Erik Beever, Ph.D.
Erik is interested in questions at the nexus of basic and applied science, especially those that also inform management and conservation efforts for species, communities, and ecosystems.
Research Interest
Dr. Erik Beever has published over 100 articles in diverse scientific journals and in numerous subdisciplines of biology. He has performed field research on plants, soils, amphibians, birds, reptiles, fishes, and insects, as well as small, medium, and large mammals. His work has spanned salt-scrub, sagebrush-steppe, alpine, subalpine, subarctic, riparian, primary and secondary temperate and tropical forest, and coastal ecosystems of the western hemisphere. In addition to seeking to understand mechanisms of biotic responses to long-term weather patterns and variability, he has also focused on disturbance ecology and monitoring in conservation reserves, all at community to landscape scales, as well as other topics of conservation ecology, wildlife biology, and landscape ecology. He is a member of the IUCN Protected Areas Specialist Group, the IUCN Lagomorph Specialist Group, as well as The Wildlife Society, Society for Conservation Biology, American Society of Mammalogists, and Sigma Xi.
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. 1999. University of Nevada, Reno. Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology
B.S. 1993. University of California, Davis. Biological Sciences
Science and Products
Response of western mountain ecosystems to climatic variability and change: A collaborative research approach
Evidence and implications of recent and projected climate change in Alaska's forest ecosystems
Design of ecoregional monitoring in conservation areas of high-latitude ecosystems under contemporary climate change
Framework for ecological monitoring on lands of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and their partners
Ecological responses to contemporary climate change within species, communities, and ecosystems
American pikas (Ochotona princeps) in northwestern Nevada: A newly discovered population at a low-elevation site
Monitoring biological diversity: strategies, tools, limitations, and challenges
Linking the concept of scale to studies of biological diversity: evolving approaches and tools.
Multi-scale responses of soil stability and invasive plants to removal of non-native grazers from an arid conservation reserve
Effects of feral horses in Great Basin landscapes on soils and ants: Direct and indirect mechanisms
Monitoring temporal change in riparian vegetation of Great Basin National Park
Short-term responses of desert soil and vegetation to removal of feral burros and domestic cattle (California)
Non-USGS Publications**
horse grazing and other management practices. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Nevada, Reno.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
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Filter Total Items: 71
Response of western mountain ecosystems to climatic variability and change: A collaborative research approach
No abstract available.AuthorsDavid L. Peterson, Craig D. Allen, Jill S. Baron, Daniel B. Fagre, Donald McKenzie, Nathan L. Stephenson, Andrew G. Fountain, Jeffrey A. Hicke, George P. Malanson, Dennis S. Ojima, Christina L. Tague, Phillip J. van MantgemEvidence and implications of recent and projected climate change in Alaska's forest ecosystems
The structure and function of Alaska's forests have changed significantly in response to a changing climate, including alterations in species composition and climate feedbacks (e.g., carbon, radiation budgets) that have important regional societal consequences and human feedbacks to forest ecosystems. In this paper we present the first comprehensive synthesis of climate-change impacts on all foresAuthorsJane M. Wolken, Teresa N. Hollingsworth, T. Scott Rupp, Stuart III Chapin, Sarah F. Trainor, Tara M. Barrett, Patrick F. Sullivan, A. David McGuire, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Paul E. Hennon, Erik A. Beever, Jeff S. Conn, Lisa K. Crone, David V. D'Amore, Nancy Fresco, Thomas A. Hanley, Knut Kielland, James J. Kruse, Trista Patterson, Edward A.G. Schuur, David L. Verbyla, John YarieDesign of ecoregional monitoring in conservation areas of high-latitude ecosystems under contemporary climate change
Land ownership in Alaska includes a mosaic of federally managed units. Within its agency’s context, each unit has its own management strategy, authority, and resources of conservation concern, many of which are migratory animals. Though some units are geographically isolated, many are nevertheless linked by paths of abiotic and biotic flows, such as rivers, air masses, flyways, and terrestrial andAuthorsErik A. Beever, Andrea WoodwardFramework for ecological monitoring on lands of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and their partners
National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska and throughout the U.S. have begun developing a spatially comprehensive monitoring program to inform management decisions, and to provide data to broader research projects. In an era of unprecedented rates of climate change, monitoring is essential to detecting, understanding, communicating and mitigating climate-change effects on refuge and other resources undeAuthorsAndrea Woodward, Erik A. BeeverEcological responses to contemporary climate change within species, communities, and ecosystems
No abstract available.AuthorsJerrold L. Belant, Erik A. Beever, John E. Gross, Joshua J. LawlerAmerican pikas (Ochotona princeps) in northwestern Nevada: A newly discovered population at a low-elevation site
The central tenet of island biogeography theory - that species assemblages on islands are functions of island area, isolation from mainlands, and vicariance - has been altered by the demonstrable effects that rapid climate change is imposing on insular faunas, at least in isolated mountaintops. Although populations of American pikas (Ochotona princeps) continue to suffer extirpations, and althoughAuthorsE.A. Beever, J.L. Wilkening, D.E. McIvor, S.S. Weber, P. F. BrussardMonitoring biological diversity: strategies, tools, limitations, and challenges
Monitoring is an assessment of the spatial and temporal variability in one or more ecosystem properties, and is an essential component of adaptive management. Monitoring can help determine whether mandated environmental standards are being met and can provide an early-warning system of ecological change. Development of a strategy for monitoring biological diversity will likely be most successful wAuthorsE.A. BeeverLinking the concept of scale to studies of biological diversity: evolving approaches and tools.
Although the concepts of scale and biological diversity independently have received rapidly increasing attention in the scientific literature since the 1980s, the rate at which the two concepts have been investigated jointly has grown much more slowly. We find that scale considerations have been incorporated explicitly into six broad areas of investigation related to biological diversity: (1) heteAuthorsE.A. Beever, R.K. Swihart, B. T. BestelmeyerMulti-scale responses of soil stability and invasive plants to removal of non-native grazers from an arid conservation reserve
Disturbances and ecosystem recovery from disturbance both involve numerous processes that operate on multiple spatial and temporal scales. Few studies have investigated how gradients of disturbance intensity and ecosystem responses are distributed across multiple spatial resolutions and also how this relationship changes through time during recovery. We investigated how cover of non-native speciesAuthorsErik A. Beever, Manuela M. P. Huso, David A. PykeEffects of feral horses in Great Basin landscapes on soils and ants: Direct and indirect mechanisms
We compared soil-surface penetration resistance and abundance of ant mounds at 12 western Great Basin sites (composed of 19 plots) either grazed by feral horses (Equus caballus) or having had horses removed for the last 10–14 years. Across this broad spatial domain (3.03 million ha), we minimized confounding due to abiotic factors by selecting horse-occupied and horse-removed sites with similar asAuthorsE.A. Beever, J. E. HerrickMonitoring temporal change in riparian vegetation of Great Basin National Park
Disturbance in riparian areas of semiarid ecosystems involves complex interactions of pulsed hydrologic flows, herbivory, fire, climatic effects, and anthropogenic influences. We resampled riparian vegetation within ten 10-m × 100-m plots that were initially sampled in 1992 in 4 watersheds of the Snake Range, east central Nevada. Our finding of significantly lower coverage of grasses, forbs, and sAuthorsErik A. Beever, David A. Pyke, Jeanne C. Chambers, Fred Landau, S.D. SmithShort-term responses of desert soil and vegetation to removal of feral burros and domestic cattle (California)
No abstract available.AuthorsErik A. Beever, David A. PykeNon-USGS Publications**
G.S. Casper, E. Beever, U. Gafvert, and S.M. Nadeau. 2018. Amphibian Monitoring Protocol (Version 2.0). Natural Resource Report NPS/GLKN/NRR—2018/1761. National Park Service, Great Lakes Inventory & Monitoring Network, Ashland, WI.S.K. Windels, Beever, E.A., J. Paruk, A. Nelson, L. Siegel, D. Evers, and C.C. MacNulty. 2013. Effects of water-level management on nesting success of common loons. Journal of Wildlife Management 77(8):1626-1638.Beever, E.A. 1999. Species- and community-level responses to disturbance imposed by feral
horse grazing and other management practices. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Nevada, Reno.
Beever, E.A. and P.F. Brussard. 2000. Charismatic megafauna or exotic pest? Interactions between popular perceptions of feral horses (Equus caballus) and their management and research. Pages 413-418 In: T.P. Salmon and A.C. Crabb, editors. Proceedings of the 19th International Vertebrate Pest Conference, University of California, DavisDunham, J. B., B. R. Dickerson, E. Beever, R. D. Duncan, and G. L. Vinyard. 2000. Effects of food limitation and emigration on self-thinning in experimental minnow cohorts. Journal of Animal Ecology 69(6):927-934.Beever, E.A. and P.F. Brussard. 2000. Examining ecological consequences of feral horse grazing using exclosures. Western North American Naturalist 60(3):236-254.
Beever, E.A. 2000. The roles of optimism in conservation biology. Conservation Biology 14(3):907-909.Beever, E.A. and D.A. Pyke. 2002. Research plan for lands administered by the U.S. Department of Interior in the Interior Columbia Basin & Snake River Plateau. U.S. Geological Survey, Information and Technology Report 2002-003. 76 p.Beever, E.A. 2002. Persistence of pikas in two low-elevation national monuments in the western United States. Park Science 21(2):23-29.Beever, E.A., P.F. Brussard, and J. Berger. 2003. Patterns of extirpation among isolated populations of pikas (Ochotona princeps) in the Great Basin. Journal of Mammalogy 84(1):37-54.Haig, S.M, E.A. Beever, et al. 2006. Taxonomy and listing of subspecies under the U.S. ESA: challenges for conservation and policy implementation. Conservation Biology 20(6):1584-1594Bowen, K.D., S.D. McMahon, and E.A. Beever. 2007. Geographic distribution. Elaphe vulpina (Western Foxsnake). Herpetological Review 38(4):486Johnson, S.E., E.L. Mudrak, E.A. Beever, S. Sanders, and D.M. Waller. 2008. Comparing power among three sampling methods for monitoring forest vegetation. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 38:143-156.Beever, E.A., R.J. Tausch, and W.E. Thogmartin. 2008. Landscape- and local-scale responses of vegetation to removal of horse grazing from Great Basin (U.S.A.) mountain ranges. Plant Ecology 196(2):163-184.Beever, E.A., and A.T. Smith. 2008. Ochotona princeps. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4Bowen, K.D., E.A. Beever, and U.B. Gafvert. 2009. Improving the design of amphibian surveys using soil data: a case study in two wilderness areas. Natural Areas Journal 29(2):117-125.Beever, E.A. 2009. Ecological silence of the grasslands, forests, wetlands, mountains, and seas. Conservation Biology 23(5):1320-1322.Beever, E.A., C. Ray, P.W. Mote, and J.L. Wilkening. 2010. Testing alternative models of climate-mediated extirpations. Ecological Applications 20(1):164-178.Bowen, K.B., and E.A. Beever. 2010. Daytime amphibian surveys at three National Lakeshores in the Western Great Lakes ecoregion. Reptiles & Amphibians 17(1):26-35.Rodhouse, T.J., E.A. Beever, L.K. Garrett, K.M. Irvine, M. Munts, C. Ray, and M.R. Shardlow. 2010. Distribution of American pikas in a low-elevation lava landscape: conservation implications from the range periphery. Journal of Mammalogy 91(5):1287-1299.Bowen, K.B., and E.A. Beever. 2010. Pilot amphibian monitoring at Apostle Islands, Pictured Rocks, and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshores: analysis and recommendations. NPS Natural Resource Report NPS/GLKN/NRTR–2010/360. ix + 49 pp.Wilkening, J.L., C. Ray, E.A. Beever, and P.F. Brussard. 2011. Modeling contemporary range retraction in Great Basin pikas (Ochotona princeps) using data on microclimate and microhabitat. Quaternary International 235:77-88.Beever, E.A., C. Ray, J.L. Wilkening, P.F. Brussard, and P.W. Mote. 2011. Contemporary climate change alters the pace and drivers of extinction. Global Change Biology 17(6):2054-2070Beever, E.A., and C.L. Aldridge. 2011. Influences of free-roaming equids on sagebrush ecosystems, with a focus on Greater Sage-grouse. INVITED article, Studies in Avian Biology 38:273-290.Belant, J., and Beever, E.A. 2011. Ecological consequences of climate change: Introduction. In: Ecological consequences of climate change: mechanisms, conservation, and management. CRC Press (Taylor and Francis Group).Beever, E.A., and J. Belant. 2011. Ecological consequences of climate change: synthesis and research needs. Pages 285-294 In: Ecological consequences of climate change: mechanisms, conservation, and management. CRC Press (Taylor and Francis Group).Beever, E.A., and J. Belant, Editors. 2011. Ecological consequences of climate change: mechanisms, conservation, and management. CRC Press (Taylor and Francis Group). xix + 314 pp.Beever, E.A., C. Ray, J.L. Wilkening, P.W. Mote, and P.F. Brussard. 2011. Landscape-scale conservation and management of montane wildlife: contemporary climate may be changing the rules. Intermountain Journal of Science 17(1-4):41-42.Beever, E.A., and A.T. Smith. 2011. Ochotona princeps. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2.Calkins, M.T., E.A. Beever, K.G. Boykin, J.K. Frey, and M.C. Andersen. 2012. Not-so-splendid isolation: modeling climate-mediated range collapse of a montane mammal (Ochotona princeps) across numerous ecoregions. Ecography 35(9):780-791.Ray, C., E.A. Beever, and S. Loarie. 2012. Retreat of the American pika: up the mountain or into the void? Invited chapter (pages 245-270) in : Brodie, J.F., E. Post, and D.F. Doak, editors, Wildlife conservation in a changing climate. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
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