Habitat selection by a threatened desert amphibian.

Habitat degradation and fragmentation are major drivers of amphibian declines. The loss of environmental features that allow for movement between water sources may be particularly detrimental for amphibians in arid environments. Climate changes will increase the importance of microhabitats to amphibians.

Timing of vegetation sampling does not influence associations between visual obstruction and turkey nest survival in a montane forest.

Evaluating relationships between ecological processes that occur concurrently is complicated by the potential for such processes to covary. Ground-nesting birds rely on habitat characteristics that provide visual and olfactory concealment from predators; this protection often is provided by vegetation at the nest site. Recently, researchers have raised concern that measuring vegetation characteristics at nest fate (success or failure) introduces a bias, as vegetation at successful nests is measured later in the growing season (and has more time to grow) compared with failed nests.

Improving geographically extensive acoustic survey designs for modeling species occurrence with imperfect detection and misidentification.

Acoustic recording units (ARUs) enable geographically extensive surveys of sensitive and elusive species. However, a hidden cost of using ARU data for modeling species occupancy is that prohibitive amounts of human verification may be required to correct species identifications made from automated software. Bat acoustic studies exemplify this challenge because large volumes of echolocation calls could be recorded and automatically classified to species.

Effects of invasive plants on arthropods.

Non-native plants have invaded nearly all ecosystems and represent a major component of global ecological change. Plant invasions frequently change the composition and structure of vegetation communities, which can alter animal communities and ecosystem processes. We reviewed 87 articles published in the peer-reviewed literature to evaluate responses of arthropod communities and functional groups to non-native invasive plants.

Six classroom exercises to teach natural selection to undergraduate biology students.

Students in introductory biology courses frequently have misconceptions regarding natural selection. In this paper, we describe six activities that biology instructors can use to teach undergraduate students in introductory biology courses how natural selection causes evolution. These activities begin with a lesson introducing students to natural selection and also include discussions on sexual selection, molecular evolution, evolution of complex traits, and the evolution of behavior.

Reptile assemblage response to restoration of fire-suppressed longleaf pine sandhills.

Measuring the effects of ecological restoration on wildlife assemblages requires study on broad temporal and spatial scales. Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) forests are imperiled due to fire suppression and subsequent invasion by hardwood trees. We employed a landscape-scale, randomized-block design to identify how reptile assemblages initially responded to restoration treatments including removal of hardwood trees via mechanical methods (felling and girdling), application of herbicides, or prescribed burning alone.