Publications

Radio telemetry is extremely useful for studying habitat use and movements of free ranging snakes. Surgically implanting radio transmitters into the body cavity of snakes is standard practice in most studies (e.g., Reinert and Cundall 1982; Weatherhead and Blouin-Demers 2004), but this implanting method has its drawbacks. Surgery itself is risky for individual snakes because of the potential for i

Seed selection, removal and subsequent management by granivorous animals is thought to be a complex interaction of factors including qualities of the seeds themselves (e.g., seed size, nutritional quality) and features of the local habitat (e.g. perceived predator risk). At the same time, differential seed selection and dispersal is thought to have profound effects on seed fate and potentially veg

Coloniality in nesting birds represents an important life history strategy for maximizing reproductive success. Birds nesting near the edge of colonies tend to have lower reproductive success than individuals nesting near colony centers, and offspring of edge-nesting parents may be impaired relative to those of central-nesting parents. We used fecal corticosterone metabolites in California gull ch

We investigated the effect of broad-scale wildfire on ground foraging ants within southern California. In October and November of 2003, two wildfires burned large portions of the wildlands within San Diego County. Between January 2005 and September 2006, we surveyed 63 plots across four sites to measure the effect of the fires on the ant assemblages present in four vegetation types: 1) coastal sag

The spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) is a late-successional forest dependent species that is sensitive to forest management practices throughout its range. An increase in the frequency and spatial extent of stand-replacing fires in western North America has prompted concern for the persistence of spotted owls and other sensitive late-successional forest associated species. However, there is sparse

Butachlor is the most commonly used herbicide on paddy fields in Taiwan and throughout Southeast Asia. Since paddy fields provide habitat for pond breeding amphibians, we examined growth, development, time to metamorphosis, and survival of alpine cricket frog tadpoles (Fejervarya limnocharis) exposed to environmentally realistic concentrations of butachlor. We documented negative impacts of butach

Across North and South America, the final millennia of the Pleistocene saw dramatic changes in climate, vegetation, fauna, fire regime, and other local and regional paleo-environmental characteristics. Rapid climate shifts following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) exerted a first-order influence, but abrupt postglacial shifts in vegetation composition, vegetation structure, and fire regime also coi

We evaluated predation on nests and methods to detect predators using a combination of infrared cameras and plasticine eggs at nests of American avocets (Recurvirostra americana) and black-necked stilts (Himantopus mexicanus) in Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, California. Each technique indicated that predation was prevalent; 59% of monit

We examined non-native species density three years after the Tuolumne Fire, which burned 1540 ha in upper montane forest in California, USA. We sampled 60 plots, stratified by burn severity (low, moderate, or high severity) and landscape position (lowland or upland). We detected non-native species in 8 of 11 (73 %) of high severity lowland sites and in 5 of 10 (50 %) of moderate severity lowland s

Severe population declines led to the listing of southern California Rana muscosa (Ranidae) as endangered in 2002. Nine small populations inhabit watersheds in three isolated mountain ranges, the San Gabriel, San Bernardino and San Jacinto. One population from the Dark Canyon tributary in the San Jacinto Mountains has been used to establish a captive breeding population at the San Diego Zoo Instit

The metabolic theory of ecology uses the scaling of metabolism with body size and temperature to explain the causes and consequences of species abundance. However, the theory and its empirical tests have never simultaneously examined parasites alongside free-living species. This is unfortunate because parasites represent at least half of species diversity. We show that metabolic scaling theory cou

The San Francisco gartersnake Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia has been federally listed as endangered since 1967, but little demographic information exists for this species. We examined the demography of a San Francisco gartersnake population on approximately 213 ha of California coastal prairie in San Mateo County, California, from 2007 to 2010. The best-supported mark–recapture model indicated a