Achievements

Mark Colwell Allison Patrick

Wildlife

Mark Colwell and Allie Patrick published a (Dec 2017) paper in Wader Study, an international journal dedicated to the ecology and conservation of shorebirds. Their work summarized a 12-year dataset on breeding Snowy Plovers in Humboldt County and showed that plovers nest in loose aggregations, especially when population size increase.

Mark Colwell, Lizzie Feucht, Nora Papian, Jeremy Pohlman, Katelyn Raby

Wildlife

HSU hosted the annual recovery meeting for the Western Snowy Plover, held in the Native American Forum, 10 & 11 January 2018. HSU alumnus Dr. Luke Eberhart-Phillips of the Max Planck Institute, Germany delivered the keynote lecture, which was a comparative examination of plover demography and breeding systems. Colwell, Feucht, and Papian also presented their work.

Mark Colwell, Lizzie Feucht, Sean McAllister, Amber Transou

Wildlife

Mark Colwell and former students Lizzie Feucht, Sean McAllister, and Amber Transou published a paper in the August issue of Wader Study, an international journal dedicated to understanding the ecology and promoting the conservation of shorebirds. Their paper details the longevity record for a Snowy Plover that they've studied for the past 16 years! Mark will present this story in an EcoSeries lecture on August 31 in the Wildlife Department.

Mark Colwell, Lizzie Feucht, Matt Lau, David Orluck, Sean McAllister, Amber Transou

Wildlife

Mark Colwell and current and former students (Lizzie Feucht, Matt Lau, David Orluck, Sean McAllister, Amber Transou) published a paper in Wader Study, an international journal dedicated to shorebird ecology and conservation. The work summarizes 16 years of monitoring to show that immigration is vital to recent population growth of Snowy Plovers in coastal northern California.

Walt Duffy and Sharon Kahara

Wildlife

"Ecosystems of California" won two 2017 PROSE awards, which are given by the Association of American Publishers. It won the award for environmental science, and the overall award for excellence in physical sciences and mathematics.For more information on AAP 2017 awardees visit:
https://proseawards.com/winners/

Professor Emeritus Rick Botzler, students in the Ecoclub and other collaborators

Wildlife

Professor Emeritus Rick Botzler has been working with local kids aged 4 to 16 to survey for chytrid fungus in Humboldt County frogs. With the Ecoclub kids as first author(s), the research team, which includes ecologist colleagues from the US Forest Service, UC Davis and the Integral Ecology Research Center, has published their findings in the recent issue of the Journal of Wildlife Diseases. A great accomplishment fueled by citizen science.

Shannon Murphy, Daniel Barton

Wildlife

Wildlife graduate student Shannon Murphy won best overall student presentation for her talk "Parental care behaviors in Brandt's cormorant (Phalacrocorax pencillatus): effects on reproductive success and use as indicators of the marine environment" at The Wildlife Society - Western Section meeting in Pomona, California, with co-authors Stephanie Schneider, Richard Golightly, and Daniel Barton.

Yuliana Rowe, Angelica Munoz, Thien Crisanto and Laura Hernandez

Wildlife

Yuliana, Thien, Laura, and Angelica were invited to present independent research at Washington D.C. at the ERN Conference in STEM (Emerging Researcher's National Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in late February. Yuliana Rowe was awarded 2nd place in Ecology, Environment, and Earth Sciences for her presentation on "The effects of climate-induced forest disturbances on spiders in Michigan."

Eric Jennings, Micaela Szykman Gunther

Wildlife

Eric Jennings, past undergraduate in the Department of Wildlife, had his honors thesis published in Northwest Science, coauthored with his mentor, Micaela Gunther. His work examined the "Effects of high temperatures and sun exposure on Sherman trap internal temperatures."

Jeff Black & Will Goldenberg

Wildlife

Natural Born Hustlers, a new series co-produced by the BBC and PBS features research by HSU Wildlife Professor Jeff Black and alumnus Will Goldenberg. Black and Goldenberg are featured in a segment about Steller's jays. For 17 years, Black has led a study into the jay populations on campus and their deceptive behavior. The birds are known to mimic predator sounds like red-shouldered and red-tail hawk calls. Goldenberg, who currently lectures in HSU's film progrma, helped the BBC film the birds in action.

Natural Born Hustlers is a three part series, and begins on Wednesday, Jan., 13 at 8 p.m. on PBS. Check local listings for more information. Episode 2, the Hunger Games, which features the Steller's jays, airs January 20.

More information is available at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/natural-born-hustlers-about/13389/.