Prior to his retirement in 2022, Wylie Barrow built a research program focusing on aspects of landscape ecology and disturbance ecology that influences the persistence of bird populations and communities, and has solved research problems throughout the Gulf coast and Texas-Mexico borderlands.
Barrow's research program used an integrated team approach by collaborating with colleagues at universities, joint ventures, other agencies, and other scientists at WARC. Current research that Barrow has designed identify factors and processes that affect the suitability of habitat for migratory birds and provides science support for the USGS Hurricane Sandy Assessment, Gulf Coast Joint Venture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and USFWS R4 Divisions of Refuges and Forestry.
BACKGROUND
Wylie C. Barrow, Jr. spent his early years roaming hardwood swamps and coastal marshes, instilling in him a lifelong love of birds and their habitats. At Louisiana State University he obtained a B.S. in Forestry. It was at Highlands Biological Research Station of western North Carolina that Barrow developed a strong background in plant ecology and an interest in aspects of old-growth forest conditions. At West Virginia University he began his first intensive study of forest birds; he received his M.S. degree in Wildlife Ecology. He returned to LSU where he spent seven years studying with some of the preeminent scientists in wildlife management, ornithology, and tropical ecology. It was at LSU that Barrow became intensely interested in migratory birds throughout their annual cycle. His dissertation was on the foraging behavior of forest birds on their wintering (Mexico) and breeding grounds (Mississippi Valley). In 1989, he accepted a position with Patuxent Wildlife Research Center at a field station in Luquillo, Puerto Rico. Following the completion of a study on non-breeding Puerto Rican Parrots, Barrow accepted a position at a field station in Corpus Christi, TX operated by the National Wetlands Research Center. Five years later, he moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, to work for the then National Wetlands Research Center (now Wetland and Aquatic Research Center).
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Louisiana State University
M.S., Wildlife Ecology, West Virginia University
B.S., Forestry, Louisiana State University
Science and Products
A Multiscale Approach to Understanding Migratory Landbird Habitat Use of Functional Stopover Habitat Types and Management Efforts
Use of Remote Sensing Data to Quantify Bird and Bat Distributions and Inform Migratory Bird Conservation Efforts
Use of Remote Sensing Data to Quantify Bird Distributions and Aid in the Environmental Assessment of Energy Development in the Gulf of Mexico Region
An Online Portal for Managing and Reporting Annual Piping Plover Monitoring Data
Two Hundred Years of Forest Change in the Tensas River Basin
Modeling Landscape-Scale Habitat Relations for Landbirds During Migration: Science Support for the Gulf Coast Joint Venture
Monitoring Effects of Barrier Island Restoration on Piping Plovers in Louisiana
Response of a Threatened Shorebird to Severe Storms
Science and Products
- Publications
- Science
A Multiscale Approach to Understanding Migratory Landbird Habitat Use of Functional Stopover Habitat Types and Management Efforts
USGS scientists are using a spatially-explicit Bayesian network model to predict the difference between energetic value and energetic demand for stopover habitats for migrating landbirds.Use of Remote Sensing Data to Quantify Bird and Bat Distributions and Inform Migratory Bird Conservation Efforts
Three federal wildlife refuge complexes on the upper Texas coast include portions of the Columbia Bottomlands and other forests that are important for migratory birds and possibly bats: Texas Mid-Coast, Trinity River, and Chenier Plain.Use of Remote Sensing Data to Quantify Bird Distributions and Aid in the Environmental Assessment of Energy Development in the Gulf of Mexico Region
Knowing where migratory birds consistently stop to rest and forage is critical for conservation planning, particularly along the northern and western Gulf where there is increased interest in energy development.An Online Portal for Managing and Reporting Annual Piping Plover Monitoring Data
Federally-listed as threatened since 1986, the Atlantic Coast Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) population comprises fewer than 2,000 breeding pairs, according to the most recent census data. These breeding pairs are the target of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) species recovery plan.Two Hundred Years of Forest Change in the Tensas River Basin
Prescriptions in the forest habitat management plan for Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge are designed to produce a forest once represented in the Tensas Basin. There are several problems with reconstructing original forests. In most areas, conditions have changed since these forests were cut; particularly, hydrology, soils, and climatic conditions.Modeling Landscape-Scale Habitat Relations for Landbirds During Migration: Science Support for the Gulf Coast Joint Venture
USGS uses weather surveillance radar data and landscape-scale habitat metrics to model bird-habitat connections along the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico.Monitoring Effects of Barrier Island Restoration on Piping Plovers in Louisiana
The federally threatened piping plover relies on sand-beach habitat year-round for nesting, foraging, and roosting, habitat that is particularly vulnerable to loss and degradation from coastal development, recreation activities, erosion, and sea-level rise.Response of a Threatened Shorebird to Severe Storms
The federally protected Atlantic Coast Piping Plover relies on habitats that were affected by Hurricane Sandy. USGS works to understand how these changes have affected nesting habitat and the reproductive success of the shorebird.