Publications

No abstract available.

Understanding the diel activity of a species can shed light on potential interactions with other species and inform management practices. To understand the diel activity of Northern Snakehead Channa argus, feeding habits and movement patterns were observed. Two hundred seventy-three Northern Snakehead were captured by boat electrofishing during May and June of 2007 and 2008. Their gut contents wer

Fish larvae depend on finding and capturing enough prey for rapid growth during the planktonic phase. The diet of many fish larvae is dominated by copepods, small crustaceans that are highly sensitive to hydrodynamic disturbances and possess strong escape responses. We examined how fish larvae with immature jaws, musculature and fins capture such evasive prey. The kinematics of feeding attempts by

Aquatic scientists require robust, accurate information about nutrient concentrations and indicators of algal biomass in unsampled lakes in order to understand and predict the effects of global climate and land-use change. Historically, lake and landscape characteristics have been used as predictor variables in regression models to generate nutrient predictions, but often with significant uncertai

Otolith microanalysis is often used to assess population age structure and growth of fishes during their early stages. Shoal Bass Micropterus cataractae is a recently described species of conservation concern and little is known regarding factors affecting their recruitment. In 2004, Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GADNR) and the US National Park Service (NPS) stocked Shoal Bass marked wi

Reliable estimates of life history parameters and their functional role in animal population trajectories are critical, yet often missing, components in conservation and management. We developed seasonal matrix population models of the Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis jamaicensis in the upper and lower forests of the Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico, to describe the influence of early life stages

Leveraging existing presence records and geospatial datasets, species distribution modeling has been widely applied to informing species conservation and restoration efforts. Maxent is one of the most popular modeling algorithms, yet recent research has demonstrated Maxent models are vulnerable to prediction errors related to spatial sampling bias and model complexity. Despite elevated rates of bi

Widespread use of neonicotinoid insecticides in North America has led to frequent detection of neonicotinoids in surface waters. Despite frequent surface water detection, few studies have evaluated underlying sediments for the presence of neonicotinoids. Thus, we sampled water and sediments for neonicotinoids during a one-year period at 40 floodplain wetlands throughout Missouri. Analyzed for six

ContextThe Rainwater Basin in south-central Nebraska once supported a complex network of ~ 12,000 spatially-isolated playa wetlands, but ~ 90% have been lost since European settlement. Future losses are likely and expected reductions in connectivity could further isolate populations, increasing local extinction rates of many wetland species. However, to what extent future losses will affect wildli

Newly emerging plants provide the best forage for herbivores. To exploit this fleeting resource, migrating herbivores align their movements to surf the wave of spring green-up. With new technology to track migrating animals, the Green Wave Hypothesis has steadily gained empirical support across a diversity of migratory taxa. This hypothesis assumes the green wave is controlled by variation in clim

Translocation of isolated species into suitable habitats may help secure vulnerable, geographically limited species. Due to the decline of Wyoming Hornyhead Chub Nocomis biguttatus, conservation actions such as translocation of populations within the plausible historical range are being considered to improve population redundancy and resiliency to disturbance events. Translocation of Wyoming Horny

Lidar from small unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) is a viable method for collecting geospatial data associated with a wide variety of applications. Point clouds from UAS lidar require a means for accuracy assessment, calibration, and adjustment. In order to carry out these procedures, specific locations within the point cloud must be precisely found. To do this, artificial targets may be used for r