Evan Adams

• PhD
• Quantitative Ecologist at Biodiversity Research Institute

The offshore wind energy (OSW) industry is pivotal for renewable energy transition and climate resiliency. However, OSW activities may negatively affect aerofauna, contributing to CE from human activities and natural processes. Cumulative effects assessments (CEA) are vital for informed planning and management of OSW activities during regional asse...

Environmental mercury (Hg) contamination of the global tropics outpaces our understanding of its consequences for biodiversity. Knowledge gaps of pollution exposure could obscure conservation threats in the Neotropics: a region that supports over half of the world's species, but faces ongoing land-use change and Hg emission via artisanal and small-...

Mercury (Hg) inputs have particularly impacted the northeastern United States due to its proximity to anthropogenic emissions sources and abundant habitats that efficiently convert inorganic Hg into methylmercury. Intensive research and monitoring efforts over the past 50 years in New York State, USA, have informed the assessment of the extent and...

Forage fishes are a critical food web link in marine ecosystems, aggregating in a hierarchical patch structure over multiple spatial and temporal scales. Surface-level forage fish aggregations (FFAs) represent a concentrated source of prey available to surface- and shallow-foraging marine predators. Existing survey and analysis methods are often im...

Resource availability is a key factor driving marine bird movements and distributions, but direct information on prey availability is difficult to obtain at relevant scales. We present novel methods for describing multi-scale trophic associations, combining movement analyses of marine birds with estimates of forage fish surface aggregations from di...

As the world develops sources of renewable energy, there is an intensifying interest in offshore wind energy production. The Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf (NES) ecosystem has favorable wind dynamics, with active development of wind energy. In this study, we present species distribution models that consider both occupancy and biomass responses fo...

Conservation planning for large ecosystems has multiple benefits but is often challenging to implement because of the multiple jurisdictions, species, and habitats involved. In addition, decision making at large spatial scales can be hampered because many approaches do not explicitly incorporate potentially competing values and concerns of stakehol...

The Arctic Warbler (Phylloscopus borealis) is a cryptically plumed songbird with an uncommon Nearctic–Paleotropical migratory strategy. Using light‐level geolocators, we provide the first documentation of the migratory routes and wintering locations of two territorial adult male Arctic Warblers from Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska. After...

Mercury contamination is a major threat to the global environment, and is still increasing in some regions despite international regulations. The methylated form of mercury is hazardous to biota, yet its sublethal effects are difficult to detect in wildlife. Body condition can vary in response to stressors, but previous studies have shown mixed eff...

Curtailment of turbine operations during low wind conditions has become an operational minimization tactic to reduce bat mortality at terrestrial wind energy facilities. Site-specific studies have demonstrated that bat activity is higher during lower wind speeds and that operational curtailment can effectively reduce fatalities. However, the exact...

Blanket curtailment of turbine operations during low wind conditions has become an accepted operational minimization tactic to reduce bat mortality at terrestrial wind facilities. Site-specific studies have demonstrated that operational curtailment effectively reduces impacts, but the exact nature of the relationship between increased cut-in speed...

The recognized gap between research and implementation in avian conservation can be overcome with translational ecology, an intentional approach in which science producers and users from multiple disciplines work collaboratively to co-develop and deliver ecological research that addresses management and conservation issues. Avian conservation natur...

The recognized gap between research and implementation in avian conservation can be overcome with translational ecology, an intentional approach in which science producers and users from multiple disciplines work collaboratively to co-develop and deliver ecological research that addresses management and conservation issues. Avian conservation natur...

States in the Northeast United States have the ambitious goal of producing more than 22 GW of offshore wind energy in the coming decades. The infrastructure associated with offshore wind energy development is expected to modify marine habitats and potentially alter the ecosystem services. Species distribution models were constructed for a group of...

Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant that affects songbird populations across a variety of ecosystems following conversion to methylmercury (MeHg)-a form of Hg with high potential for bioaccumulation and bioavailability. The amount of bioavailable MeHg in an ecosystem is a function of the amount of total Hg present as well as Hg methylation rates, wh...

Mercury (Hg) is a potent neurotoxin that biomagnifies within both aquatic and terrestrial food webs resulting in adverse physiological and reproductive effects on impacted wildlife populations, including songbird communities. Due to reducing conditions, wetland ecosystems promote the formation of methylmercury. Regional studies have documented elev...

Mercury (Hg) is a potent neurotoxin that biomagnifies within food webs. Adverse effects have been documented for avian species related to exposure of elevated Hg levels. High elevation, boreal forests generally receive higher atmospheric Hg deposition and regional studies have subsequently identified elevated blood Hg concentrations in songbird spe...

Mercury (Hg) pollution is an environmental problem that adversely affects human and ecosystem health at local, regional, and global scales-including within New York State. More than two-thirds of the Hg currently released to the environment originates, either directly or indirectly, from human activities. Since the early 1800s, global atmospheric H...

While large-scale oil spills can cause acute mortality events in birds, there is increasing evidence that sublethal oil exposure can trigger physiological changes that have implications for individual performance and survival. Therefore, improved methods for identifying small amounts of oil on birds are needed. Because ultraviolet (UV) light can be...

Methylmercury (MeHg) is a global environmental contaminant that poses significant risks to the health of humans, wildlife, and ecosystems. Assessing MeHg exposure in biota across the landscape and over time is vital for monitoring MeHg pollution and gauging the effectiveness of regulations intended to reduce new mercury (Hg) releases. We used MeHg...

Passerines appear to have a greater sensitivity to mercury than other avian orders, and little data exists for mercury exposure in songbirds breeding at high latitudes. In this preliminary study, we examined mercury exposure in 12 migratory songbird species breeding in Denali National Park & Preserve, in subarctic interior Alaska. Overall, we analy...

Here we report on the results of a long-term study of mercury exposure in a songbird species, the saltmarsh sparrow (Ammodramus caudacutus). We measured total mercury concentrations in blood (n = 840) and feathers (n = 560) of adult saltmarsh sparrows at six locations between 2000 and 2017: Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge (RCNWR) in Wells, M...

Many migratory songbirds are at high risk of methylmercury (MeHg) exposure due to their trophic position and foraging in and around wetland habitats. Methylmercury has the potential to alter migratory behaviors and physiology via neurological impairment or reduced flight performance and can be remobilized from songbird muscle tissue during migratio...

The Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Trustees for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill assessed the external oiling of migratory bird species dependent on open water in the Gulf of Mexico following the aforementioned spill. The assessment was designed to evaluate birds that use open water during the winter within 40 km of the Gulf shor...

Guidelines for monitoring seabirds at sea and at breeding sites

Recommendations for study design, data gathering, data use, and data sharing that promote collaboration and learning about birds in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Timber harvest has many effects on aquatic ecosystems, including changes in hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological processes that can influence mercury (Hg) cycling. Although timber harvest's influence on aqueous Hg transformation and transport are well studied, the effects on Hg bioaccumulation are not. We evaluated Hg bioaccumulation, bioma...

Hotspot analysis is a commonly used method in ecology and conservation to identify areas of high biodiversity or conservation concern. However, delineating and mapping hotspots is subjective and various approaches can lead to different conclusions with regard to the classification of particular areas as hotspots, complicating long‐term conservation...

Mercury is a potent contaminant that can disrupt an organism's behavior and physiology, ultimately affecting reproductive success. Over the last 100 years, environmental deposition of anthropogenic sourced mercury has increased globally, particularly in the U.S. Northeast region. Marine birds are considered effective bioindicators of ecosystem heal...

Avian mortality events are common following large-scale oil spills. However, the sublethal effects of oil on birds exposed to light external oiling are not clearly understood. We found that American oystercatchers (area of potential impact n = 42, reference n = 21), black skimmers (area of potential impact n = 121, reference n = 88), brown pelicans...

Mercury (Hg) stable isotope analysis is an emerging technique that has contributed to a better understanding of many aspects of the biogeochemical cycling of Hg in the environment. However, no study has yet evaluated its usefulness in elucidating the sources of methylmercury (MeHg) to songbird species, a common organism for biomonitoring of Hg in f...

We captured 93 wintering adult and subadult Common Loons (Gavia immer) in coastal Louisiana from 2011 to 2015 following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. We tested blood samples for exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and measured physiological variables including hematocrit, hemoglobin and total blood protein. PAH concentrations in...

In many avian species, breeding site fidelity has been more thoroughly investigated than winter site fidelity, yet the latter may have a greater impact on survivorship. The Common Loon (Gavia immer) is an example of a species whose breeding site fidelity has been well established, but whether it exhibits winter site fidelity remains unknown. Becaus...

Climate change can alter the timing of biological events differently across members of an ecosystem, changing the nature of ecological interactions and the efficacy of evolutionary strategies. Mismatches in phenology have been reported between breeding songbirds and their food resources in north temperate ecosystems, especially for long-distance mi...

Mercury (Hg) is a globally distributed environmental contaminant with a variety of deleterious effects in fish, wildlife, and humans. Breeding songbirds may be useful sentinels for Hg across diverse habitats because they can be effectively sampled, have well-defined and small territories, and can integrate pollutant exposure over time and space. We...

Across the world, researchers use migration banding stations to document bird migration and study the phenomenon. In this dissertation, I focus on ways of analyzing bird migration banding data and the utility migrating birds as indicators of ecosystem health that make these monitoring efforts more useful to answering ecological questions and managi...

This study examines mercury exposure in bats across the northeast U.S. from 2005 to 2009. We collected 1,481 fur and 681 blood samples from 8 states and analyzed them for total Hg. A subset (n = 20) are also analyzed for methylmercury (MeHg). Ten species of bats from the northeast U.S. are represented in this study of which two are protected by the...

Methylmercury (MeHg) is a globally distributed neurotoxin, endocrine disruptor, and teratogen, and its effects on birds are poorly understood, especially within an environmentally relevant exposure range. In an effort to understand the potential causal relationship between MeHg exposure and endocrine development, we established four dietary exposur...

During a time of food stress, we observed sex-biased mortality during the nestling stage in a sexually size dimorphic species of wading bird, the White Ibis (Eudocimus albus). Over four days spread out over a week, we captured a total of 180 25–32 d old White Ibis nestlings from a colony of several thousand breeding pairs. On sequential capture dat...

Methylmercury is a globally distributed neurotoxin, endocrine disruptor, and teratogen, the effects of which on wildlife at environmentally relevant levels are largely unknown. In birds, foraging efficiency and learning may be sensitive endpoints for sublethal methylmercury toxicity, and these endpoints also may be biologically relevant at the popu...

The structural and electronic properties of Gd ₂( Ti _1-y Zr _y)₂ O ₇ (y=0–1) pyrochlores following a 2.0- MeV Au ²⁺ ion-beam irradiation (∼5.0×10¹⁴ Au ²⁺/ cm ²) have been investigated by Ti 2p and O 1s near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS)...

Disorder in Gd2(Ti(1-y)Zry)2O7 pyrochlores, for y = 0.0-1.0, is investigated by Ti 2p and O 1s near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. Ti(4+) ions are found to occupy octahedral sites in Gd2Ti2O7 with a tetragonal distortion induced by vacant oxygen sites. As Zr substitutes for Ti, the tetragonal distortion decreases, and Zr coordin...

Disorder in Gd 2 Ti 2 O 7 is investigated by near-edge x-ray-absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). NEXAFS shows Ti 4+ ions occupy octahedral sites with a tetragonal distor-tion induced by vacant oxygen sites. O 1s XPS spectra obtained with a charge neutralization system from Gd 2 Ti 2 O 7 100 and the Gd 2 Ti...

Silicon carbide has been proposed as a coating material in nuclear fuel, and silicon carbide composites have been proposed as cladding material in advanced gas-cooled and light water reactors. As such, the effects of irradiation and fission gases on the performance of SiC in the reactor environment are critical in several ways. Since He serves as a...

We describe a new capability that consists of a combination of proton induced X-ray emission (PIXE), proton elastic scattering analysis (PESA) and transmission ion microscopy (all performed at the same location on the sample) techniques to address some of the research needs associated with time series and size-dependent composition of atmospheric a...

The stability of epitaxially grown single crystal SrTiO3(001) thin films on Si(100) substrates was studied as a function of temperature under vacuum and oxygen-rich environments using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in channeling geometry, nuclear reaction analysis, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. During vacuum annealing, it was found...

As part of understanding the processes leading to sodium release and ion exchange, the surface and near surface reaction regions on several specimens of a Na2O–Al2O3–SiO2 glass have been examined after exposures to isotopically labeled aqueous solutions. The majority of the analyses described here have been carried out using energetic ion beam anal...

A series of dissolution experiments using isotopic labeled (D2 18O) aqueous solution were carried out to investigate the ion exchange mechanism in Na2O-Al2O3-SiO2 glasses with fixed Na2O and variable Al2O3 concentrations. The sodium removal and the deuterium and oxygen uptake in the glass coupons were measured using ion beam methods such as Rutherf...

We have investigated the disordering at the buried interface of alpha-Fe2O3(0001)/alpha-Al2O3(0001) interface using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and channeling techniques. Although expitaxially-grown alpha-Fe2O3(0001)/alpha-Al2O3(0001) thin films exhibit about 1.5-2.5% of minimum yield, disordering at the interface is visible due to...

Synthesis of model oxides as thin films on various oxide and metal substrates to obtain high quality surfaces is a growing interest in the scientific community. High quality surfaces are important for the investigation of physical and chemical properties of these film surfaces. In most cases the single crystal oxides purchased form the commercial v...