Lucas W. DeGroote

Carnegie Museum Of Natural History · Powdermill Avian Research Center

Blood parasites can negatively affect energetic condition, arrival date, and reproductive performance of breeding birds, yet their impact on migrating birds is poorly understood. We quantified haematozoan infection and examined its relationship to migration timing, energetic condition, and refueling rate (plasma triglyceride concentration) for thre...

Climate change is influencing bird phenology worldwide, but we still lack information on how many species are responding over long temporal periods. We assessed how climate affected passerine reproductive timing and productivity at a constant effort mist-netting station in western Pennsylvania using a model comparison approach. Several lines of evi...

Advanced timing of both seasonal migration and reproduction in birds has been strongly associated with a warming climate for many bird species. Phenological responses to climate linking these stages may ultimately impact fitness. We analyzed five decades of banding data from 17 migratory bird species to investigate 1) how spring arrival related to...

The Common Potoo Nyctibius griseus is abundant, charismatic and generally considered to be sedentary across its range. Using citizen science data from eBird and WikiAves, we demonstrate that the Common Potoo may be a partial migrant whose breeding populations depart southeastern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina in May to August during the reg...

Global migrations of diverse animal species often converge along the same routes, bringing together seasonal assemblages of animals that may compete, prey on each other, and share information or pathogens. These interspecific interactions, when energetic demands are high and the time to complete journeys is short, may influence survival, migratory...

Birds must contend with an array of anthropogenic threats during their migratory journeys. Many migrants are killed due to encounters with artificial light, introduced species, pollutants, and other anthropogenic hazards, while survivors of these encounters can suffer longer-lasting negative effects. The nonlethal effects of anthropogenic threats o...

Terrestrial arthropods in forests are engaged in vital ecosystem functions that ultimately help maintain soil productivity. Repeated disturbance can cause abrupt and irreversible changes in arthropod community composition and thereby alter trophic interactions among soil fauna. An increasingly popular means of generating income from pine plantation...

The nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), invasive to Florida and Georgia, is thought to be an important predator of nesting vertebrate species in some areas; yet little is known about how armadillos find these nests and how often depredations occur in areas with low nest densities. To quantify the armadillo's attraction to nests of two spe...

One sure way to prevent deer damage to your landscape is to choose plants that deer do not like to eat. Unfortunately, deer foraging preferences vary geographically and studies conducted with captive deer aren’t always accurate. So UF/IFAS wildlife researchers investigated the foraging preference of wild white-tailed deer at two sites in Gadsden Co...

What is the tastiest treat to tempt an armadillo? Armadillos are one of the most significant nuisance pests in Florida and much of the Southeast. There are no repellents, toxicants, or fumigants registered for use with them. They are good at both burrowing beneath and climbing over fences. There are also no effective methods for baiting them into t...

The nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) is considered by many to be one of the greatest nuisance wildlife species in the Southeastern United States. Management is difficult because no repellents, toxicants, or fumigants are currently registered for this species; exclusion is laborious because armadillos are adept burrowers; and no effectiv...

Foraging preference of Odocoileus virginianus (White-tailed Deer) at ornamental plantings was compared amongst 11 wildflower species native to north Florida and south Georgia. Deer exhibited strong preference for Coreopsis floridana (Florida Tickseed), C. gladiata (Coastalplain Tickseed), C. integrifolia (Fringeleaf Tickseed), and Rudbeckia fulgida...

Natural and anthropogenic disturbances can cause abrupt changes in trophic interactions by altering the rate, timing, or composition of organic inputs to ecological systems which in turn can shift patterns of species dominance. We examined the short-term effects of litter removal on soil fauna in pine plantations of three different species (longlea...

Events in one season can have carryover effects on birds in a subsequent season. Little research has addressed how conditions where a bird winters influence it during migration. We investigated such carryover effects on Magnolia Warblers (Dendroica magnolia) captured during spring migration in northwestern Ohio. We examined signatures of stable car...

Understanding how home range size varies across seasons can provide insights into how birds respond to changes in resource levels. Yet, seasonal variation in home range size of most Neotropical birds is poorly understood. We recorded locations of color-banded Tropical Kingbirds during four years at a site comprised of cerrado woodland, humid forest...

Intensity of hematozoan infection is infrequently quantified because accurate calculations require visual counts of parasites relative to a large number of erythrocytes. Manual quantification of erythrocytes can be circumvented by using ImageJ software (developed by the National Institutes of Health) to count erythrocyte nuclei from digital images....