Kyle Barrett

Clemson University | CU · Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation

Following decades of fire exclusion, managers are increasingly implementing prescribed fire in southern Appalachian forests. To date, the use of prescribed fire in the region has often been focused on reducing hazardous fuel loads and has typically occurred in the dormant season. Understanding the effects of burning in different periods of plant gr...

Rapid global change has increased interest in developing ways to identify suitable refugia for species of conservation concern. Correlative and mechanistic species distribution models (SDMs) represent two approaches to generate spatially‐explicit estimates of climate vulnerability. Correlative SDMs generate distributions using statistical associati...

Background Decades of fire exclusion in the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA, has led to changing forest structure and species composition over time. Forest managers and scientists recognize this and are implementing silvicultural treatments to restore forest communities. In this study, conducted at the southern Appalachian Fire and Fire Surroga...

Owls can be difficult to detect due to their secretive behavior, typically low calling rate, and low density on the landscape. Low detection probability during surveys can result in an underestimation of the presence and abundance of a species. Thus, optimizing detection probability of surveys targeting owls is necessary to accurately address ecolo...

Despite extensive accounts in the literature describing Barred Owls (Strix varia) as obligate forest-interior species, Barred Owls have increasingly been observed in urbanized landscapes. To determine if certain habitat characteristics, such as mature urban trees, facilitate the occurrence of Barred Owls in developed regions, we deployed GPS transm...

Identifying the factors that determine the spatial distribution of biodiversity is a major focus of ecological research. These factors vary with scale from interspecific interactions to global climatic cycles. Wetlands are important biodiversity hotspots and contributors of ecosystem services, but the association between proportional wetland cover...

As urbanization continues to transform landscapes, it is imperative to find ways to conserve biodiversity within fragmented habitats. Forest interior dwelling birds are particularly vulnerable to development pressures because they require large tracts of forest to support their life cycles. Although Barred Owls (Strix varia) are frequently describe...

Conservation of rare and endangered species requires assessment of factors that influence the current habitat associations of a species and the role of past habitat degradation in limiting occupancy or abundance. The objective of our 2011–2014 study was to determine how habitat characteristics and wetland history can predict occupancy and abundance...

Decades of fire exclusion in the Southern Appalachian Mountains led to fuel accumulation and conversion from open oak-pine woodlands to closed-canopy mesic forests dominated by shade-tolerant hardwoods and shrubs that often do not support a diverse understory. Southern Appalachian forest managers and scientists recognize this and are implementing s...

Green Salamanders, Aneides aeneus, are habitat specialists found in narrow crevices of rock outcrops and under flaky bark of trees. The species has a high conservation priority throughout its range and has been negatively affected by habitat loss, climate change, disease, and overcollection. In portions of the Blue Ridge Escarpment population, many...

The southern Appalachian Mountains have experienced rapid human population growth rates since the 1980s. Land used practices are shifting from rural to residential. The majority of development has been low density, and is often near biologically diverse areas such as National Forests and National Parks. The long-term effects of urbanization in the...

Recent work has suggested that conservation efforts such as restoration ecology and invasive species eradication are largely value-driven pursuits. Concurrently, changes to global climate are forcing ecologists to consider if and how collections of species will migrate, and whether or not we should be assisting such movements. Herein, we propose a...

The southern Appalachian Mountains have experienced large population growth and a change in land use in the past 30 years. The majority of development has been low density, suburban land, known as exurban development. The long-term effects of exurbanization on riparian vegetative communities in the southeastern Appalachian Mountains are not well kn...

Although many non-native species negatively influence amphibian populations, non-native aquatic vegetation has been documented to have positive, negative, and neutral effects on anuran larvae. To evaluate the response of anurans to non-native plants, we exposed two frog species, Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor-chrysoscelis) and Southern Leopard Frog...

Foraging theory suggests organisms increase their fitness through dietary and energetic choices. In nature, organisms choose to consume balanced optimal diets but as exotic plants invade ecosystems, new foraging options become available. Often these plants have different traits and can negatively affect fitness of foragers by lowering survival or g...

Species distribution models have been applied across a wide range of spatial scales to generate information for conservation planning. Understanding how well models transfer through space and time is important to promote effective species–habitat conservation. Here, we assess model transferability in coastal tidal marshes of the southeastern United...

Single-site experiments have demonstrated detritus quality in wetlands can have strongly negative, neutral, and even positive influences on wildlife. However, an examination of the influence of detritus quality across several regions is lacking and can provide information on whether impacts from variation in detritus quality are consistent across s...

Raw fitness and stoichiometric data. Raw values of number of metamorphing individuals, mean number of days in each tank, mean body mass (mg), total %N and %P, mean biomass per tank (g) and mean standing crop of N and P (g) for tadpoles across all treatments at Clemson University and Lindenwood University. Values of total %P, %N, C:N and N:P of homo...

Urban development is known to alter the structure, chemistry, and biota associated with stream systems; however, little is known about the dynamics of anurans that breed in and around streams. We used automated devices to record breeding anurans for one year across a forested gradient in an effort to identify species-specific sensitivities to urban...

Although the southeastern United States has >12 million ha of intensively managed pine forest, we have a poor understanding of how aquatic systems embedded in managed landscapes contribute to biodiversity. Further, the influence of local- and landscape-scale environmental factors on occupancy of aquatic habitat types by wetland-breeding species in...

Because rare and cryptic species can be difficult to locate, distribution maps for such species are often inaccurate or incomplete. Bog Turtles (Glyptemys muhlenbergii) are emblematic of this challenge. Conducting surveys of known, historical, and potential Bog Turtle habitat is a specific need stated in the Bog Turtle Northern Population Recovery...

For amphibian species suspected of undergoing enigmatic declines, it is important to determine the effort required to confidently establish species absence. Desmognathus auriculatus (Southern Dusky Salamander) has purportedly gone from being quite common throughout the southeastern US Coastal Plain to now being enigmatically rare. We used repeated...

Global wetland degradation and loss are occurring at a rapid rate, and in the United States over 50 % of wetlands in the lower 48 states have been altered since European settlement. In some cases, wetlands that were historically transformed for agriculture are now managed as wetland habitat. We conducted occupancy surveys for black rails (Laterallu...

Species distribution models have been applied across a wide range of spatial scales to generate information for conservation planning. However, the generality of these models has rarely been tested. Understanding how well models transfer through space and time is important to promote effective species-habitat conservation. When transferability of m...

Sea level rise (SLR) may degrade habitat for coastal vertebrates in the Southeastern United States, but it is unclear which groups or species will be most exposed to habitat changes. We assessed 28 coastal Georgia vertebrate species for their exposure to potential habitat changes due to SLR using output from the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model an...

Given limited resources and current mechanisms for conservation of rare and imperiled species, a common practice is to prioritize species that are in need of conservation attention. Agencies and individuals responsible for the conservation of species within given boundaries may deprioritize the conservation of species that are rare within those bou...

Global climate change represents one of the most extensive and pervasive threats to wildlife populations. Amphibians, specifically salamanders, are particularly susceptible to the effects of changing climates due to their restrictive physiological requirements and low vagility; however, little is known about which landscapes and species are vulnera...

Climate change is driving shifts in the distribution of plants and animals, and prioritizing management actions for such shifts is a necessary but technically difficult challenge. We worked with state agencies in the southeastern United States to identify high priority amphibian species, to model the vulnerabilities of those species to regional cli...

Urban areas are increasing in size and human population density. The implications of widespread urbanization are apparent for a wide variety of stream organisms, but the responses of stream-dwelling salamanders to urbanization have been understudied historically. Studies on this assemblage have increased sufficiently over the last decade to warrant...

Background/Question/Methods Increases in storm severity coupled with rising seas and coastal development present major threats for southeastern coastal marsh bird species. Habitat alterations associated with these stressors can leave fragmented and isolated patches of habitat, potentially having adverse effects on species distribution, abundance,...

Urban green spaces are potentially important to biodiversity conservation because they could provide patches of high quality habitat or connectivity to nearby habitat. Presence-only species distribution models (SDMs) represent a potential tool for assessing the biodiversity value of urban green space; however, there is limited research to validate...

Background/Question/Methods Climate change is shifting or is expected to shift the distribution and abundances of a variety of taxa. Amphibians, in particular, are likely to respond to altered temperature and precipitation patterns since it has been well-established that these environmental variables shape the current distributions of the group....

Streams are heavily affected by watershed urbanization as increased stormwater runoff changes their physical and chemical composition. Benthic macroinvertebrate species richness has been consistently shown to decline with urbanization. Conversely, biomass of macroinvertebrates can increase with urban development. We examined the effect of such shif...

Sexual differences in morphological traits are widespread among animals. Theory predicts that dimorphism in secondary sexual characters evolves as a consequence of sexual selection. We investigated the intersexual difference in mass of forelimb muscles of the Andrew's toad, Bufo andrewsi, an elongated species inhabiting montane regions in western C...

Background/Question/Methods Identifying potential ramifications of global climate change on organisms presents a significant challenge to ecologists, conservationists, and natural resource managers. Because it is not feasible to address the response of entire assemblages of organisms to large-scale changes in climate with experimentation, modeling...

Background/Question/Methods Species distribution models are increasingly being used in ecology. Such uses include predicting suitable habitat for species, identifying areas of conservation importance, predicting the advances of invasive species and response of species to global climate change. However, there is limited research in validating spec...

a b s t r a c t Sufficient data have been collected to document negative effects of urbanization on many abiotic param-eters, aquatic insects, and fish. Recently, stream-breeding salamanders have been observed to decrease in density in urban areas. We employed a two-step process to determine the mechanism(s) most likely responsible for salamander d...

Background/Question/Methods Over one-half of the world’s population now resides in urban areas, and the proportion in the U.S. is even higher. Urban development is known to negatively affect a wide range of taxa, and for some groups, the pattern of response to development is more predictable than others. For example, stream ecologists have develope...

1. Urban development results in the decline of amphibian density and species richness. A logical next step towards understanding why urbanisation negatively impacts amphibians is to track species-specific demographic responses to urbanisation. 2. We monitored growth of two-lined salamander (Eurycea cirrigera Green) larvae over two complete cohorts...

We evaluated the effect of a potentially stressful urban aquatic environment on growth and development of Fowler's Toad (Bufo fowleri) larvae. We reared larvae to metamorphosis in water from urban and forested streams in a laboratory setting. We found no evidence of oral disc anomalies associated with urban environments, but we did find that tadpol...

Background/Question/Methods As urbanization increases across the globe, more ecologists have taken note of its consequences to stream systems. Sufficient data have been collected to document repeated patterns in urbanized streams for many abiotic parameters, aquatic insects, and fish. For example, we now know that urbanized streams experience more...

Background/Question/Methods As urbanization increases across the globe, more ecologists have taken note of its consequences to stream systems. Sufficient data have been collected to document repeated patterns in urbanized streams for many abiotic parameters, aquatic insects, and fish. For example, we now know that urbanized streams experience more...

Urban and agricultural land uses have caused documented declines in diversity of many organisms. However, responses of stream-and riparian-dwelling amphibians and reptiles to anthropogenic land development are collectively understudied and, when studied, are often grouped together as though these two taxa respond in a similar fashion. We surveyed w...

Urban areas are expanding globally, and the impact of high human population density (HHPD) on bird species richness remains unresolved. Studies primarily focus on species richness along an urban-to-rural gradient; however, some studies have analyzed larger-scale patterns and found results that contrast with those obtained at smaller scales. To move...

Marine subsidies alter the diet and abundance of insular and coastal lizard populations. Á/ Oikos 109: 145 Á/153. We evaluated the impact of marine materials on the diet and abundance of arthropodivorous lizards inhabiting islands and the coast of the Gulf of California. Here, marine materials are brought onto land by seabirds and by tidal action,...

Aim We used insular lizard communities to test the predictions of two hypotheses that attempt to explain patterns of species richness on small islands. We first address the subsidized island biogeography (SIB) hypothesis, which predicts that spatial subsidies may cause insular species richness to deviate from species–area predictions, especially on...

2005. Marine subsidies alter the diet and abundance of insular and coastal lizard populations. Á/ Oikos 109: 145 Á/153. We evaluated the impact of marine materials on the diet and abundance of arthropodivorous lizards inhabiting islands and the coast of the Gulf of California. Here, marine materials are brought onto land by seabirds and by tidal ac...

"July 2002." Thesis (M.S.)--Southwest Missouri State University, 2002. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-63).