News
January 31, 2024 - Along with my colleagues, I published a paper in Royal Society Open Science about the amphibian chytrid fungus in foothill yellow-legged frogs through space and time. In it, we assembled the largest dataset to date on disease in this species. We found that disease severity coincided with severe drought and land use changes. The publication was covered by the Univeristy of Texas, UCSB Current, and Phys.org.
January 11, 2024 - My colleagues and I published a new research paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. In it, we combine history and ecology to better understand the natural history of the California grizzly, which went extinct 100 years ago. Through stable isotope analysis, museum specimen measurements, and historiography, we pieced together a fascinating story that debunks some widely-held myths about this mysterious creature. The story was covered in The Atlantic, Science, Los Angeles Times, and Live Science.
December 16, 2023 - A new paper about the phenology of California red-legged frogs in the Sierra Nevada of California is published in Herpetological Conservation and Biology with my Yosemite colleagues.
December 15, 2023 - My research is featured in a Mercury News article about foothill yellow-legged frog reintroductions.
September 6, 2023 - Today I launched my new Substack newsletter, Hopecology. The purpose of this bimonthly essay is to explore hope in the face of the environmental crisis.
September 1, 2023 - I am delighted to be joining the Board of Directors at Fauna del Noroeste, a conservation nonprofit based in Baja California, Mexico. Learn more about the great work they do.
March 29, 2023 - Our publication, “Safe harbor: translocating California red-legged frogs to a climate refuge in Yosemite National Park,” went online today in Animal Conservation. In it, we describe the National Park Service’s bold decision to translocate California red-legged frogs to Yosemite Valley, despite a lack of evidence for its historical occurrence there. Our paper emphasizes the significance of this decision, and comments on the need for a shift in the conservation zeitgeist toward institutional attitudes that allow for more flexibility and risk in the face of climate change.
March 15, 2023 - My southern California research was mentioned, and I was quoted in a Washington Post article about new amphibian research from Africa.
February 23, 2023 - Today our new paper, “Homecoming or new pad: historical evidence for California red-legged frogs and other amphibians in the Yosemite region, California”, is published in Northwestern Naturalist. In it, we used historical ecology to take a deep dive into the history of California red-legged frogs in the Yosemite Region, particularly Yosemite Valley. After examining museum specimens, archival records, and conducting interviews, we concluded that there is a relative paucity of reliable historical information about frogs in Yosemite Valley, which is surprising given its popularity as an internationally iconic natural landscape. We did not find any California red-legged frog records for the Valley, but did discover new records outside of the park, and brought other records for endangered foothill yellow-legged frogs to light in Yosemite Valley.
December 16, 2022 - I published an op-ed describing our recent Ecosphere paper’s California red-legged frog research and its broader implications in The Conversation.
December 14, 2022 - New publication: “To treat or not to treat? Experimental pathogen exposure, treatment, and release of a threatened amphibian” is published in Ecosphere. This is one of my postdoctoral research projects with the California red-legged frog reintroduction program at Yosemite National Park. We experimentally inoculated frogs against the amphibian chytrid fungus in the laboratory, then released them to see if the treatment would improve reintroduction outcomes in the wild. We found that the treatment made no difference in post-release infection or survival, and that the frogs respond to the fungus in ways consistent with both innate (first-line) and adaptive (in response to prior infection) immune responses.
October 15, 2022 - My essay, “Thomas,” about evacuating during the 2017 Thomas Fire, is published in the Fall Issue of Changing Skies literary magazine.
June 27, 2022 - My poem about my foothill yellow-legged frog reintroduction research, ‘Headstarting’, is among the Editor’s Picks in the latest issue of Consilience—an online journal for a meeting of the arts and sciences.
June 16, 2022 - My research is mentioned in this Sierra Magazine article about the collaborative work being implemented to help the foothill yellow-legged frog adapt to climate change in the Sierra Nevada. This piece exemplifies how it takes a village of collaborators to help this frog in the face of climate change.
April 26, 2022 - My recent Baja California publication is featured in an article by The Wildlife Society.
December 17, 2021 - New publication: High fungal pathogen loads and prevalence in Baja California amphibian communities: The importance of species, elevation, and historical context, in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation. Colleagues in Baja California conducted disease sampling in amphibians seasonally for one year at three Baja California sites at varying elevations. We found high disease prevalence and pathogen burden in some species at some sites, in contrast to what has been found in similar ecological communities in southern California. We also sampled museum specimens for the chytrid fungus, and found it in Baja California as early as 1932. This research adds to the growing evidence that the historical emergence and spread of the pathogen may be more complex and nuanced than originally thought.
December 2, 2021 - New publication: Seasonal drought and its effects on frog population dynamics and amphibian disease in intermittent streams, to appear in a special issue about drought in the journal Ecohydrology. This work, led by colleague Sarah Kupferberg, highlights the intensifying effect of drought on the biological threats of invasive aquatic predators and pathogens on foothill yellow-legged frogs in central California. When stream flows are low or intermittent, developing frogs are restricted to drying pools, where the threat of disease is higher, causing die-offs. Still, fluctuations in population size corresponded to the limiting effects of stream flow—when developing frogs may run out of time to metamophose before their pools dry up—rather than disease-induced die-offs.
August 4, 2021 - Accepted a new service role as Science Advisor for Amphibian Ark.
July 30, 2021 - Featured practitioner in the July 2021 issue of Conservation Paleobiology Network newsletter.
July 12, 2021 - New publication: Toward climate change refugia conservation at an ecoregion scale in Conservation Science and Practice. This highly collaborative project was initiated by a workshop at Yosemite National Park with partners from the U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Point Blue Conservation Science, and universities. We put our heads together to address the question: what information and resources are needed to make climate change refugia conservation in California’s Sierra Nevada a reality?
May 9, 2021 - Yosemite, here I come! I am off to do more fieldwork in the Yosemite region, checking up on the translocated population of California red-legged frogs in Yosemite Valley, as well as conduct more breeding surveys for foothill yellow-legged frogs in the nearby Stanislaus National Forest. The goal of the latter project is to find out which populations could use a boost through in situ rearing, and which might make good donor sites for translocations to other areas where the species has been extirpated.
March-April, 2021 - Back in the field! Field season is upon us, and along with my colleague Sarah Kupferberg, I am visiting the last two known foothill yellow-legged frog breeding sites in Monterey County to assess how the frogs in this portion of the range are doing.
November 6, 2020 - New publication: Chytridiomycosis-induced mortality in a threatened anuran. Our paper reports the first record of mortality in California red-legged frogs as a result of infection with the amphibian chytrid fungus (Batracochytrium dendrobatidis; Bd). This is a big deal, because without this kind of evidence, most researchers have assumed the species is largely tolerant of the pathogen. Hopefully this motivates those who work with the species to double down on their efforts in disease surveillance and biosecurity.
October 23, 2020 - Presented, Assessing Reintroduction Feasibility for Foothill yellow-legged frogs in the Central Coast Region at The Wildlife Society Central Coast Chapter annual meeting.
October 8, 2020 - Gave an invited seminar: Recovering California’s Frogs: Mixed Methods Approaches for Applied Conservation Science at the Rutgers University Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution.
May 13, 2020 - New publication: Analogies for a No-Analog World: Tackling Uncertainties in Reintroduction Planning in Trends in Ecology and Evolution. This is the most recent product from the California Grizzly Research Network. In it, we explore how different analogies can be implemented to address the challenging unknowns inherent in reintroduction planning, using the California grizzly as an example.
March 4, 2020 - New publication: Using Natural History to Unlock the Past for the Future of Ecological Inquiry in the Journal of Natural History Education and Experience. This paper is one of a series that emerged from an Inspire Session I co-organized at the 2019 Ecological Society of America meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.
January 14, 2020 - Smith Fellowship Finalist Interviews, Washington, D.C. I am honored to be selected as one of eight finalists for the prestigious Society for Conservation Biology David H. Smith Conservation Research Postdoctoral Fellowship. Although I was not ultimately selected for a 2020 fellowship, the interviews were an exciting opportunity to discuss my research with influential conservation biologists.
January 9, 2020 - Presented, To Treat or Not To Treat? Disease Considerations for a California red-legged Frog Conservation Introduction at the California-Nevada Amphibian Populations Task Force meeting in San Diego, California.
December 10, 2019 - New publication: Human Dimensions: Natural History as the Innate Foundation of Ecology in the Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America.
November 9, 2019 - Presented, Threatened Amphibians of Yosemite National Park at the workshop, Conserving Climate Change Refugia for Climate Adaptation in the Sierra Nevada, hosted by the Refugia Research Coalition and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Climate Adaptation Science Center in partnership with the National Park Service. We identified opportunities to apply existing data and modeling results to ongoing local conservation efforts. Our results informed a publication that will be coming out in mid-2021.
October 16, 2019 - Roundtable panelist, Amphibian Translocations for Conservation Symposium, hosted by Amphibian Ark. Participants from all over the world contributed to this online symposium, where they shared their lessons learned for conservation translocations of threatened amphibian species.
September 1, 2019 - I’m thrilled to be joining Yosemite National Park, in partnership with the Yosemite Conservancy, to conduct research on the conservation introduction of California red-legged frogs to the Yosemite Valley! I’ll be monitoring the introduced frogs for disease, and will be able to track them with the radiotransmitters they have been outfitted with.
August 11-15, 2019 - Attended the Ecological Society of America Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. Learn more about my activities and service work at this meeting on my blog post about it.
July 22, 2019 - Out for another brief stint conducting frog monitoring and habitat restoration in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park. Such beautiful and important field work! Best of both worlds.
June 26, 2019 - Awarded a Professional Development Grant from the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation.
April 8, 2019 - Awarded a travel grant from the Ecological Society of America to attend the 2019 Annual Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, in August 2019.
March 7, 2019 - Presented, Frog Stories: Natural History as an Amphibian Decline Research Tool at the Natural History Institute in Prescott, Arizona. Watch the video.
February 21, 2019 - Awarded a Schuyler Lecturer Fund Grant for professional development from the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
January 30, 2019 - Presented, Using Natural History Collections to Track a Fungal Pathogen of Amphibians Through Time at the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration’s natural history collections research seminar.
November 9, 2018 - Presented, Watering Hole: Restoring a Stock Pond for Sensitive Wildlife at the Central Coast Chapter of The Wildlife Society Annual Meeting, San Luis Obispo, CA.
November 2, 2018 - “Ask a female scientist” interview with the La Brea Tar Pits’ high school Girls in STEM research group.
October 2018 - Accepted a service position as the new Secretary of the Natural History Section of the Ecological Society of America. I look forward to collaborating with fellow board members Tom Fleischner, Lou Weber, and Seabird McKeon to support and advocate for the essential importance of natural history in ecological science.
July 20, 2018 - Returning for another stint of aquatic ecology work with Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park. As an assistant crew leader this year, I will return to the high Sierra site where I spent two months last summer, and then hike to different sites around the park monitoring mountain yellow-legged frog recovery. The mountains are calling.
June 9, 2018 - Hosted a Walking Ecology lecture on rattlesnake ecology at Sedgwick Reserve. This was the last in a series of outdoor lectures where scientists who conduct research at the reserve show their stuff to the public. We had a very good turnout and it was an excellent opportunity to get up-close and personal with these amazing, often-understood reptiles.
May 24, 2018 - Amphibian surveys in the Kaweah River. Flows were quite high, as warm spring temperatures rapidly melted the high mountain snows. Despite its ecological challenges, this river still has some heartening biodiversity.
May 19, 2018 - Field trip to Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge. I took my Endangered Species Management course to the field to learn hands-on endangered species management methods. We were extremely lucky that the refuge was conducting California Condor trapping to do routine health checks at the time. We got to observe an entire work-up and release of a condor back into the wild. This trip was full-circle for me: when I was an undergraduate, I realized I wanted to be a conservation biologist while on a field trip, observing California Condors at Vermilion Cliffs in Arizona.
April 23, 2018 - “Science and Supper Night” at UCSB's Sedgwick Reserve. This was a fun night where I gave an informal lecture about local amphibians for the reserve docents, followed by a night hike to look for amphibians.
April 14-15, 2018 - Declining aquatic and semi-aquatic herp workshop, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. A great event organized by the Central Coast chapter of The Wildlife Society--a fun opportunity to connect with friends both new and old, including this hatchling pond turtle (pictured at right). A lot of review, but there is always more to learn.
April 2, 2018 - Excited to begin teaching the Endangered Species Management course in UCSB's Environmental Studies Department this spring quarter. This will be the fourth time I've taught this course, and it promises to be the best one yet.
March 14, 2018 - Today I begin a new position as Staff Research Associate for UCSB's Sedgwick Reserve. I am thrilled to be a part of the amazing team and landscape there. My work will focus on on supporting the ongoing research at the reserve, science communication and outreach, and developing plans for restoring amphibian habitats on the reserve.
March 8, 2018 - My collaborators and I are pleased to announce a new publication: "Occurrence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in anurans of the Mediterranean region of Baja California, México." This is a free, open-access article.
February 21, 2018 - New blog post on the California Grizzly Study Group website about our stable isotopes work examining historical California grizzly diets.
February 8, 2018 - Guest blog for the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and Biosphere: Unnatural Disaster: A (Wild)Fire-Side Story.
January 25, 2018 - My historical research on foothill yellow-legged frogs is featured in Science Daily.
October 25, 2017 - My magnum opus (thus far) has published in the journal Ecology and Evolution! This is an free, open-access publication. This work was the final chapter--and culmination--of my dissertation research. I combined ecological and historical methods to examine the decline of the foothill yellow-legged frog (Rana boylii) in southern California. You can learn more about this work on my blog.
July 17, 2017 - Today is my first day of work for a 60-day tour with Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. I will be doing aquatic restoration activities in Sierra Nevada high mountain lakes. An ecosystem restoration project, much of the work is in support of the endangered mountain yellow-legged frog. I'm thrilled to be doing two straight months of backcountry field work. To the mountains!
June 18, 2017 - Commencement! Normally all the pomp and circumstance seems a little over the top, but this time around it was not only hard-earned, but jovial and befitting such an endeavor. Congrats to my labmates Mark Wilber and Emily Wilson as well!