William Barichivich
Biography
RESEARCH
William "Jamie" Barichivich is a Wildlife Biologist at the USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center. During his tenure with USGS he has studied a wide variety of organisms including marine turtles, sturgeon, and for the last 10 years, amphibians. Research has taken him from the Everglades in South Florida to Glacier National Park in Montana and as far west as Palau. He has a broad interest in a variety of topics from road mortality of wildlife to the effects of climate change on wetland hydrology and amphibians.
Science and Products
Seeking shelter from the storm: Conservation and management of imperiled species in a changing climate
Climate change is anticipated to exacerbate the extinction risk of species whose persistence is already compromised by habitat loss, invasive species, disease, or other stressors. In coastal areas of the southeastern United States (USA), many imperiled vertebrates are vulnerable to hurricanes, which climate models predict to become more severe in...
Walls, Susan; Barichivich, William; Chandler, Jonathan; Meade, Ashley M.; Milinichik, Marysa; O'Donnell, Katherine; Owens, Megan E.; Peacock, Terry; Reinman, Joseph; Watling, Rebecca C.; Wetsch, Olivia E. 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 Establishing a baseline: the amphibians of Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge, Dixie and Levy counties, Florida
From 2002-2006, we used a variety of sampling techniques to survey the amphibians and water chemistry of Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge in Florida’s Big Bend region. We recorded 23 amphibian species, 19 frogs and 4 salamanders. Species richness was lower than in other areas of the coastal Big Bend region to the north, perhaps due to a...
Dodd, C. Kenneth; Barichivich, William J.; Johnson, Steve A.; Gunzburger Aresco, Margaret; Staiger, Jennifer S. A survey of the amphibians of Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina and Georgia
From 2004 to 2006, we used a variety of sampling techniques to survey the amphibians of Savannah National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR), a large protected area straddling the lower portions of the Savannah River on the border between South Carolina and Georgia. We documented 22 amphibian species—15 frogs and 7 salamanders—with a possible 23rd species...
Dodd, C. Kenneth; Barichivich, William J. Pathogenic lineage of Perkinsea associated with mass mortality of frogs across the United States
Emerging infectious diseases such as chytridiomycosis and ranavirus infections are important contributors to the worldwide decline of amphibian populations. We reviewed data on 247 anuran mortality events in 43 States of the United States from 1999–2015. Our findings suggest that a severe infectious disease of tadpoles caused by a protist...
Isidoro Ayza, Marcos; Lorch, Jeffrey M.; Grear, Daniel A.; Winzeler, Megan; Calhoun, Daniel L.; Barichivich, William J. Identifying small depressional wetlands and using a topographic position index to infer hydroperiod regimes for pond-breeding amphibians
Small, seasonal pools and temporary ponds (<4.0 ha) are the most numerous and biologically diverse wetlands in many natural landscapes. Thus, accurate determination of their numbers and spatial characteristics is beneficial for conservation and management of biodiversity associated with these freshwater systems. We examined the utility of a...
Riley, Jeffrey W.; Calhoun, Daniel L.; Barichivich, William J.; Walls, Susan C. Structured decision making as a conservation tool for recovery planning of two endangered salamanders
At least one-third of all amphibian species face the threat of extinction, and current amphibian extinction rates are four orders of magnitude greater than background rates. Preventing extirpation often requires both ex situ (i.e., conservation breeding programs) and in situ strategies (i.e., protecting natural habitats). Flatwoods salamanders (...
O'Donnell, Katherine; Messerman, Arianne F; Barichivich, William J.; Semlitsch, Raymond D.; Gorman, Thomas A.; Mitchell, Harold G; Allan, Nathan; Fenolio, Dante B.; Green, Adam; Johnson, Fred A.; Keever, Allison; Mandica, Mark; Martin, Julien; Mott, Jana; Peacock, Terry; Reinman, Joseph; Romañach, Stephanie; Titus, Greg; McGowan, Conor P.; Walls, Susan C. Species interactions and the effects of climate variability on a wetland amphibian metacommunity
Disentangling the role that multiple interacting factors have on species responses to shifting climate poses a significant challenge. However, our ability to do so is of utmost importance to predict the effects of climate change on species distributions. We examined how populations of three species of wetland-breeding amphibians, which varied in...
Davis, Courtney L.; Miller, David A.W.; Walls, Susan C.; Barichivich, William J.; Riley, Jeffrey W.; Brown, Mary E. Life history plasticity does not confer resilience to environmental change in the mole salamander (Ambystoma talpoideum)
Plasticity in life history strategies can be advantageous for species that occupy spatially or temporally variable environments. We examined how phenotypic plasticity influences responses of the mole salamander, Ambystoma talpoideum, to disturbance events at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (SMNWR), FL, USA from 2009 to 2014. We observed...
Courtney L. Davis; David A.W. Miller; Walls, Susan C.; Barichivich, William J.; Riley, Jeffrey W.; Brown, Mary E. Extinction debt as a driver of amphibian declines: An example with imperiled flatwoods salamanders
A comprehensive view of population declines and their underlying causes is necessary to reverse species loss. Historically, in many cases, a narrow view may have allowed species declines to continue, virtually undetected, for long periods of time (perhaps even decades). We suggest that extinction debt is likely responsible for numerous (perhaps...
Semiltsch, Raymond D; Walls, Susan C.; Barichivich, William J.; O'Donnell, Katherine Overcoming challenges to the recovery of declining amphibian populations in the United States
The US Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) affords many potential benefits to species threatened with extinction. However, most at-risk amphibians—one of the most imperiled vertebrate groups—remain unlisted under the provisions of the ESA, and many impediments to recovery exist for those species that have been listed. Of the 35 US amphibian...
Walls, Susan C.; Ball, Lianne C.; Barichivich, William J.; Dodd, Kenneth; Enge, Kevin M; Gorman, Thomas A.; O'Donnell, Katherine; Palis, John G; Semlitsch, Raymond D. Assessment of environmental DNA for detecting presence of imperiled aquatic amphibian species in isolated wetlands
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging tool that allows low-impact sampling for aquatic species by isolating DNA from water samples and screening for DNA sequences specific to species of interest. However, researchers have not tested this method in naturally acidic wetlands that provide breeding habitat for a number of imperiled species,...
McKee, Anna M.; Calhoun, Daniel L.; Barichivich, William J.; Spear, Stephen F.; Goldberg, Caren S.; Glenn, Travis C
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.