Publications

Northern myotis Myotis septentrionalis are one of the bat species most affected by white-nose syndrome (WNS), and disease-induced declines may cause compounding effects when combined with other threats such as habitat loss and fragmentation. Recent evidence suggests that peripheral populations are persisting in post-WNS years; however, the environmental factors that influence the occurrence of thi

Female and male cooperative breeders can use different strategies to maximize reproduction and fitness over their lifetimes. Answering questions about fitness in cooperative breeders requires long-term studies as well as complete data on group composition and size which can be exceedingly difficult to obtain. Using a long-term genetic data set of complete group pedigrees, I asked how lifetime repr

Island ecosystems are particularly susceptible to the impacts of invasive species. Many rare and endangered species that are endemic to islands are negatively affected by invasions. Past studies have shown that the establishment of non-native species on islands is related to native plant richness, habitat heterogeneity, island age, human activity, and climate. However, it is unclear whether the fa

Significant marine heatwaves (MHWs) developed along the Western Australian coast in 1999 and 2011. Despite ecosystem losses and the southwards occurrence of many tropical fish species during and after the extreme MHW in 2011, there have been few studies on the effects of this MHW on seabirds, and no biological impacts related to the 1999 MHW have been reported. Using data from 1986-2019, we invest

The White-tailed Hawk (Geranoaetus albicaudatus) is listed as a state threatened species in Texas. It occupies prairies and savannas of the Gulf Coastal Plain, but also the barrier islands, many of which are exposed to rapid development and other human disturbances. This is a concern as White-tailed Hawks are known to be highly sensitive to nesting disturbance. We examined the breeding ecology of

Wetlands serve as unique habitats that can support high biodiversity. Large-scale loss of wetland habitats can threaten important linkages between lake and wetland habitats that could affect diversity and growth of aquatic organisms. In this study, we compare prey diversity and abundance as well as Walleye (Sander vitreus) diets and condition in a large glacial lake (Lake Kampeska, South Dakota) w

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that was first detected in captive cervids in Colorado, United States (US) in 1967, but has since spread into free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) across the US and Canada as well as to Scandinavia and South Korea. In some areas, the disease is considered endemic in wild deer populations, and governmental

Estimating species distribution and abundance is foundational to effective management and conservation.Using an integrated species distribution model that combines presence-only data from various sources with detection/non-detection data from structured surveys, we estimated the distribution and expected abundance of three difficult-to-monitor mammals of management concern across New York State, n

Wildlife telemetry data may be used to answer a diverse range of questions relevant to wildlife ecology and management. One challenge to modeling telemetry data is that animal movement often varies greatly in pattern over time, and current continuous-time modeling approaches to handle such nonstationarity require bespoke and often complex models that may pose barriers to practitioner implementatio

Lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) populations of in the Sand Sagebrush Prairie Ecoregion of southwest Kansas and southeast Colorado, USA, have declined sharply since the mid-1980s. Decreased quality and availability of habitat are believed to be the main drivers of declines. Our objective was to reconstruct broad-scale change in the ecoregion since 1985 as a potential factor in p

Wildlife tracking studies have become ubiquitous in ecology and now provide previously unobtainable data regarding individual movement, vital rates, and population demographics. However, tracking devices can potentially reduce survival of study subjects, generating biases in the vital rates they seek to measure. Previous studies have found that greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) fitte

Spatial modeling of wildlife diseases can be used to describe patterns of disease risk, understand biological mechanisms of disease occurrence, and for spatial prediction. Risk of wildlife disease occurrence in relation to environmental variables is often modeled and predicted using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, which are unsuitable for large datasets and those covering large spatial ex