Travis Seaborn

North Dakota State University | NDSU · School of Natural Resources

Species distribution estimates are often used to understand the niche of a species; however, these are often based solely on climatic predictors. When the influences of biotic factors are ignored, erroneous inferences about range and niche may be made. We aimed to integrate climate data with a unique set of available land cover and land use data fo...

Adaptive capacity is a topic at the forefront of environmental change research with roots in both social, ecological, and evolutionary science. It closely related to the evolutionary biology concept of adaptive potential. In this systematic literature review we: 1) Summarize the history of these topics and related fields; 2) Assess relationship(s)...

Whole‐genome sequencing is revolutionizing our understanding of organismal biology, including adaptations likely to influence demographic performance in different environments. Excitement over the potential of genomics to inform population dynamics has prompted multiple conservation applications, including genomics‐based decision‐making for translo...

Aquatic ectotherms are predicted to harbor genomic signals of local adaptation resulting from selective pressures driven by the strong influence of climate conditions on body temperature. We investigated local adaptation in redband trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri) using genome scans for 547 samples from 11 populations across a wide range of ha...

Adaptive capacity can present challenges for modelling as it encompasses multiple ecological and evolutionary processes such as natural selection, genetic drift, gene flow and phenotypic plasticity. Spatially explicit, individual-based models provide an outlet for simulating these complex interacting eco-evolutionary processes. We expanded the exis...

Barriers such as hydroelectric dams inhibit migratory pathways essential to many aquatic species, resulting in significant losses of species, their unique life-history forms, and genetic diversity. Understanding the impacts of dam removal to species recovery at these different biological levels is crucial to fully understand the restoration respons...

American Aberdeen (AD) cattle in the USA descend from an Aberdeen Angus herd originally brought to the Trangie Agricultural Research Centre, New South Wales, AUS. Although put under specific selection pressure for yearling growth rate, AD remain genomically uncharacterized. The objective was to characterize the genetic diversity and structure of pu...

Despite growing interest in conservation and reestablishment of ecological connectivity, few studies have explored its context‐specific social‐ecological outcomes. We aimed to explore social and ecological outcomes to changing stream connectivity for both stakeholders and a native fish species impacted by habitat fragmentation and non‐native specie...

Purpose of Review Ecological models can provide critical guidance to conservation programs both as problem-solving tools and by projecting future outcomes, specifically when time and resources limit directly testing alternative management approaches and scenarios. Due to the complexity of aquatic systems, environmental and climatic factors co-vary,...

Conservation translocations, intentional movements of species to protect against extinction, have become widespread in recent decades and are projected to increase further as biodiversity loss continues worldwide. The literature abounds with analyses to inform translocations and assess whether they are successful, but the fundamental question of wh...

This presents preliminary data of a project to assess migratory and breeding bird communities along restored woods and prairies along the Red River Valley in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

The EPSCoR Postdoc Integration Team was created to foster community between postdoctoral researchers from several EPSCoR institutions (Boise State University, Idaho State University, University of Idaho, University of Nevada-Reno, University of Wyoming) and also postdoctoral collaborators within EPSCoR-funded grants (e.g., Track-I GEM3 and Track-II...

The rate of global climate change is projected to outpace the ability of many natural populations and species to adapt. Assisted migration (AM), which is defined as the managed movement of climate-adapted individuals within or outside the species ranges, is a conservation option to improve species’ adaptive capacity and facilitate persistence. Alth...

Many species that undergo long breeding migrations, such as anadromous fishes, face highly heterogeneous environments along their migration corridors and at their spawning sites. These environmental challenges encountered at different life stages may act as strong selective pressures and drive local adaptation. However, the relative influence of en...

Although the random forest algorithm has been widely applied to remotely sensed data to predict characteristics of forests, such as tree canopy height, the effect of spatial non-stationarity in the modeling process is oftentimes neglected. Previous studies have proposed methods to address the spatial variance at local scales, but few have explored...

Current draft of Ch5 from dissertation.

Phenotypic variation among populations is thought to be generated from spatial heterogeneity in environments that exert selection pressures that overcome the effects of gene flow and genetic drift. Here, we tested for evidence of isolation by distance or by ecology (i.e., ecological adaptation) to generate variation in early life history traits and...

Population genetic and population viability analyses are powerful instruments that can be used to evaluate the status of populations of conservation concern. However, these two methods are rarely integrated. To better understand the status of the last known Northern Leopard Frog (Lithobates pipiens) population in Washington State and investigate th...

• Surveys for environmental DNA (eDNA) can provide an efficient and effective means of detecting aquatic organisms in various types of aquatic systems. • In the summer of 2017, the efficacy of a new, integrated eDNA backpack sampler to detect two native amphibians (Rana sierrae and R. cascadae) at risk was tested in complex mountain meadows in Cali...

Inclusion of dispersal data in models of species’ distributions in response to environmental change has been advocated for more than 15 years. We investigated whether there has been a shift in recent publications to include dispersal processes and how dispersal estimates explicitly change the conclusions of analyses. To address this question, we co...

A critical decision in landscape genetic studies is whether to use individuals or populations as the sampling unit. This decision affects the time and cost of sampling and may affect ecological inference. We analyzed 334 Columbia spotted frogs at 8 microsatellite loci across 40 sites in northern Idaho to determine how inferences from landscape gene...

The Spruce—fir Moss Spider (Microhexura montivaga) is a federally endangered species found only in the high-elevation southern Appalachian spruce—fir forests. Little is known about the basic ecology of the spider. The goal of this project was to determine the temperature and humidity parameters of the microhabitat around known spider locations. iBu...

One of the major challenges for conservation physiologists is to determine how current or future environmental conditions relate to the health of animals at the population level. In this study, we measured prevalence of disease, mean condition of the body, and mean resting levels of corticosterone and testosterone in a total of 28 populations acros...

The spruce-fir moss spider (Microhexura montivaga) is a federally endangered species of spider found only in the high-elevation Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forests on North-facing slopes underneath moss mats. Despite this fact, little is known about some of the basic ecology of the spider, more specifically the characteristics of the habitat fo...

Epibiont and basibiont relationships can have positive and negative effects on both organisms involved, ranging in intensity from minor to major effects. Limpets of species Lottia pelta are commonly found with two algal species growing on their backs, Ulva lactuca and Acrosiphonia spp. Previous research has shown that basibionts (substrate organism...

Consensus guidelines recommend various screening examinations for survivors after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), but how often these examinations detect abnormal findings is unknown. We reviewed the medical records of 118 patients who received comprehensive, standardized evaluations at 1 year after allogeneic HCT at Fred Hutch...