Evan Grant, Ph.D.
Biography
Evan Grant the principle investigator of the US Geological Survey’s Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI), northeast region, and stationed at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, MD. Evan's research focuses on questions relating to amphibian populations, specifically with respect to their landscape-scale ecology and conservation. Evan's work is focused on monitoring and research questions which can aid resource managers and conservationists.
Education:
- PhD, 2009, University of Maryland College Park, Program of Marine, Estuarine and Environmental Sciences and Department of Entomology
- BS, 2001, Cornell University, Natural Resources, with Distinction in Research
ResearcherID: N-5160-2014
Research Gate profile: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Evan_Grant2
Science and Products
Assessing Amphibian Disease Risk in the Northeast
The Challenge: 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.
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,...
Northeast Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative
The USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) is designed to determine where populations of amphibians are present, to monitor specific apex populations, and to investigate potential causes of amphibian declines, diseases, and malformations. The Northeast Region of ARMI encompasses thirteen states (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey...
Managing the Extinction Risk of the Shenandoah Salamander
The Challenge: In many National Parks organisms at high elevation are severely threatened and may be sensitive to changes in temperature and moisture gradients in the Appalachians, which may result in species extirpation in high elevation habitats. Many species are specifically adapted to the unusual conditions typical of high elevation sites; risks of extirpation increase as conditions ...
North American Amphibian Monitoring Program
The North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP) was a collaborative citizen science effort between the US Geological Survey (USGS) and 26 partners (state agencies, universities, and nonprofit organizations) for monitoring calling amphibian populations over much of the eastern and central United States. Initiated in 1997, in response to needs set forth by the Declining Amphibian...
Range position and climate sensitivity: the structure of among-population demographic responses to climatic variation
This data set is comprised of four files related to the counts of wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) egg masses in the Northeast United States and climatic information derived for the count locations. One file contains data for the counts at all locations, the other files contain derived temperature and precipitation data for models used in the published manuscript.
North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP) anuran detection data from the eastern and central United States (1994-2015)
The North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP) was a collaborative citizen science effort between the US Geological Survey (USGS) and 26 Partners (state agencies, universities, and nonprofits) for monitoring calling amphibian populations over much of the eastern and central United States.
Identifying management-relevant research priorities for responding to disease-associated amphibian declines
A research priority can be defined as a knowledge gap that, if resolved, identifies the optimal course of conservation action. We (a group of geographically distributed and multidisciplinary research scientists) used tools from nominal group theory and decision analysis to collaboratively identify and prioritize information...
Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Adams, M.J.; Fisher, Robert N.; Grear, Daniel A.; Halstead, Brian J.; Hossack, Blake R.; Muths, Erin L.; Richgels, Katherine L. D.; Russell, Robin E.; Smalling, Kelly L.; Waddle, J. Hardin; Walls, Susan C.; White, C. LeAnn 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 >...
Miller, David A.W.; Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Muths, Erin L.; Amburgey, Staci M.; Adams, M.J.; Joseph, Maxwell B.; Waddle, J. Hardin; Johnson, Pieter T.J.; Ryan, Maureen E.; Schmidt, Benedikt R.; Calhoun, Daniel L.; Davis, Courtney L.; Fisher, Robert N.; Green, David M.; Hossack, Blake R.; Rittenhouse, Tracy A.G.; Walls, Susan C.; Bailey, Larissa L.; Cruickshank, Sam S.; Fellers, Gary M.; Gorman, Thomas A.; Haas, Carola A.; Hughson, Ward; Pilliod, David S.; Price, Steven J.; Ray, Andrew M.; Sadinski, Walter; Saenz, Daniel; Barichivich, William J.; Brand, Adrianne B,; Brehme, Cheryl S.; Dagit, Rosi; Delaney, Katy S.; Glorioso, Brad M.; Kats, Lee B.; Kleeman, Patrick M.; Pearl, Christopher; Rochester, Carlton J.; Riley, Seth P. D.; Roth, Mark F.; Sigafus, Brent 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,...
Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Brand, Adrianne B,; De Wekker, Stephan F. J.; Lee, Temple R.; Wofford, John E.B. Prepublication communication of research results
Publishing of scientific findings is central to the scientific process, and it is traditional to consider findings “provisional” until accepted by a peer-reviewed journal. Until publication, communication of provisional findings beyond participants in the study is typically limited. This practice helps assure scientific integrity. However, a...
Adams, M.J.; Harris, Reid N.; Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Gray, Matthew J.; Hopkins, M. Camille ; Iverson, Samuel A.; Likens, Robert; Mandica, Mark; Olson, D.H.; Shepack, Alex; Waddle, Hardin Decision making for mitigating wildlife diseases: From theory to practice for an emerging fungal pathogen of amphibians
Conservation science can be most effective in its decision‐support role when seeking answers to clearly formulated questions of direct management relevance. Emerging wildlife diseases, a driver of global biodiversity loss, illustrate the challenges of performing this role: in spite of considerable research, successful disease mitigation is...
Canessa, Stefano; Bozzutto, Claudio; Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Cruickshank, Sam S.; Fisher, Matthew C.; Koella, Jacob C.; Lotters, Stefan; Martel, An; Pasmans, Frank; Scheele, Ben C.; Spitzen-van der Sluijs, Annemarieke; Steinfartz, Sebastian; Schmidt, Benedikt R. 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...
Chambert, Thierry; Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Miller, David A. W.; Nichols, James; Mulder, Kevin P.; Brand, Adrianne B, Effects of host species and environment on the skin microbiome of Plethodontid salamanders
The amphibian skin microbiome is recognized for its role in defence against pathogens, including the deadly fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Yet, we have little understanding of evolutionary and ecological processes that structure these communities, especially for salamanders and closely related species. We...
Muletz-Wolz, Carly R.; Yarwood, Stephanie A.; Grant, Evan H. Campbell; Fleischer, Robert C.; Lips, Karen R. Imperfect pathogen detection from non-invasive skin swabs biases disease inference
1. Conservation managers rely on accurate estimates of disease parameters, such as pathogen prevalence and infection intensity, to assess disease status of a host population. However, these disease metrics may be biased if low-level infection intensities are missed by sampling methods or laboratory diagnostic tests. These false negatives...
DiRenzo, Graziella V.; Grant, Evan H. Campbell; Longo, Ana; Che-Castaldo, Christian; Zamudio, Kelly R.; Lips, Karen 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...
Amburgey, Staci M.; Miller, David A. W.; Grant, Evan H. Campbell; Rittenhouse, Tracy A. G.; Benard, Michael F.; Richardson, Jonathan L.; Urban, Mark C.; Hughson, Ward; Brand, Adrianne B,; Davis, Christopher J.; Hardin, Carmen R.; Paton, Peter W. C.; Raithel, Christopher J.; Relyea, Rick A.; Scott, A. Floyd; Skelly, David K.; Skidds, Dennis E.; Smith, Charles K.; Werner, Earl E. Heterogeneous responses of temperate-zone amphibian populations to climate change complicates conservation planning
The pervasive and unabated nature of global amphibian declines suggests common demographic responses to a given driver, and quantification of major drivers and responses could inform broad-scale conservation actions. We explored the influence of climate on demographic parameters (i.e., changes in the probabilities of survival and recruitment)...
Muths, Erin L.; Chambert, Thierry A.; Schmidt, B. R.; Miller, D. A. W.; Hossack, Blake R.; Joly, P.; Grolet, O.; Green, D. M.; Pilliod, David S.; Cheylan, M.; Fisher, Robert N.; McCaffery, R. M.; Adams, M. J.; Palen, W. J.; Arntzen, J. W.; Garwood, J.; Fellers, Gary M.; Thirion, J. M.; Grant, Evan H. Campbell; Besnard, A. 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...
Brand, Adrianne B,; Grant, Evan H. Campbell Evolutionary dynamics of an expressed MHC class IIβ locus in the Ranidae (Anura) uncovered by genome walking and high-throughput amplicon sequencing
The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is a genomic region encoding immune loci that are important and frequently used markers in studies of adaptive genetic variation and disease resistance. Given the primary role of infectious diseases in contributing to global amphibian declines, we characterized the hypervariable exon 2 and flanking...
Mulder, Kevin P.; Cortazar-Chinarro, Maria; Harris, D. James; Crottini, Angelica; Grant, Evan H. Campbell; Fleischer, Robert C.; Savage, Anna E.
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.
Pre-publication Communication of Research Results
Until publication in a peer-reviewed journal, communication of provisional scientific findings beyond participants in the study is typically limited. This practice helps ensure scientific integrity. However, a dilemma arises when a delay in communication of provisional findings has urgent societal repercussions, particularly for conservation, public health, or domestic animal health...
New Research Confirms Continued, Unabated and Large-Scale Amphibian Declines: Local Action Key to Reversing Losses
New U.S. Geological Survey-led research suggests that even though amphibians are severely declining worldwide, there is no smoking gun – and thus no simple solution – to halting or reversing these declines.
USGS Science at Ecological Society of America’s Conference: From Climate Change to Fire, Drought, and Wind Energy
From climate change to wind energy effects on birds and bats to wildlife disease, U.S. Geological Survey research will be presented at the annualEcological Society of America (ESA) meetings from Aug. 10 to 14, 2014, in Sacramento. The theme of this year’s meeting is “From Oceans to Mountains: It’s All Ecology.”