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Publications

The Eastern Ecological Science Center list of publications.

Filter Total Items: 11069

Bridging social and ecological science to create spatially-explicit models of human-caused mortality of carnivores

Research indicates that human-caused mortality (HCM) is a key factor limiting numerous large carnivore populations. However, efforts to represent HCM in spatially explicit models have generally been limited in scope—often relying on proxies, such as road or human density. Yet such efforts fail to distinguish different sources of HCM, which can arise from different antecedent processes...
Authors
Jeremy T. Bruskotter, Neil H. Carter, Richard E.W. Berl, Joseph W. Hinton, Jazmin Murphy, L. Mark Elbroch, John A. Vucetich

Development of species-specific primers for the identification of Atlantic and shortnose sturgeons

Atlantic (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) and shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum) are broadly distributed along the Atlantic Coast of North America, where they use rivers, estuaries, and coastal habitats. In order to support management under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, it is important to understand when and where these fish occur. However, this presents a challenge as the...
Authors
Miluska Olivera Hyde, David C. Kazyak

Ecological thresholds and transformations due to climate change: The role of abiotic stress

An ecological threshold is the point at which a comparatively small environmental change triggers an abrupt and disproportionately large ecological response. In the face of accelerating climate change, there is concern that abrupt ecosystem transformations will become more widespread as critical ecological thresholds are crossed. There has been ongoing debate, however, regarding the...
Authors
Michael Osland, John B. Bradford, Lauren Toth, Matthew Germino, James Grace, Judith Z. Drexler, Camille Stagg, Eric E. Grossman, Karen M. Thorne, Stephanie Romanach, Davina Passeri, Gregory Noe, Jessica R. Lacy, Ken Krauss, Kurt P. Kowalski, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Neil K. Ganju, Nicholas Enwright, Joel A. Carr, Kristin B. Byrd, Kevin Buffington

Ten quick tips to get you started with Bayesian statistics

No abstract available.
Authors
Olivier Gimenez, Andy Royle, Marc Kéry, Chloé Nater

How quickly do brook trout lose long-term thermal acclimation?

Abundances of coldwater adapted stream fish populations are declining largely due to anthropogenic influences, including increased temperature. To persist in streams with unsuitable thermal habitat, fish must move to coldwater patches, acclimate, or adapt to water temperatures above thermal optima. Brook trout, a coldwater adapted salmonid, has previously displayed physiological...
Authors
Matthew J. O'Donnell, Amy M. Regish, S.D. McCormick, Benjamin Letcher

Identical sequence types of Yersinia ruckeri associated with lethal disease in wild-caught invasive Blue Catfish and cultured hybrid catfish (Channel Catfish ♀ × Blue Catfish ♂) from disparate aquatic ecosystems

ObjectiveThe Blue Catfish Ictalurus furcatus is commonly raised in warmwater aquaculture in the United States to produce Channel Catfish I. punctatus Ă— Blue Catfish hybrids. It is also a prominent aquatic invasive species of concern in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Here, Yersina ruckeri was isolated from moribund Blue Catfish and hybrid catfish from disparate regions of...
Authors
Christine L. Densmore, Madeleine Hendrix, Stephen Reichley, Clayton D. Raines, Noah Bressman, Zachary Crum, Lester Khoo, Geoffrey Waldbieser, Matt Griffin, Timothy J Welch, Luke R. Iwanowicz

A partnership between the USGS and the Klamath Tribes to apply structured decision making for chronic wasting disease management

Project Overview: The Klamath Tribes (TKT) are the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin Paiute peoples, and are the first peoples of the land, having lived in ancestral lands of Oregon and California since time immemorial. Members of TKT have rights to hunt, fish, trap, and gather, including the harvest of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and elk (Cervus canadensis nelsoni) within the 1.19...
Authors
Margaret C. McEachran, Katie M. Guntly-Yancey, Richard E.W. Berl, Donald Gentry, Michael C. Runge, Carl White, Jonathan D. Cook

Reconstructing relative abundance indices for Atlantic sturgeon using hierarchical ecological models

ObjectiveThe Atlantic Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus is a wide-ranging, long-lived diadromous fish that is endangered in most of its range. Our objective was to develop and apply long-term, detection-corrected indices of relative abundance for juvenile and adult Atlantic Sturgeon in the Hudson River, New York, United States, to support population monitoring and stock assessment.MethodsWe...
Authors
Daniel S. Stich, Dewayne Fox, Amanda Higgs, David C. Kazyak, Richard Pendleton, Suresh A Sethi

Spatial variation in landlocked Atlantic Salmon smolt survival associated with dam passage, avian predation, and stocking location

ObjectiveWe evaluated survival differences between upstream and downstream stocking for landlocked Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar smolts in a tributary to Lake Champlain.MethodsWe radio-tagged smolts and stocked them concurrently with 22,000 smolts at two release sites in 2 years. The downstream location (DS, river kilometer 16, no dam passage) was a historically used site in a dam tailrace...
Authors
Kurt C. Heim, William R. Ardren, Jonah L. Withers, Zachery Eisenhauer, Matthew A. Mensinger, Theodore Castro-Santos

Designing sortable guilds for multispecies selective fish passage

The importance of connectivity for freshwater organisms is widely recognised, yet in-stream barriers associated with population declines and increased risk of extinction remain globally ubiquitous. Despite their negative consequences, these barriers can protect aquatic communities by limiting the spread of invasive species, leading to conflicting management goals in some regions...
Authors
David Benoit, Daniel Zielinski, Reid G Swanson, Donald Jackson, Robert L. McLaughlin, Theodore Castro-Santos, R. Andrew Goodwin, Thomas C. Pratt, Andrew M. Muir

Overwinter survival of an estuarine resident fish (Fundulus heteroclitus) in North Carolina salt marsh creeks

The mummichog Fundulus heteroclitus is a trophically important fish inhabiting Atlantic coastal salt marshes, with few in situ estimates of overwinter survival throughout the species range. We estimated overwinter apparent survival rates of F. heteroclitus at the approximate mid-latitudinal species range [coastal North Carolina (USA)] in four tidal creeks that experience variable winter...
Authors
P.J. Rudershausen, Matthew J. O'Donnell

MTAB 111, March 2025

This Memo to All Banders (MTAB 111) was released in March 2025. Subjects in this this memo are 1. The Chief’s Chirp; 2. Alerts – Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza; 3. Staff updates – celebrating Karen Jone’s remarkable career and retirement, meeting reports and a field trip; 4. News – BandIt end of life! (starting February 1st, 2025 the BBL will no longer be accepting BandIt files)...
Authors
Kyra Harvey, Jennifer L. McKay
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