About
52
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Introduction
My research lab aims to understand the drivers and consequences of body size change to improve sustainability for large ruminants (bison, cattle, etc.) on working and public lands in a changing world. We study bison (Bison bison) body size change using integrated methods of vertebrate paleontology, thermal biology (thermography), and ecology to inform management and to connect people with nature. Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=fAt4ZhcAAAAJ.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
October 2020 - January 2023
September 2020 - August 2021
July 2016 - August 2020
Education
August 2016 - August 2020
August 2012 - May 2014
August 2011 - May 2012
Publications
Publications (52)
The relationship between body size and temperature of mammals is poorly resolved, especially for large keystone species such as bison (Bison bison). Bison are well represented in the fossil record across North America, which provides an opportunity to relate body size to climate within a species. We measured the length of a leg bone (calcaneal tube...
Fossils of Bison (bison) are scarce on the Colorado Plateau, especially in and around the Greater
Grand Canyon Region. Because of poor preservation and collection biases in the region, various resource
managers have erroneously designated bison a nonnative and human-(re)introduced species. This decision
directly impacts an extant herd of approximat...
Bison production and bison operations are increasing across the United States. Consumer demand, economic viability, conservation efforts, and support from organizations and agencies are helping to grow the industry.
This technical note is designed to assist NRCS planners and partners collaborating with bison producers. It introduces key terminolo...
Simple Summary
Unseasonably early blizzards in the northern Great Plains of the U.S. threaten large mammal populations unacclimated for winter conditions. This region averaged 22 blizzards per winter season during the 2010s and is anticipated to have 32 by the 2050s. Generally, expected weather-related deaths remain one of the highest non-predatory...
Following the near extinction of bison (Bison bison) from its historic range across North America in the late 19th century, novel bison conservation efforts in the early 20th century catalyzed a popular widespread conservation movement to protect and restore bison among other species and places. Since Allen's initial delineation (1876) of the histo...
Fences serve multiple purposes, including livestock management, agriculture, property delineation, and con- servation. However, fences often act as ecological barriers, limiting wildlife movement and access to resources, particularly for species like bison (Bison bison) in North America. Despite the substantial impacts of fencing, large-scale datas...
In high numbers, trichostrongyle nematodes decrease productivity and cause health problems in ruminants including North American bison (Bison bison). Treatment strategies used to limit their impact in cattle are also being used by bison producers, including free-choice group-treatments either as the sole option or in combination with chute treatmen...
For more than a decade, Mycoplasma bovis — a bacteria without a cell wall that causes fatal respiratory disease — has posed the most significant health threat to bison (Bison bison) herds across North America. We provide updates on the multiple facets that the M. bovis Task Force at the Center of Excellence for Bison Studies has been addressing thi...
Background
Parasitic gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infections in North American plains bison, predominated by trichostrongyles of Clade V, are a major cause of health and production losses, even death. The diversity and distribution of trichostrongyles in bison in the USA remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to assess the diversit...
Today’s livestock producers face increasing public scrutiny because animal agriculture is often cited as a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, this negative perception does not take into account the carbon (C) sequestration benefits of grazing livestock nor that grazing lands account for 25% of the global soil sequestratio...
In ecology and biology, body mass is a useful measure to predict dietary requirements, metabolic energy budgets, among other biological functions (Martin et al., 2018). Much of my research is focused on body size reconstructions and the consequences of body size change in response to global climate change. In a warming world, smaller body sizes wil...
Welcome to this reading list on buffalo, also known as bison. The list gathers together literature focused on buffalo to support ongoing efforts to restore this iconic species to its keystone cultural and ecological role. Once the thundering heartbeat of Turtle Island or the North American continent, buffalo were nearly exterminated by the end of t...
Lay summary of mortality rates of beef cattle, sheep, horses, and bison during the October 2013 Atlas Blizzard that affected South Dakota. The original research article is entitled: "Facing into the Blizzard: Resiliency and Mortality of Native and Domestic North American Ungulates to Extreme Weather Events" in Diversity.
Ecosystem function relies in part on aligned relationships between functional traits of animals and the environments in which they live. Studies of trait-environment relationships have largely focused on communities of native species, but domestic and non-native species also play a role in the functioning of modern ecosystems. We use ecometrics, or...
Summary article for bison managers of "Integrated evidence-based extent of occurrence or North American bison since 1500 CE and before".
Several quantitative diagnostic techniques are available to estimate gastrointestinal parasite counts in the feces of ruminants. Comparing egg and oocyst magnitudes in naturally infected samples has been a recommended approach to rank fecal techniques. In this study, we compared the Mini-FLOTAC (sensitivity of 5 eggs per gram (EPG)/oocysts per gram...
Most of us are familiar with the childhood story of Goldilocks and the three bears, where the little girl tries to find the bed that wasn't too hard, nor too soft, but “just right.” This concept can be applied to many facets of life and business. For livestock, discussions and evaluation of body size, carcass weight, and dressing percentage come up...
Bison (Bison bison) restoration has profound implications for ecological, economic and cultural domains, especially restoration into their former historic ranges. Climate change and climate variability, however, threaten sustainable restoration progress. The historic range of bison centered on the prairies of the Great Plains but spanned from Alask...
Currently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) considers bison (Bison bison) a non-amenable, “exotic” species. This designation has been applied because bison were first considered a native wildlife game species under states’ laws (i.e. public trust doctrine circa 1700s) and most wildlife laws pre-date agricultural laws (see Geer vs. Connecti...
We reassess the historic maximum extent of where bison once naturally roamed during or near the arrival of colonial explorers to this continent. In a first demonstration of a multidisciplinary meta-analysis for a species’ extent of occurrence, we combined evidence from paleontology (fossils), archaeology (Indigenous and cultural use associated with...
We evaluated 200 carcasses and meat samples produced from two common bison finishing systems to characterize the influence of diet on key product attributes and to gain insight into consumer preferences for bison meat. Collectively these data indicate that finishing system impacts composition of bison carcasses, nutrient profile of bison meat, and...
Future climate projections of warming, drying, and increased weather variability indicate that conventional agricultural and production practices within the Northern Great Plains (NGP) will become less sustainable, both ecologically and economically. As a result, the livelihoods of people that rely on these lands will be adversely impacted. This is...
We have prepared a standardized format of the USDA Agricultural Census Data of bison that are available by county and by State.
Data available here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/6cc9ee1b777447128d811238babfe1ed
North American bison (Bison bison) are an attractive, high-value livestock species that is growing in number and popularity across the United States. While bison ranching has some similarities with cattle ranching, there are significant differences that must be accounted for to ensure long-term sustainability and profitability. Bison are a hardy sp...
The bison market has been a vital part of the sustained production and conservation of the species. The bison market has largely been dependent on slaughtered bison meat prices since the 1960s. The primary reporting service for bison market data is the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA AMS) office, providing monthl...
Peer writing groups serve an important role in providing a venue to improve written productivity, provide support, and brainstorm research ideas. Peer accountability assists with focusing attention on tasks at hand, which often receive less attention due to the demands on agent’s and researcher's time. Establishing dedicated meeting times to priori...
Bison Bison bison are a keystone of a conservation system, but that system is vulnerable to the effects of a changing climate projected to alter land use through the 21st century.
The current bison population of North America is approximately 400,000 animals and is maintained by a self‐assembled bison management system (BMS) of various stakeholders...
A paleontological deposit near San Clemente de Térapa represents one of the very few Rancholabrean North American Land Mammal Age sites within Sonora, Mexico. During that time, grasslands were common, and the climate included cooler and drier summers and wetter winters than currently experienced in northern Mexico. Here, we demonstrate restructurin...
The bison market has been a vital part of the sustained production and conservation of the species. This same market has been largely dependent on slaughtered bison meat prices since the 1960s. The primary reporting service for bison market data is the U.S. Department of Agriculture- Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA AMS) office, providing onlin...
We used an infrared thermal imaging camera to measure body surface temperature (ºC) and heat transfer (total surface Watts and Watts/m2) between bison and their environment across 19 herds from Saskatchewan, Canada to Texas, USA, in both the summer of 2017 and the winter of 2017–2018, a total driving trip of nearly 19,000 miles. We focused on femal...
Aim
Mammals on islands often undergo remarkable evolutionary changes. The acquisition of ‘low gear’ locomotion, namely short and robust limb elements, has been typically associated with the island syndrome in large mammals and, especially, ruminants. Here we provide an investigative framework to examine biotic and abiotic selective factors hypothes...
Body size of bison (Bison bison) declines with rising global temperature across the fossil record and rising annual temperatures across the Great Plains, but what are the underlying drivers? Body size depends on growth, which depends on maximizing net energy and nutrient flows for the production of tissues at seasonal scales across the range of the...
Body size of animals is plastic and dependent on environmental conditions that are changing globally. In this dissertation, I explore environmental traits as they relate to and drive body size change of North American bison (Bison bison) along the Great Plains. I examined 1) 40,000 years of body size change in the fossil record, 2) five decades of...
Large grazers are visible and valuable indicators of the effects of projected changes in temperature and drought on grasslands. The grasslands of the Great Plains have supported the greatest number of bison (Bison bison; Linnaeus, 1758) since prehistoric times. We tested the hypothesis that body mass (BM, kg) and asymptotic body mass (ABM, kg) of B...
This is a stakeholder synopsis of our peer-reviewed article, "Decadal heat and drought drive body size of North American bison (Bison bison) along the Great Plains" in Ecology and Evolution.
A layman's overview of conservation paleontology, written for bison managers and ranchers across North America.
A layman's overview of the recent article by Martin, Mead, and Barboza (2018) about fossil bison body size and its relationship to climatic change over the past 40,000 years in North America and its implications for bison management and conservation.
Fossils of Bison (bison) are scarce on the Colorado Plateau, especially in and around the Greater Grand Canyon Region. Because of poor preservation and collection biases in the region, various resource managers have erroneously designated bison a nonnative and human-(re)introduced species. This decision directly impacts an extant herd of approximat...
A layman's overview of the recently published discovery of the "Higgs Bison" in Eurasia and its implications on bison management and conservation.
Influence on the body size of Bison has been forced prehistorically by climate, and historically by anthropogenic selection for breeding. Specifically, bison body size appears to be diminishing due to increasing temperatures and/or abrupt climate change. High resolution relative temperature changes occur within centuries and decades in many cases,...
Bison spp. (bison) fossils are scarce on the Colorado Plateau, especially within and adjacent to the greater Grand Canyon region. Because of the poor fossil record for the bison on the Colorado Plateau and in Grand Canyon National Park, various resource managers have surreptitiously designated bison a non-native and human-introduced species to the...
Bison spp. (bison) fossils are scarce on the Colorado Plateau, especially within and adjacent to the greater Grand Canyon region. Because of the poor fossil record for the bison on the Colorado Plateau and in Grand Canyon National Park, various resource managers have surreptitiously designated bison a non-native and human-introduced species to the...
Bison spp. (bison) fossils are scarce on the Colorado Plateau, especially within the greater Grand
Canyon region. Because of the poor fossil record for bison on the plateau and in Grand Canyon
National Park, various resource managers have surreptitiously designated bison a nonnative and
human-introduced species. The lack of evidence for bison seems...
The Cucaracha Formation (early Miocene, 18.8 Ma (B. MacFadden, pers. comm., Oct. 2012) of the Panama Canal Basin preserves a rare record of terrestrial neotropical paleoenvironments and is important in understanding the history of biotic interchange between North and South America in the geologic past. We describe a new assemblage of freshwater mol...
LaGarry, H. E., M. B. Leite, W. B. Wells, J. Martin, & A. Malchow. 2008. Dirty Creek trackways: a new vertebrate trackway site from the Oglala National Grassland in northwestern Nebraska. Proceedings of the 118th Annual Meeting of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, p. 65.
Based on 1991-2006 detailed 1:24,000 geologic mapping and pedestrian surveys...
