementation of IsoBank
- Diet energy density associated with survival, habitat, and population dynamics
As an ecologist at the Fort Collins Science Center, Craig Stricker’s research program focuses on an improved understanding of the roles of hydrology, biogeochemistry, and food web interactions on ecosystem structure and function with the goal of assisting land managers. His expertise in chemical and isotopic tracers offers novel insights in ecosystem ecology and has benefitted multidisciplinary collaborations across a variety of state, federal, and academic institutions. Tracer-based approaches to studying wildlife and ecosystems is a capability unique to Stricker’s research and the Fort Collins Science Center with examples ranging from wildlife nutrition, trophic dynamics, impacts of invasive species, animal movements and phenology, biogeochemistry, and environmental stressors such as fire and drought. The spatial domain of his work ranges from discrete habitats, regional assessments, to continental and oceanic basins, with studies from the sub-tropics to the high Arctic. Results of these projects inform on species life history and fitness to ecosystem health and function, but also offer frameworks for monitoring programs, model development, restoration, and risk assessment.
Science and Products
Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Stable Isotope Laboratory (GSIL)
The GSIL is a state-of-the-art facility located on the Denver Federal Center that specializes in the measurement of light stable isotope — Hydrogen (H), Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N), Oxygen (O), and Sulfur (S) — compositions and other chemical and biomarker analytes in matrices relevant to the Earth sciences. Chemical and isotopic tracers offer novel insights into ecosystem biogeochemistry, food webs...
Food Webs and Wildlife Nutrition
Wildlife nutrition is an essential element of fitness, and contextualizing resource use within the broader framework of local and regional food webs is paramount to species health, function, and management.
Ecosystem Biogeochemistry
Biogeochemical cycles impart significant control on ecosystem structure, function, and ecosystem services, such as nutrient sequestration, transformation, long-term storage, mitigation of water quality concerns, and carbon fixation/mineralization processes that support local food webs.
Wildlife Biogeography
The distribution of species across the landscape is of great interest to biologists, owing to a critical need to understand the connectivity of disparate habitats for species that undertake broadscale movements. Indeed, habitat quality and quantity are thought to be important drivers of occurrence and distribution, and numerous studies have demonstrated fitness-related consequences as evidenced in...
Environmental Stressors
Environmental stressors that impact habitat and wildlife species include: abiotic factors (for example, land use, temperature); soil, air, and water quality (for example, eutrophication, contaminants); and disturbance (for example, fire, drought, hurricanes, species invasions). Understanding how these stressors impact ecosystems is critical to conservation and management.
Fort Collins Science Center Labs and Facilities
The Fort Collins Science Center has scientists working in several diverse locations as well as three in house highly specialized laboratories, studying subjects from molecular ecology to brown treesnakes, dendroecology to streamflows, and macroinvertebrate species to Burmese pythons. Our extraordinary scientists work in each of these locations advancing studies in their particular areas of study...
Great Dismal Swamp
The Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge spans Virginia and North Carolina. Photo by Craig Stricker (USGS).
Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Stable Isotope Laboratory
Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Stable Isotope Laboratory. Photo by Craig Stricker (USGS).
Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Stable Isotope Laboratory. Photo by Craig Stricker (USGS).
Walleye Otolith from the Upper Colorado River Basin
A walleye otolith from the Upper Colorado River Basin. Researchers can analyze isotopes in these structures to obtain information on individual origin and recent residency.
A walleye otolith from the Upper Colorado River Basin. Researchers can analyze isotopes in these structures to obtain information on individual origin and recent residency.
Science and Products
Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Stable Isotope Laboratory (GSIL)
The GSIL is a state-of-the-art facility located on the Denver Federal Center that specializes in the measurement of light stable isotope — Hydrogen (H), Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N), Oxygen (O), and Sulfur (S) — compositions and other chemical and biomarker analytes in matrices relevant to the Earth sciences. Chemical and isotopic tracers offer novel insights into ecosystem biogeochemistry, food webs...
Food Webs and Wildlife Nutrition
Wildlife nutrition is an essential element of fitness, and contextualizing resource use within the broader framework of local and regional food webs is paramount to species health, function, and management.
Ecosystem Biogeochemistry
Biogeochemical cycles impart significant control on ecosystem structure, function, and ecosystem services, such as nutrient sequestration, transformation, long-term storage, mitigation of water quality concerns, and carbon fixation/mineralization processes that support local food webs.
Wildlife Biogeography
The distribution of species across the landscape is of great interest to biologists, owing to a critical need to understand the connectivity of disparate habitats for species that undertake broadscale movements. Indeed, habitat quality and quantity are thought to be important drivers of occurrence and distribution, and numerous studies have demonstrated fitness-related consequences as evidenced in...
Environmental Stressors
Environmental stressors that impact habitat and wildlife species include: abiotic factors (for example, land use, temperature); soil, air, and water quality (for example, eutrophication, contaminants); and disturbance (for example, fire, drought, hurricanes, species invasions). Understanding how these stressors impact ecosystems is critical to conservation and management.
Fort Collins Science Center Labs and Facilities
The Fort Collins Science Center has scientists working in several diverse locations as well as three in house highly specialized laboratories, studying subjects from molecular ecology to brown treesnakes, dendroecology to streamflows, and macroinvertebrate species to Burmese pythons. Our extraordinary scientists work in each of these locations advancing studies in their particular areas of study...
Great Dismal Swamp
The Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge spans Virginia and North Carolina. Photo by Craig Stricker (USGS).
The Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge spans Virginia and North Carolina. Photo by Craig Stricker (USGS).
Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Stable Isotope Laboratory
Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Stable Isotope Laboratory. Photo by Craig Stricker (USGS).
Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Stable Isotope Laboratory. Photo by Craig Stricker (USGS).
Walleye Otolith from the Upper Colorado River Basin
A walleye otolith from the Upper Colorado River Basin. Researchers can analyze isotopes in these structures to obtain information on individual origin and recent residency.
A walleye otolith from the Upper Colorado River Basin. Researchers can analyze isotopes in these structures to obtain information on individual origin and recent residency.
USGS Location