Publications

The objectives of this study were to identify processes that contribute to resilience of coastal wetlands subject to rising sea levels and to determine whether the relative contribution of these processes varies across different wetland community types. We assessed the resilience of wetlands to sea-level rise along a transitional gradient from tidal freshwater forested wetland (TFFW) to marsh by m

The Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus mirabilis; hereafter sparrow) is endemic to south Florida and a key indicator species of marl prairie, the most diverse freshwater community in the Florida Everglades. Marl prairie habitat is shaped by intermediate levels of disturbances such as flooding, drying, and fire, which maintain periphyton production (Gaiser et al. 2011), vegetation com

USA: LOUISIANA: St. Tammany Parish: private property ca. 4 km S of Abita Springs, E of State Hwy 59, and N of Interstate 12 (30.44000°N, 90.02000°W; WGS 84). 18 August 2013. Brad M. Glorioso. Verified by David Heckard. Florida Museum of Natural History (UF 176422, photo voucher). New parish record. This species was first reported in the Americas in the vicinity of Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, Louis

Detailed observations in the deep sea can reveal previously unknown behaviour, species interactions and fine-scale habitat heterogeneity. Here, the first in situ images of the black coral Schizopathes sp. (Anthozoa: Antipatharia) in the deep western Indian Ocean have been obtained from remotely operated vehicle video footage and time-lapse photography. In these images, there appears to be an assoc

1.The Leaf Economics Spectrum (LES) describes global covariation in the traits of plant leaves. The LES is thought to arise from biophysical constraints and habitat filtering (ecological selection against unfit trait combinations along environmental gradients). However, the role of habitat filtering in generating the LES has not been tested experimentally. 2.If the process of habitat filtering pla

The impact of the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) spill on deep-sea coral communities in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is still under investigation, as is the potential for these communities to recover. Impacts from the spill include observation of corals covered with flocculent material, with bare skeleton, excessive mucous production, sloughing tissue, and subsequent colonization of damaged areas

USA: LOUISIANA: Vermilion Parish: Palmetto Island State Park (29.86335°N, 92.14848°W; WGS 84). 19 February 2016. Lindy J. Muse. Verified by Jeff Boundy. Florida Museum of Natural History (UF 177730, photo voucher). New parish record (Dundee and Rossman 1989. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Louisiana. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 300 pp.). Storeria occipitomaculata obscu

USA: LOUISIANA: St. Tammany Parish: on private property on Allen Road in Slidell (ca. 30.262°N, 89.741°W; WGS 84). 2 April 2013. Aaron Steece. Verified by Hardin Waddle. Florida Museum of Natural History (UF 177727, photo voucher). New parish record. This adult was found ca. 2 m high on a branch at the edge of a wooded area behind a house. It was photographed and released, as the species identity

We measured an array of biophysical and spectral variables to evaluate the response and recovery of Spartina alterniflora to a sudden dieback event in spring and summer 2004 within a low marsh in coastal Virginia, USA. S. alterniflora is a foundation species, whose loss decreases ecosystem services and potentiates ecosystem state change. Long-term records of the potential environmental drivers of

Understory herbs and soil invertebrates play key roles in soil formation and nutrient cycling in forests. Studies suggest that diversity in the canopy and in the understory are positively associated, but these studies often confound the effects of tree species diversity with those of tree species identity and abiotic conditions. We combined extensive field sampling with structural equation modelin

The endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus mirabilis) is endemic to south Florida and a key indicator species of marl prairie, a highly diverse freshwater community in the Florida Everglades. Maintenance and creation of suitable habitat is seen as the most important pathway to the persistence of the six existing sparrow subpopulations; however, major uncertainties remain in ho

Markov decision processes (MDPs), which involve a temporal sequence of actions conditioned on the state of the managed system, are increasingly being applied in natural resource management. This study focuses on the modification of a traditional MDP to account for those cases in which an action must be chosen after a significant time lag in observing system state, but just prior to a new observati