Jonathon J. Valente

United States Geological Survey | USGS · Alabama Cooperative Fish And Wildlife Research Unit

Aim The hypothesis that habitat fragmentation negatively influences biodiversity stems from island biogeography and metapopulation theory which predict negative impacts of decreasing patch size on richness and distribution patterns. Empirical support of this idea is weak in terrestrial systems, though tests of fragmentation effects are typically c...

Conspecific presence can indicate the location or quality of resources, and animals settling near conspecifics often gain fitness benefits. This can result in adaptive conspecific attraction during breeding habitat selection as demonstrated in numerous terrestrial, territorial birds. There is growing interest in using simulated conspecific social c...

Understanding how habitat fragmentation affects individual species is complicated by challenges associated with quantifying species‐specific habitat and spatial variability in fragmentation effects within a species’ range. We aggregated a 29‐year breeding survey data set for the endangered marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) from >42,000 fo...

Protecting biodiversity while sustaining agricultural production is one of our greatest modern challenges. The dominant conservation paradigm in tropical coffee-growing regions involves land-sharing, wherein wildlife-friendly shade trees are integrated into plantations. Meanwhile, the value of land-sparing approaches that combine intensified farmin...

Presence-absence surveys are frequently used to monitor populations of rare and elusive species. Such data may also be used as a proxy for breeding activity, but links between presence-absence data and higher-order processes must be validated to determine their reliability. The Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) is a threatened seabird tha...

Occupancy models estimate distributions of imperfectly detected species, but violations of the closure assumption can bias results. However, researchers working with mobile animals may find it impossible to eliminate such violations. Here, we tested the hypothesis that occupancy models fit to realistic sampling data can generate unbiased occupancy...

Advances in hierarchical modeling have improved estimation of ecological parameters from count data, especially those quantifying population abundance, distribution, and dynamics by explicitly accounting for observation processes, particularly incomplete detection. Even hierarchical models that account for incomplete detection, however, cannot comp...

Large‐scale disturbances such as wildfire can have profound impacts on the composition, structure, and functioning of ecosystems. Bees are critical pollinators in natural settings and often respond positively to wildfires, particularly in forests where wildfire leads to more open conditions and increased floral resources. The use of Light Detection...

The factors favoring the evolution of certain cognitive abilities in animals remain unclear. Social learning is a cognitive ability that reduces the cost of acquiring personal information and forms the foundation for cultural behavior. Theory predicts the evolutionary pressures to evolve social learning should be greater in more social species. How...

Habitat selection decisions can impact individual fitness and ultimately scale up to mediate population dynamics. Understanding how birds select habitat is thus critical for discerning the biological processes structuring populations and for developing conservation strategies, particularly for species in decline. Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus mar...

Research hypotheses have been a cornerstone of science since before Galileo. Many have argued that hypotheses (1) encourage discovery of mechanisms, and (2) reduce bias-both features that should increase transferability and reproducibility. However, we are entering a new era of big data and highly predictive models where some argue the hypothesis i...

Individuals that disperse long distances from their natal site must select breeding patches with no prior knowledge of patch suitability. Despite decades of theoretical studies examining which cues dispersing individuals should use to select breeding patches, few empirical studies have tested the predictions of these theories at spatial scales rele...

Research hypotheses have been a cornerstone of science since before Galileo. Many have argued that hypotheses (1) encourage discovery of mechanisms, and (2) reduce bias – both features that should increase transferability and reproducibility. However, we are entering a new era of big data and highly predictive models where some argue the hypothesis...

Vulnerability to habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation caused by human activities has consequences for the distribution and movement of organisms. Betts et al. present a global analysis of how exposure to habitat fragmentation affects the composition of ecological communities (see the Perspective by Hargreaves). In a dataset consisting of 448...

Invasive species can have disastrous ecological consequences, and management is often required to control these invasions and mitigate the damage. Yet in many systems, biological invaders can serve critical ecological roles, particularly where they have been long-established or effectively replaced functionally similar native species. In such cases...

Context Theory predicts that movement limitation due to landscape fragmentation can reduce population viability. Understanding how landscape heterogeneity influences movement is thus critical for testing theory and developing conservation strategies. Consequently, studies are needed that link movement data with landscape features influencing disper...

1. Dynamic occupancy models are popular for estimating dynamic distribution rates (colonization and extinction) from repeated presence/absence surveys of unmarked animals. This approach assumes closure among repeated samples within primary periods, allowing estimation of dynamic rates between these periods. However, the impact of temporary emigrati...

 Tropical biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions have become heavily eroded through habitat loss. Animal-mediated pollination is required in more than 94% of higher tropical plant species and 75% of the world’s leading food crops, but it remains unclear if corridors avert deforestation-driven pollination breakdown in fragmented tropical l...

1.Occupancy models are employed in species distribution modeling to account for imperfect detection during field surveys. While this approach is popular in the literature, problems can occur when estimating the model parameters. In particular, the maximum likelihood estimates can exhibit bias and large variance for datasets with small sample sizes,...

Riparian systems in the western United States provide essential stopover habitat to en-route migrant birds, and there is concern that the invasion and dominance of saltcedar (Tamarix) in many areas may inhibit use by some species. However, evidence from recent studies is challenging the widely held belief that invasive plants universally reduce hab...

Automated sound broadcast systems have been used to address a variety of ecological questions, and show great potential as a management tool. Such systems need to be reliable because treatments are often applied in the absence of a human observer and system failure can cause methodological ambiguity. During the breeding seasons of 2012 and 2013, we...

Riparian systems in the western United States provide important habitat for bird communities during all times of the year. In recent decades, invasive plants, such as Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia), have achieved broad distribution and local dominance in many western riparian areas, raising concerns over the loss of ecological function with...

The TernCOLONY simulation model is an individual-based model of Least Tern reproduction that was developed to better understand how reservoir operations (and other management activities) affect Least Tern breeding populations on large rivers. This document provides practical guidance for those wishing to implement this model in a new region. Specif...

Many secretive marsh bird (SMB) species nest within rice fields, yet in most regions we do not understand the extent to which these birds use such habitats. In the summers of 2007 and 2008, we investigated summer use of rice fields by SMBs in north- east Louisiana and evaluated the local (within 100 m) and landscape (within 1 km) habitat characteri...

For decades, researchers have successfully used ground-based surveys to understand localized spatial and temporal patterns in stopover habitat use by migratory birds. Recent technological advances with WSR-88D radar now allow such investigations on much broader spatial scales. Both methods are assumed to accurately quantify patterns in migrant bird...

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The purpose of this technical note is to summarize published research and describe the state of the science on activities that cause disturbances to birds found proximal to Corps of Engineers (Corps) projects, factors that influence bird response to disturbance, the ramifications of disturbances on individual birds and communities, and appropriate...

Populations of many North American secretive marsh birds (SMBs) have declined in recent decades, partially as a function of wetland loss. Protecting and restoring appropriate habitat for these species is contingent upon understanding the habitat features they utilize. We investigated breeding distributions of SMBs in northeast Louisiana at 118 wetl...

Periodical cicadas emerge from below ground every 13 or 17 years in North American forests, with individual broods representing the synchronous movement of trillions of individuals across geographic regions. Due to predator satiation, most individuals escape predation, die, and become deposited as detritus. Some of this emergent biomass falls into...

Periodical cicadas emerge from below ground every 13 or 17 years in North American forests, with individual broods representing the synchronous movement of trillions of individuals across geographic regions. Due to predator satiation, most individuals escape predation, die, and become deposited as detritus. Some of this emergent biomass falls into...