RESEARCH

Species-Habitat Relationships

How do species select resources at various spatial and temporal scales?

Answers to these questions can us decide what to protect and where to protect it in order to benefit species of conservation concern.

Species recovery requires protecting and restoring habitat where a species needs it most. We are using macro-invertebrates to develop a spatial model of habitat impairment to guide recovery of an endangered mussel. Photo credit: M. Green

The patch nosed salamander was only first described in 2007 and is only known from a handful of locations near the GA-SC border. We're using environmental DNA from stream water to model its distribution and identify landscape features that may limit its range in SC.

Hellbenders can live over 25 years but we known virtually nothing about what they do for the first five! We are studying resource selection of larvae and juveniles to better understand habitat requirements of these early life stages. Photo credit: L. Diaz

Physiology & Movement

How does variation in habitat quality influence the physiology and movement of individuals?

Subtle changes occurring at the scale of the individual can have important population level effects. By monitoring individuals we have the potential to detect early signals of biologically relevant environmental change.

Species recovery depends on understanding the mechanisms of population decline. We are using multiple physiological endpoints to understand how habitat quality and parasites might impact the health and status of individual hellbenders.

Alligators persist in many highly developed landscapes, but we know little about their behavior in such habitats. We're using satellite GPS transmitters and behavioral trials to understand how alligator movement and fine scale behavior varies across a human density gradient.

Population Ecology

What are the overarching factors driving patterns of species abundance and occurrence over space and time?

Answering these questions allows us to better predict the status of a species under future scenarios and more effectively weigh the costs and benefits of management and policy decisions.

Despite being one of the largest salamanders in the U.S., we know very little about the status of most hellbender populations. We use artificial shelters and mark-recapture surveys to better understand patterns of abundance, reproductive success, survival of young life stages, and how each responds to environmental change.

The Carolina heelsplitter is a federally endangered mussel that is so cryptic, monitoring population status is a major challenge. We're evaluating the efficacy of environmental DNA collected from water samples to detect this species and one of its host fish. Photo credit: B. Schmidt