Paul Angermeier, PhD (Former Employee)

Quantification of empirical relationships between ecosystem health and human well-being is uncommon at broad spatial scales. We used public data for Virginia (USA) counties to examine pairwise correlations among two indicators of stream health, thirteen indicators of human well-being, and four demographic metrics. Our indicators of stream health included the Virginia Stream Condition...

Documenting responses of biotic assemblages to coal-mining impacts is crucial to informing regulatory and reclamation actions. However, attributing biotic patterns to specific stressors is difficult given the dearth of preimpact studies and prevalence of confounding factors. Analysing species distributions and abundances, especially stratified by species traits, provides insights into...

Understanding the diel activity of a species can shed light on potential interactions with other species and inform management practices. To understand the diel activity of Northern Snakehead Channa argus, feeding habits and movement patterns were observed. Two hundred seventy-three Northern Snakehead were captured by boat electrofishing during May and June of 2007 and 2008. Their gut...

We compared the influence of biological traits (morphology, physiology, reproduction, and life history), ecological traits (geographic distribution, habitat associations, food habits), and introduction attributes (propagule pressure, human use of a species, residence time) on invasion success of native and introduced stream fishes during the colonisation and spread stages in an...

Larval fish ecology is poorly characterized because sampling is difficult and tools for phenotypically identifying larvae are poorly developed. While DNA barcoding can help address the latter problem, ‘universal’ primers do not work for all fish species. The Roanoke River in the southeastern United States includes seven darters (Family Percide: Tribe Etheostomatini). We made 393...

Contemporary policymakers rarely stress ecological knowledge, and yet this knowledge remains crucial—just as it was in prehistory—to protecting overall human well-being. Measuring carefully selected ecological health indicators—that is, signs or symptoms, especially those focused on biotic assemblages—can provide insights into the ecological condition of a place and the variety of...

Aim Conserving stream biota could require strategies that preserve habitats conveying resistance to ecological impacts of changing land use and climate. Retrospective analyses of species’ responses to anthropogenic disturbances can inform such strategies. We developed a hierarchical framework to contrast environmental conditions underlying persistence versus extirpation of an imperilled...

Human modification of floodplain ecosystems is widespread and a major threat to fish populations, particularly in the tropics where fish diversity and rates of floodplain degradation are high. Identifying measures to minimize the susceptibility of floodplain fishes to habitat modification requires understanding dry-season lake habitat selection for species of conservation concern.This...

Human impact, particularly land cover changes (e.g., agriculture, construction) increase erosion and sediment loading into streams. Benthic species are negatively affected by silt deposition that coats and embeds stream substrate. Given that riparian buffers are effective sediment filters, riparian restoration is increasingly implemented by conservation groups to protect stream habitats...

Sediment is the most commonly identified pollutant associated with macroinvertebrate community impairments in freshwater streams nationwide. Management of this physical stressor is complicated by the multiple measures of sediment available (e.g., suspended, dissolved, bedded) and the variability in natural “healthy” sediment loadings across ecoregions. Here we examine the relative...

Connectivity among stream fish populations allows for exchange of genetic material and helps maintain genetic diversity, adaptive potential and population stability over time. Changes in species demographics and population connectivity have the potential to permanently alter the genetic patterns of stream fish, although these changes through space and time are variable and understudied...

Incorporation of concepts from landscape ecology into understanding and managing riverine ecosystems has become widely known as riverscape ecology. Riverscape ecology emphasizes interactions among processes at different scales and their consequences for valued ecosystem components, such as riverine fishes. Past studies have focused strongly on understanding the ecological processes in...