Achievements
Publications and achievements submitted by our faculty, staff, and students.
Student Janelle Chojnacki Wildlife
Wildlife graduate student Janelle Chojnacki has received a grant from The Nuttall Ornithological Club to fund her research into the foraging behavior of common ravens, and their predator impact on the western snowy plover, a federally threatened bird. The project aims to address the causal factors related to increased raven abundance and proximity to plover nesting areas to provide conservation practitioners with useful information for identifying key areas to focus mitigation efforts. Results will be applicable to other prey species throughout ravens’ range in North America.
Chojnacki received the award working in collaboration with her graduate advisor, Dr. Barbara Clucas.
Faculty Frank Fogarty Wildlife
Frank Fogarty (Wildlife) published a new paper demonstrating that observational data can be useful for predicting songbird nest sites in Ibis. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.13020
Faculty Micaela Szykman Gunther Wildlife
HSU Wildlife Professor Dr. Micaela Szykman Gunther has received a grant from the Humboldt County Fish and Game Commission to support ongoing research into the diets of two local at-risk species, the Humboldt marten and fisher, and their predators. The project aims to analyze diet data to help inform land management practices that may benefit the two species, and to understand predator impact that will further help land managers and conservationists.
Project collaborators include Dr. Katie Moriarty (National Council for Air and Stream Improvement), graduate students Alyssa Roddy and Erika Anderson, and two undergraduate students.
Faculty Frank Fogarty Wildlife
Frank Fogarty (Wildlife) published a new paper on utilizing point count data to estimate the abundance of mobile animals in Ecological Indicators. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X21008359
Student Allison Huysman, Matt Johnson Wildlife
Allison Huysman and Matt Johnson (Wildlife) published a paper entitled, “Multi-year nest box occupancy and short-term resilience to wildfire disturbance by barn owls in a vineyard agroecosystem” in the journal Ecosphere.
Student Dane St. George, Matt Johnson Wildlife
Dane St. George and Matt Johnson published a manuscript entitled, "Effects of habitat on prey delivery rate and prey species composition of breeding barn owls in winegrape vineyards" in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems & the Environment
Student Jose Rodriguez, Ho Yi Wan Wildlife
Undergraduate Jose Rodriguez received a $5,000 starter grant given to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color from Save the Redwoods League. This grant will be used to initiate the Condors And Redwoods Ecological Research (CARER) project, which aims to study California condors that are soon to be released into the wild in northern California. Jose will be working with mentor Dr. Ho Yi Wan on the project.
Student Xerónimo Castañeda, Allison Huysman, Matthew D Johnson Wildlife
Former graduate students Xerónimo Castañeda, Allison Huysman, and their advisor Matt Johnson published a paper in Ornithological Applications entitled, "Barn Owls select uncultivated habitats for hunting in a winegrape growing region of California."
Student Hilary Cosby and Micaela Szykman Gunther Wildlife
Former graduate student Hilary Cosby had her thesis research published in the Journal of Mammalogy, co-authored with mentor Dr. Micaela Szykman Gunther in the Department of Wildlife. The paper is entitled: "Variation in diet of river otters by season and aquatic community."
Faculty Mark Colwell, Chelsea Polevy and Hannah LeWinter Wildlife
Mark Colwell, Chelsea Polevy and Hannah LeWinter published the last of three papers summarizing the importance of Humboldt Bay to shorebirds along the Pacific America’s Flyway. Their work, funded by Audubon California, shows that the bay hosts a diverse (52 species) and abundant (~850,000 individuals) assemblage of mostly sandpipers and plovers rear-round, justifying its designation as a site of international importance under the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network. See their work at: https://www.waderstudygroup.org/article/14584/
Faculty Seafha Ramos Wildlife
Dr. Seafha Ramos, NSF postdoctoral fellow in biology, and collaborators developed a series of 5th grade science lessons that incorporate Traditional Ecological Knowledge and a simulated wildlife survey. All lessons are available for free download at https://www.stemtradingcards.org/teklessons.
Student Sarah Schooler, Matt Johnson, Peter Njoroge, Tim Bean Wildlife
Graduate student Sarah Scholer published a paper in the journal "Ecology & Evolution" stemming from her Master's thesis with co-authors from HSU, Cal Poly SLO, and the National Museums of Kenya, "Shade trees preserve avian insectivore biodiversity on coffee farms in a warming climate."
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.6879
Student Wendy Willis, Matt Johnson Wildlife
Wendy Willis and Matt Johnson (Dept of Wildlife) published a paper, "Political Ecology of Shade Coffee: Perspectives from Jamaican Blue Mountain Farmers" in the journal Conservation and Society stemming from Wendy's thesis in HSU's interdisciplinary Environment and Community program.
Staff Matt Johnson, Amy Sprowles, Katlin Goldenberg, Steven Margell, and Lisa Castellino Wildlife
A team of faculty and staff published a paper documenting the effects of the first three years of the Klamath Connection placed-based learning community entitled, "Effect of a Place-Based Learning Community on Belonging, Persistence, and Equity Gaps for First-Year STEM Students" in the journal Innovative Higher Education. The article is open-access: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10755-020-09519-5
Faculty Matt Johnson, Sacha Heath Wildlife
Matt Johnson, professor in the Dept of Wildlife, and HSU alum Dr. Sacha Heath co-organized a symposium, "Protecting and restoring bird habitat in the agricultural matrix: net benefits for birds and farmers" with 10 invited speakers held at the 2020 North American Ornithological Conference, August 14, 2020.
Student Deven Kammerichs-Berke, Matt Johnson Wildlife
Deven Kammerichs-Berke, graduate student in Wildlife, presented results from his thesis, "Community Composition and Foraging Selectivity of Insectivorous Bird on Central Kenyan Shade Coffee Farms," at the North American Ornithological Conference, Aug 12, 2020.
Faculty Katelyn Raby, Mark Colwell Wildlife
Katie Raby and Mark Colwell published a paper in Wader Study, an international journal dedicated to conservation of shorebirds. Their 15-yr analysis show that Snowy Plover nests survived better on restored beaches of Humboldt County, CA compared with unrestored areas.
Faculty Daniel Barton Wildlife
Dan Barton published an open-access article "Impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on field instruction and remote teaching alternatives: Results from a survey of instructors" in the journal Ecology and Evolution. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.6628
Faculty Sharon Kahara Wildlife
Co-authored "APEX simulation: Water quality of Sacramento Valley wetlands impacted by waterfowl droppings". Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. (in press)
Faculty Frank Fogarty Wildlife
Co-authored "Fire, livestock grazing, topography, and precipitation affect occurrence and prevalence of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) in the central Great Basin, USA". Biological Invasions 22, 663-680.