A5077096142- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Avian ecology and behavior
- Bat Biology and Ecology Studies
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Marine animal studies overview
- Cryospheric studies and observations
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Wildlife-Road Interactions and Conservation
- Fire effects on ecosystems
- Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Turtle Biology and Conservation
- Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
- Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis
- Plant and animal studies
- Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior
- Genetic diversity and population structure
- Mollusks and Parasites Studies
- Environmental and Biological Research in Conflict Zones
- Effects of Environmental Stressors on Livestock
- Coastal wetland ecosystem dynamics
- Aeolian processes and effects
- Water Quality and Resources Studies
United States Geological Survey
2017-2025
Fort Collins Science Center
2017-2024
Bat Conservation International
2024
Digital Research Alliance of Canada
2024
University of Florida
2011-2023
Rocky Mountain Research Station
2023
John Wiley & Sons (United States)
2016
Ecological Society of America
2016
Lexmark (United States)
2014
Abstract Assessing the scope and severity of threats is necessary for evaluating impacts on populations to inform conservation planning. Quantitative threat assessment often requires monitoring programs that provide reliable data over relevant spatial temporal scales, yet such can be difficult justify until there an apparent stressor. Leveraging efforts wildlife management agencies record winter counts hibernating bats, we collated 5 species from 200 sites across 27 U.S. states 2 Canadian...
Network analysis is on the rise across scientific disciplines because of its ability to reveal complex, and often emergent, patterns dynamics. Nonetheless, a growing concern in network use limited data for constructing networks. This strikingly relevant ecology conservation biology, where used infer connectivity landscapes. In this context, movement among patches crucial parameter interpreting but difficulty collecting reliable data, most proceeds with only indirect information landscapes...
Habitat loss is often considered the greatest near-term threat to biodiversity. Yet impact of habitat fragmentation, or change in configuration for a given amount loss, has been intensely debated. We isolated effects from fragmentation on demography, movement, and abundance wild populations specialist herbivore, Chelinidea vittiger, by removing 2,088 patches across 15 landscapes. compared resulting random which theory, aggregated observed real world. When quantifying caused vs. led less...
Identifying impacts of non-native species on native populations is central to conservation and ecology. While effects predators prey have recently received much attention, introduced predator are less understood. Non-native can influence behavior demography through direct indirect pathways, yet quantitative assessments the relative multiple, potentially counteracting, population growth remain scarce. Using ≈20 years range-wide monitoring data, we tested for a introduced, rapidly spreading...
Hundreds of fish species enter the United States through human intervention (e.g., importation) and some these fishes pose a substantial risk to nation's assets ecosystems.Prevention, early detection, rapid response (EDRR) are vital stop invasions, but time resources manage large suite that nation limited.Evaluating species' invasion in location is one way prioritize among many for management action.Species assessments often associated with information systems or published within grey...
Abstract The use of quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) to monitor pathogens is common; however, frameworks that consider the observation process, dynamics in pathogen presence, and load are lacking. This can be problematic early stages disease progression, where low level detections may treated as ‘inconclusive’ excluded from analyses. Alternatively, a framework accounts for imperfect detection would provide more robust inferences. To better estimate dynamics, we developed hierarchical...
Understanding dispersal and habitat selection behaviours is central to many problems in ecology, evolution conservation. One factor often hypothesized influence by dispersers the natal environment experienced juveniles. Nonetheless, evidence for effect of on dispersing, wild vertebrates remains limited. Using 18 years nesting mark-resight data across an entire North American geographical range endangered bird, snail kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis), we tested effects breeding-site its...
Movement is important for ecological and evolutionary theory as well connectivity conservation, which increasingly critical species responding to environmental change. Key outcomes of movement, such population growth gene flow, require effective dispersal: movement that followed by successful reproduction. However, the relative roles postmovement reproduction dispersal remain unclear. Here we isolate contributions immigrant across entire breeding range an endangered raptor, snail kite...
Abstract Collaborative monitoring over broad scales and levels of ecological organization can inform conservation efforts necessary to address the contemporary biodiversity crisis. An important challenge collaborative is motivating local engagement with enough buy-in from stakeholders while providing adequate top-down direction for scientific rigor, quality control, coordination. must reconcile this inherent tension between control bottom-up engagement. Highly mobile cryptic taxa, such as...
Extreme weather events, such as droughts and heat waves, are expected to become more severe frequent in the coming years, understanding their impacts on demographic rates is of increasing interest both evolutionary ecologists conservation practitioners. An individual's breeding probability can be a sensitive indicator decision initiate reproductive behavior under varying environmental conditions, has strong fitness consequences, considered first step life history trade‐off between allocating...
First posted June 14, 2018 For additional information, contact: Center Director, Fort Collins Science CenterU.S. Geological Survey2150 Centre Ave., Bldg. CFort Collins, CO 80526-8118 The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) aims to improve the state of conservation science for all species bats shared by United States, Canada, and Mexico. To accomplish this goal, NABat offers guidance standardized protocols acoustic monitoring bats. In document, "A Guide Processing Acoustic Data...
Abstract The world's rich diversity of bats supports healthy ecosystems and important ecosystem services. Maintaining biological systems requires prompt identification threats to biodiversity immediate action protect species, which for wide‐ranging bat species that span geopolitical boundaries warrants international coordination. Anthropogenic forces drive the throughout North America world. We conducted an expert elicitation assess status 153 in Canada, United States, Mexico. used...
Abstract Aim Our understanding of the effects invasive species on faunal diversity is limited in part because invasions often occur modified landscapes where other drivers community can exacerbate or reduce net impacts an invader. Furthermore, rigorous assessments native communities that account for variation sampling, species‐specific detection and occurrence rare are lacking. Invasive Burmese pythons ( Python molurus bivittatus ) may be causing declines medium‐ to large‐sized mammals...
Understanding the spatial scale of population structure is fundamental to long-standing tenets biology, landscape ecology and conservation. Nonetheless, identifying such scales has been challenging because a key factor that influences scaling - movement among patches or local populations multicausal process with substantial phenotypic temporal variation. We resolve this problem via novel application network modularity. When applied movements, modularity provides formal description functional...
Summary Human alteration of the planet’s terrestrial landscapes for agriculture, habitation and commerce is reshaping wildlife communities. The threat land cover change to pronounced in regions with rapidly growing human populations. We investigated how species richness species-specific occurrence bats changed as a function canopy (tree) across changing region Florida, USA. Contrary our predictions, we found negligible effects agriculture urban development on all species. In contrast, that...
Abstract Estimating the abundance of unmarked animal populations from acoustic data is challenging due to inability identify individuals and need adjust for observation biases including detectability (false negatives), species misclassification positives), sampling exposure. Acoustic surveys conducted along mobile transects were designed avoid counting more than once, where raw counts are commonly treated as an index abundance. More recently, false‐positive models have been developed...
Summary Conservation goals are ideally set after a thorough understanding of potential threats; however, predicting future spatial patterns threats, such as disturbance, remains challenging. Here, we develop novel extension network fortification–interdiction models ( NFIM ) that deals with uncertainty in disturbance by optimally selecting sites will best mitigate worst‐case scenario for given magnitude disturbance. This approach uses information on between‐patch movement probabilities and...
Abstract Understanding movement is critical in several disciplines but analysis methods often neglect key information by adopting each location as sampling unit, rather than individual. We introduce a novel statistical method that, focusing on individuals, enables better identification of temporal dynamics connectivity, traits individuals that explain emergent patterns, and sites play role connecting subpopulations. apply this to two examples span networks vary considerably size questions:...
Time series analysis is an essential method for decomposing the influences of density and exogenous factors such as weather climate on population regulation. However, there has been little work focused understanding how well commonly collected data can reconstruct effects environmental dynamics. We show that, analogous to similar scale issues in spatial analysis, coarsely sampled temporal fail detect covariate when interactions occur timescales that are fast relative survey period. propose a...
Abstract Disturbance by large herbivores, fires, and humans shapes the structure of savannas, altering amount woody vegetation grass. Due to change in intensity frequency these disturbances, savannas are shifting toward grass-dominated or shrub-dominated systems, likely animal communities. Small mammals critical components their distributions affected ecosystem-wide changes vegetative cover. We assessed responses small a gradient cover low-lying southeastern Africa. In Kruger National Park...