Ecology
The department's teaching and research addresses critical ecological and natural resources issues for Montana, but also tackles fundamental and applied questions around the globe. Undergraduate programs within the department include Fish & Wildlife Management and Ecology, Conservation Biology and Ecology, Organismal Biology, and Biology Teaching. Graduate programs (M.S. and P.hD.) include Fish & Wildlife Management or Biology and Biological Sciences and an intercollege PhD in Ecology and Environmental Sciences.
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Montana Cooperative Fishery Research Unit
www.montana.edu/mtcfru
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Recent Submissions
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Nitrate is an important nitrogen source for Arctic tundra plants
(2018-03)Plant nitrogen (N) use is a key component of the N cycle in terrestrial ecosystems. The supply of N to plants affects community species composition and ecosystem processes such as photosynthesis and carbon (C) accumulation. ... -
Habitat characteristics of the hoary marmot: Assessing distribution limitations in Montana
(2017-10)Species that live in ecosystems with extremely different seasonal conditions must balance the constraints of each season to survive. Alpine species that do not migrate seasonally are especially adept at balancing the ... -
Opportunities and Trade-offs among BECCS and the Food, Water, Energy, Biodiversity, and Social Systems Nexus at Regional Scales
(2018-01)Carbon dioxide must be removed from the atmosphere to limit climate change to 2°C or less. The integrated assessment models used to develop climate policy acknowledge the need to implement net negative carbon emission ... -
Evaluating the predictability of distance race performance in NCAA cross country and track and field from high school race times in the United States
(2017-12)Successful recruiting for collegiate track & field athletes has become a more competitive and essential component of coaching. This study aims to determine the relationship between race performances of distance runners at ... -
Swimming performance of sauger (Sander canadensis) in relation to fish passage
(2017-12)A lack of information on the swimming abilities of sauger (Sander canadensis), a highly migratory species particularly sensitive to habitat fragmentation, may inhibit the design of effective passage structures for this ... -
Opposing effects of group size on reproduction and survival
(2015-07)For cooperative breeders, we hypothesize that the effects of group size on reproduction and survival might run in opposition if the benefits of grouping cannot be shared without cost. We tested this hypothesis by examining ... -
Inconsistent outcomes of heterogeneity-based management underscore importance of matching evaluation to conservation objectives
(2013-08)Conservation policy often incentivizes managers of human-impacted areas to create landscape heterogeneity to maximize biodiversity. In rangeland, patchy disturbance regimes create landscape heterogeneity (patch contrast), ... -
Effects of grassland management practices on ant functional groups in central North America
(2013-08)Tallgrass prairies of central North America have experienced disturbances including fire and grazing for millennia. Little is known about the effects of these disturbances on prairie ants, even though ants are thought to ... -
Gradient-based habitat affinities predict species vulnerability to drought
(2013-05)Ecological fingerprints of climate change are becoming increasingly evident at broad geographical scales as measured by species range shifts and changes in phenology. However, finer-scale species-level responses to ... -
Land-use history and an invasive grass affect tallgrass prairie sedge community composition
(2014-09)Questions How abundant and diverse are sedges in upland tallgrass prairie? Are sedge communities associated with historical land use, abundance of an invasive species or different fire and grazing management regimes? How ... -
Wind Tunnel Studies of Temperature Dependence and Behavior of Butterflies in the Context of Habitat Edges
(2015-06)Wind tunnel studies provide a valuable experimental approach that can be used to investigate the influence of specific environmental parameters and to make generalizations about insect behavior. In this study, we designed ... -
Effects of Tall Fescue and Its Fungal Endophyte on the Development and Survival of Tawny-Edged Skippers (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae)
(2016-02)Invasive, exotic grasses are increasing in tallgrass prairie and their dominance may be contributing to the decline of grassland butterflies through alterations in forage quality. Tall fescue ( Schedonorus arundinaceus ... -
An Unexpected Journey: Greater Prairie-chicken Travels Nearly 4000 km after Translocation to Iowa
(2015-10)After translocation a female greater prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) traveled over 3988 km between 5 April 2013 and 20 June 2014. The bird traveled a mean distance of 21.5 km per day during the spring (median ... -
Multivariate Analysis of Rangeland Vegetation and Soil Organic Carbon Describes Degradation, Informs Restoration and Conservation
(2015-07)Agricultural expansion has eliminated a high proportion of native land cover and severely degraded remaining native vegetation. Managers must determine where degradation is severe enough to merit restoration action, and ... -
Connecting Soil Organic Carbon and Root Biomass with Land-Use and Vegetation in Temperate Grassland
(2005-07)Soils contain much of Earth’s terrestrial organic carbon but are sensitive to land-use. Rangelands are important to carbon dynamics and are among ecosystems most widely impacted by land-use. While common practices like ... -
Bee Abundance and Nutritional Status in Relation to Grassland Management Practices in an Agricultural Landscape
(2016-04)Grasslands provide important resources for pollinators in agricultural landscapes. Managing grasslands with fire and grazing has the potential to benefit plant and pollinator communities, though there is uncertainty about ... -
Adapting the Fire-Grazing Interaction to Small Pastures in a Fragmented Landscape for Grassland Bird Conservation
(2016-07)In North America, the loss of habitat heterogeneity resulting from homogeneous livestock grazing is one factor contributing to steep population declines of many grassland bird species. Patch-burn grazing is a management ... -
Exotic-Dominated Grasslands Show Signs of Recovery with Cattle Grazing and Fire
(2016-11)In grasslands, overgrazing by domestic livestock, fertilization, and introduction of exotic forage species leads to plant communities consisting of a mixture of native and exotic species. These degraded grasslands present ... -
Top-down effects of an invasive omnivore: detection in long-term monitoring of large-river reservoir chlorophyll-a
(2018-10)Invasive species are capable of altering ecosystems through the consumption of basal resources. However, quantifying the effects of invasive species in large ecosystems is challenging. Measuring changes in basal resources ... -
Seasonal succession of pollinator floral resources in four types of grasslands
(2015-11)Pollinators are declining globally, and this decline in ecosystem services threatens the stability of agricultural and natural systems. Pollinators depend on a diversity of floral resources that are primarily found in ...
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