David Smith
Biography
Dave Smith graduated from Colorado State (MS in Fish and Wildlife Biology) and University of Georgia (MS in Statistics and PhD in Forest Resources). Currently, he is a biological statistician at the USGS Leetown Science Center where he focuses on applied quantitative ecology in support of natural resource management and environmental decision making.
His research activities mostly focus on the following topics:
- Adaptive sampling of rare and clustered populations
- Conservation and science of horseshoe crabs in North America and Asia
- Conservation of freshwater mussels
- Application of structured decision making and adaptive management to natural resource management
Science and Products
The contribution of water radiolysis to marine sedimentary life
Water radiolysis continuously produces H2 and oxidized chemicals in wet sediment and rock. Radiolytic H2 has been identified as the primary electron donor (food) for microorganisms in continental aquifers kilometers below Earth’s surface. Radiolytic products may also be significant for sustaining life in subseafloor sediment and...
Sauvage, Justine F.; Flinders, Ashton; Spivack, Arthur J.; Pockalny, Robert; Dunlea, Ann G.; Anderson, Chloe H.; Smith, David; Murray, Richard W.; D’Hondt, Steven Using expert knowledge to support Endangered Species Act decision‐making for data‐deficient species
Many questions relevant to conservation decision making are characterized by extreme uncertainty due to lack of empirical data and complexity of the underlying ecological processes, leading to a rapid increase in the use of structured protocols to elicit expert knowledge. Published ecological applications often employ a modified Delphi method,...
Fitzgerald, Daniel Bruce; Smith, David R.; Culver, David C.; Feller, Daniel; Fong, Daniel W.; Hajenga, Jeff; Niemiller, Matthew L.; Nolfi, Daniel C.; Orndorff, Wil D.; Douglas, Barbara; Maloney, Kelly O.; Young, John A. A Bayesian framework for assessing extinction risk based on ordinal categories of population condition and projected landscape change
Many at-risk species lack standardized surveys across their range or quantitative data capable of detecting demographic trends. As a result, extinction risk assessments often rely on ordinal categories of risk based on explicit criteria or expert elicitation. This study demonstrates a Bayesian approach to assessing extinction risk based on this...
Fitzgerald, Daniel Bruce; Henderson, Andrew R; Maloney, Kelly O.; Freeman, Mary; Young, John A.; Rosenberger, Amanda E.; Kazyak, David; Smith, David R. Estimation of vital population rates to assess the relative health of mussel assemblages in the Upper Mississippi River
Native freshwater mussels are a guild of benthic, filter feeding invertebrates that perform important ecological functions in rivers. Because of their long lifespans (30–50 years or longer), mussels are slow to respond to human‐induced alterations. Thus, development of sensitive indicators of mussel population responses to river conditions...
Newton, Teresa; Zigler, Steven J.; Ries, Patricia R.; Davis, Mike; Smith, David R. Introduction to structuring decisions
Decision structuring, also known as decision framing, provides the foundation and roadmap for analyzing a decision. For decisions that warrant a systematic approach, structuring begins with identifying the problem for analysis, which sounds simple but can be deceptively difficult because decision problems are often ill-formed at the start. Many...
Smith, David R. Introduction to prediction and the value of information
Predicting the consequences of alternative actions in terms of the objectives is central to decision making. Modeling in the broadest sense, from simple to complex and based on data or expert judgment, comprises the essential toolkit for making decision-relevant predictions. Gaps in knowledge and the resulting uncertainty can make predictive...
Smith, David R. Strategic conservation of an imperiled freshwater mussel, the Dwarf Wedgemussel, in North Carolina
To be effective, managers of imperiled species must face the unavoidable tradeoff between conservation benefits and constrained budgets and must not be paralyzed by scientific uncertainty. Decision analysis can help meet these challenges when used to develop cost-effective strategies to recover or improve the status of species. The U.S. Fish and...
Smith, David R.; McCrae, Sarah E
A decision framework to analyze tide-gate options for restoration of the Herring River Estuary, Massachusetts
The collective set of decisions involved with the restoration of degraded wetlands is often more complex than considering only ecological responses and outcomes. Restoration is commonly driven by a complex interaction of social, economic, and ecological factors representing the mandate of resource stewards and the values of stakeholders. The...
Smith, David R.; Eaton, Mitchell J.; Gannon, Jill J.; Smith, Timothy P.; Derleth, Eric L.; Katz, Jonathan; Bosma, Kirk F.; Leduc, Elise Geographic-specific capture-recapture models reveal contrasting migration and survival rates of adult horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus)
American horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) have varied migration patterns and harvesting pressure throughout their range, potentially leading to regional differences in population dynamics. Here, a multi-state mark–recapture model was used to estimate annual survival and exchange rates of adult horseshoe crabs across three geographic regions in...
Bopp, Justin J.; Sclafani, Matthew; Smith, David R.; McKown, Kim; Sysak, Rachel; Cerrato, Robert Long-term population dynamics of dreissenid mussels (Dreissena polymorpha and D. rostriformis): A cross-system analysis
Dreissenid mussels (including the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha and the quagga mussel D. rostriformis) are among the world's most notorious invasive species, with large and widespread ecological and economic effects. However, their long‐term population dynamics are poorly known, even though these dynamics are critical to...
Strayer, David L.; Adamovich, Boris V.; Rita Adrian; Aldridge, David C.; Csilla Balogh; Lyubov E. Burlakova; Hannah Fried-Petersen; László G.-Tóth; Amy L. Hetherington; Thomas S. Jones; Alexander Y. Karatayev; Jacqueline B. Madill; Oleg A. Makarevich; Marsden, J. Ellen; André L. Martel; Dan Minchin; Thomas F. Nalepa; Ruurd Noordhuis; Timothy J. Robinson; Lars G. Rudstam; Astrid N. Schwalb; Smith, David R.; Alan D. Steinman; Jonathan M. Jeschke Linkages between hydrology and seasonal variations of nutrients and periphyton in a large oligotrophic subalpine lake
Periphyton is important to lake ecosystems, contributing to primary production, nutrient cycling, and benthic metabolism. Increases in periphyton growth in lakes can be indicative of changes in water quality, shifts in ecosystem structure, and increases in nutrient fluxes. In oligotrophic lakes, conservationists are interested in characterizing...
Niswonger, Richard G.; Smith, David; Rosenberry, Donald O.; Sudeep Chandra; Naranjo, Ramon C.; Niswonger, Richard G.; Smith, David; Rosenberry, Donald O.; Chandra, Sudeep Temporal evaluation of estrogenic endocrine disruption markers in smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) reveals seasonal variability in intersex
A reconnaissance project completed in 2009 identified intersex and elevated plasma vitellogenin in male smallmouth bass inhabiting the Missisquoi River, VT. In an attempt to identify the presence and seasonality of putative endocrine disrupting chemicals or other factors associated with these observations, a comprehensive reevaluation was...
Iwanowicz, Luke R.; Pinkney, A.E.; Guy, C.P.; Major, A.M.; Munney, K.; Blazer, Vicki S.; Alvarez, David; Walsh, Heather L.; Sperry, Adam J.; Sanders, Lakyn R.; Smith, D. R.
Friday's Findings - March 5 2021
Species Status Assessments to Support Endangered Species Decision Making
Date: March 5, 2021 from 2-2:30 p.m. eastern time
Speakers:
Conor McGowan, Assistant Unit Leader, Florida Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
David Smith, Research Statistician (Biology), Eastern Ecological Science Center
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