Fish and Wildlife Graduate Student Research

Ecohydrology—the effect of teak plantations on watershed hydrology and opportunities for the provisioning of ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes

Application of physical tags and genetic markers in juvenile burbot. Develop a cost-effective, long-term marker that identifies hatchery-reared burbot following their release in the lower Kootenai River

Aquatic invasive invertebrate control strategies

Sage-grouse reintroduction into the Yakima Indian Reservation

Critical boundary shear stress of salmon spawned gravels in alluvial streams

Aspects of sustainable fish culture development to reduce the negative environmental footprints.

Bat/plant interactions in the San Juan/La Selva biological corridor of Costa Rica

Non-invasive genetic monitoring of pygmy rabbits

Snapping turtle ecology and statewide survey in North Dakota

Landscape biodiversity and ecosystem function of Meso-American landscapes

The effects of fish nutrition on immunity

Factors that influence territoriality, productivity, and survival of black-footed ferrets in South Dakota

Investigating recent changes in the migration timing and life history strategy of juvenile Snake River Fall Chinook using otolith microchemistry

Lipid reserves in relation to paddlefish life history

I am studying the life history and inducible defenses of the Alkali Tadpole Shrimp. I plan to elucidate the signals involved in their inducible defenses, as well as the costs the induction of these defenses incur. I also plan to gain information on the life history of the animal, so that predictions on its responses to climate change can be made.

Ecosystem engineers in the sagebrush-steppe:  understanding ecological networks and habitat associations. Main goals: 1) better understand the role of burrowing mammals, and 2) determine what habitat features positively or negatively influence these animals.

Studying the importance of hydrochory for native plant species recruitment in a passively restored river floodplain on the unregulated Consumnes River in California

Habitat selection of pygmy owls in fragmented forests

Developing index to identify the vulnerability of species of greatest conservation need to climate change in Idaho; identifying vulnerability hotspots within the state.

Geographic structure of genetic patterns and habitat selection by the brown bears of Kamchatka, Russia

Utilizing non-invasive genetic sampling within a mark-recapture framework to assess the population status of both kit foxes and coyotes

The role of birds in ecosystem service provisioning in Costa Rica

Understanding physical and biological processes interactions at different spatial and temporal scales as it relates to food productivity, fish growth and ultimately survival in the Methow River in the Upper Columbia River Basin, Washington

Researching the impact that returning Chinook Salmon have on ecosystem dynamics and nutrient cycling throughout a watershed in the Frank Church River-of-No-Return Wilderness

Monitoring the predators of Newfoundland caribou using non-invasive genetic techniques

Hydrologic alterations and steelhead bioenergetics in Lapwai Creek, Idaho

Migration patterns of Pacific Lamprey in the Columbia River Basin in relation to population decline

Developing strategies to improve survival and return recruitment of steelhead kelts from Snake River stocks

Deadwood Reservoir, Idaho: a model for interactions between operations and bull trout ecology

Determining sediment and phosphorous loads from sub-watersheds to Willow Creek Reservoir (WCR) in Heppner, Oregon.  In addition, I will evaluate designs for a constructed wetland at the inlet of WCR to reduce the sediment and phosphorus load before it enters the reservoir.

Mysid shrimp zooplankton interactions in Lake Pend Oreille

Influences of forest fragmentation on the reproductive ecology of bat-pollinated and bat-dispersed mid canopy tree species in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica

Habitat ecology of fishers in managed forests in northern Idaho

Response of sage-grouse to removal of encroaching junipers

Response to temporally and spatially varying resources:  salmon and bears in Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge

Conservation of protected areas combining biological and social sciences, focused on tropical highland ecosystems with Andean bear presence

Evaluating the effects of large-scale habitat restoration on fish assemblages and populations in side channels of the Kootenai River, Idaho.  Determining community-and population-level structure, function, and variation among side channels and evaluating sampling designs for monitoring the effects of habitat restoration