Crysta A. Gantz- MSc
- PhD Student at Portland State University
Crysta A. Gantz
- MSc
- PhD Student at Portland State University
About
37
Publications
11,440
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,674
Citations
Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Current institution
Additional affiliations
December 2006 - January 2011
February 2011 - March 2016
Publications
Publications (37)
Biological invasions driven by international trade heighten the urgency for development of invasion risk models, as the traits and parameters that consistently predict successful invasion remain unresolved. For four regions of North America that include parts of the United States and Canada (Sacramento-San Joaquin River Basins, Lower Colorado River...
Intraspecific trait variation (ITV) is an increasingly important aspect of biodiversity and can provide a more complete perspective on how abiotic and biotic processes affect individuals, species' niches and ultimately community‐level structure than traditional uses of trait means. Body size serves as a proxy for a suite of traits that govern speci...
Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis methods permit broad yet detailed biodiversity sampling to be performed with minimal field effort. However, considerable uncertainty remains regarding the spatial resolution necessary for effective sampling, especially in aquatic environments. Also, contemporary plant communities are under-investigated with eDNA me...
Aquatic invasive plant species cause negative impacts to economies and ecosystems worldwide. Traditional survey methods, while necessary, often do not result in timely detections of aquatic invaders, which can be cryptic, difficult to identify, and exhibit very rapid growth and reproduction rates. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a relatively new method...
Hazard characterization and risk assessment are commonly used to prioritize vectors of nonindigenous species (NIS) for inspection or other prevention opportunities. Commercial shipping vessels are a target of such vector-based management since ballast water has been known to transport NIS between aquatic ecosystems globally. Here we used a risk-bas...
Hazard characterization and risk assessment are commonly used to prioritize vectors of nonindigenous species (NIS) for inspection or other prevention opportunities. Commercial shipping vessels are a target of such vector-based management since ballast water has been known to transport NIS between aquatic ecosystems globally. Here we used a risk-bas...
The application of environmental DNA (eDNA) to infer species presence in aquatic ecosystems has become an invaluable tool for both the ecology and management of aquatic ecosystems. However, we are only beginning to understand how environmental conditions influence eDNA detection and persistence in freshwaters. Here, we examined the degradation dyna...
Early detection is imperative for successful control or eradication of invasive species, but many organisms are difficult to detect at the low abundances characteristic of recently introduced populations. Environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a promising invasive species surveillance tool for freshwaters, owing to its high sensitivity to detect a...
The African Great Lakes system has high aquatic biodiversity but is increasingly threatened by anthropogenic stressors including the introduction of potentially invasive nonindigenous plant and animal species. Quantitative risk assessment models can be used to predict the potential impact of introduced species in a specific geographic region. We ad...
We report results of a study that made reciprocal comparisons of environmental DNA (eDNA) assays for two major invasive crayfishes between their disparate invasive ranges in North America. Specifically, we tested for range expansions of the signal crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus (Dana, 1852) into the Laurentian Great Lakes region known to be inva...
Detection of invasive species before or soon after they establish in novel environments is critical to prevent widespread ecological and economic impacts. Environmental DNA (eDNA) surveillance and monitoring is an approach to improve early detection efforts. Here we describe a large-scale conservation application of a quantitative polymerase chain...
Risk analysis of species invasions links biology and economics, is increasingly mandated by international and national policies, and enables improved management of invasive species. Biological invasions proceed through a series of transition probabilities (i.e., introduction, establishment, spread, and impact), and each of these presents opportunit...
1.Early detection is invaluable for the cost-effective control and eradication of invasive species, yet many traditional sampling techniques are ineffective at the low population abundances found at the onset of the invasion process. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a promising and sensitive tool for early detection of some invasive species, but its eff...
Aim
Impacts of non‐native species have motivated development of risk assessment tools for identifying introduced species likely to become invasive. Here, we develop trait‐based models for the establishment and impact stages of freshwater fish invasion, and use them to screen non‐native species common in international trade. We also determine which...
Risk assessment tools for non-native species can avert ecological and economic harm when they inform regulatory or voluntary management actions that seek to reduce the probability of introducing high-risk species. The Laurentian Great Lakes region contains many aquatic invasive plants, non-native species whose introduction causes economic or enviro...
Background/Question/Methods
Non-native species are regularly moved across the globe through vectors such as the aquarium, pet, live food, ornamental plants, and bait trades. These trades generate benefits for importers, retailers, and consumers, but many of these species become invasive and cause large impacts. Risk assessment tools can be used t...
Background/Question/Methods
A global increase in international trade has led to an increase in both intentional and unintentional transport of nonindigenous species. Because of this, there is an increased likelihood that more species will become established and/or invasive outside of their native geographic ranges. We evaluated the performance of...
Background/Question/Methods
Using traditional capture methods, such as electrofishing and nets, to directly measure aquatic species richness is difficult when species are rare, so scientists use species richness estimators to account for undetected species. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is proving to be a robust indicator of rare, aquatic species pres...
Background/Question/Methods
Management of aquatic ecosystems requires the ability to identify species presence. This becomes increasingly difficult with low abundance species, such as threatened and endangered or recently introduced invasive species. Traditional capture methods can be intrusive to the organism, ineffective at capturing all presen...
Intentional introductions of nonindigenous fishes are increasing globally. While benefits of these introductions are easily quantified, assessments to understand the negative impacts to ecosystems are often difficult, incomplete, or absent. Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) was originally introduced to the United States as a biocontrol agent, an...
Impacts of nonindigenous crayfishes on ecosystem services exemplify the mixture of positive and negative effects of intentionally introduced species. Global introductions for aquaculture and ornamental purposes have begun to homogenize naturally disjunct global distributions of crayfish families. Negative impacts include the loss of provisioning (e...
Background/Question/Methods
The perceived ecological impact of a species motivates policy and management. In the 1960’s, herbivorous grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) was imported to the U.S. as a biocontrol tool for aquatic weeds prior to a thorough assessment of its potential risk to ecosystems. Shortly after its introduction, observations o...
Background/Question/Methods
Identifying species traits associated with the different stages of biological invasion remains a central focus of community ecology and conservation biology. The application of trait-centered models to evaluating the risk of species establishment and impact in non-native environments, however, is rare. In this study, e...
Background/Question/Methods
Many plant species are transported globally outside of their native ranges. Only a small proportion of the species that are introduced outside of their native ranges become established, and of those, an even smaller number become invasive. Risk assessment tools have the potential to prevent importation of invasive spec...
We tested the accuracy of an invasive aquatic plant risk assessment system in the United States that we modified from a system originally developed by New Zealand's Biosecurity Program. The US system is comprised of 38 questions that address biological, historical, and environmental tolerance traits. Values associated with each response are summed...
Comparison of questions and scoring between the New Zealand Aquatic Weed Risk Assessment [3], [28], [29] and the USAqWRA used for the analyses described.
(DOC)
Non-native species present in the US for over 30 years that were assessed in the development of the USAqWRA system.
(DOC)
Ten invasive and ten non-invasive species assessed for USAqWRA system validation.
(DOC)
A priori
classification for test species based upon their status in the US and predicted invasiveness risk level using the USAqWRA system.
(DOC)
USAqWRA system results for the 20 validation species.
(DOC)
Predictive tools for preventing introduction of new species with high probability of becoming invasive in the U.S. must effectively
distinguish non-invasive from invasive species. The Australian Weed Risk Assessment system (WRA) has been demonstrated to
meet this requirement for terrestrial vascular plants. However, this system weights aquatic plan...
Twelve taxa under exploration as bioenergy crops in Florida and the U.S. were evaluated for potential invasiveness using the Australian Weed Risk Assessment system (WRA) modified for separate assessment at the state and national scales. When tested across a range of geographies, this system correctly identifies invaders 90%, and non-invaders 70% of...
Screening tools that effectively predict which nonnative species are likely to become invasive are necessary because of the disproportionate ecological and economic costs associated with invaders. We tested the effectiveness of the Australian Weed Risk Assessment system (WRA) in distinguishing plant species that are major invaders, minor invaders,...
The economic, health, and environmental costs of invasive plant species suggest the need for screening systems to reduce the probability of importing new harmful invaders. We assessed 105 plant species introduced to the United States since 1995 using the Australian Weed Risk Assessment system and a secondary screen to evaluate the proportion of spe...
