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Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative

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Regions and People

National Offices

Contact: Lianne Ball
Telephone: 703-648-4028
Address:
12201 Sunrise Valley Dr.
Mail Stop 301
Reston, VA 20192
ARMI National Coordinator
Lianne Ball at the USGS Headquarters. The National Coordinator, Lianne Ball (PhD University of Nevada, Reno), is stationed at the USGS Headquarters in Reston, VA. Her research interests are in energetics and desert ecology. She has conducted research and worked on the development and implementation of programs to monitor wildlife populations since 2000. In addition to administering the Program, she works with the Principal Investigators to identify emerging research areas and serves as the liaison for ARMI to other Federal Agencies and the States.

Contact: David Green
Telephone: 608-270-2482
Address:
6006 Schroeder Rd
Madison, WI 53711
National Wildlife Health Center
Dr Green and colleague, Dr. Carol Meteyer, holding a large carp taken from the crop and stomachs of a pelican that was unable to fly. David Green, veterinary pathologist for ARMI, is located at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, WI. The Health Center is staffed by scientists and veterinary medical officers who conduct research on wildlife diseases and perform diagnostic examination of animals found at mortality events. David received his DVM at Colorado State University, had a residency in veterinary pathology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (Washington, D.C.) and has been a veterinary pathologist for State and Federal agencies.
As the ARMI pathologist, he conducts pathological investigations of mass mortalities in amphibian populations, researches diseases such as chytrid fungus, ranavirus and newly emerging diseases that are yet unnamed, and monitors the status and trends of amphibian diseases nationwide.

Pacific Northwest

Contact: Chauncey Anderson
Telephone: 503-251-3206
Address:
2130 SW 5th Ave
Portland, OR 97201
Oregon Water Science Center
Chauncey Anderson holding a Bufo boreas, Spruce Lake, CO, during Bd-water method development. Photo credit to Don Campbell, USGS Chauncey Anderson is a hydrologist for the U. S. Geological Survey's Oregon Water Science Center. Chauncey has worked for the USGS since 1991, focusing on water quality and ecosystem-oriented studies. He joined the ARMI program in 2000 as Hydrologic Coordinator for ARMI's Pacific Northwest Region. As such, Chauncey works to provide water quality and other hydrologic support to the ARMI program in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere. Since 2004, he has worked on issues associate with chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd); specifically, its occurrence in the environment, including detection in water and efforts to better understand its life history cycle outside of amphibian hosts. Chauncey is supporting a Ph. D. candidate from Portland State University, Tara Chestnut, who is working to better quantify sampling and environmental variability for Bd, and apply this work to questions of disease movement in northern latitudes as a result of climate change. Chauncey has also extensively studied nutrient and algal interactions, the role of land management in receiving water quality, contaminants in water, sediment, and biota, and has recently been involved in studies of water quality associated with dam removal as an ecosystem restoration strategy. For additional information, please see http://or.water.usgs.gov/staff/C_Anderson/.

Contact: Mike Adams
Telephone: 541-758-8857
Address:
3200 SW Jefferson Way
Corvallis, OR 97331
Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center
Mike Adams swabbing an American Bullfrog for pathogens near Turino, Italy. ARMI activities in the Pacific Northwest region are conducted through the Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center in Corvallis, Oregon. Michael Adams is the principal investigator. He received his PhD from University of Washington and has been working on amphibian conservation issues since 1990. Mike was an active participant in the development of ARMI. Full time staff members are Christopher Pearl, Nathan Chelgren, Stephanie Galvan, and Brome McCreary. Together the Pacific Northwest team addresses a variety of topics including global change, invasive species, forests, watersheds, livestock grazing, disease, and endangered species management

Southwest

Contact: Gary Fellers
Telephone: 415-464-5185
Address:
Point Reyes, CA, 94956
Point Reyes Field Station
Gary Fellers at the 2011 ARMI summit in Yosemite, CA. Gary Fellers coordinates ARMI activities in northern and central California from the Point Reyes Field Station located at Point Reyes National Seashore. Research and monitoring is being conducted throughout the region, with an emphasis on Point Reyes and Yosemite NP, where research is done in cooperation with the National Park Service. Research is examining the causes of amphibian declines, with a special emphasis on the role of pesticides and chytrid fungus. Intensive, site-specific studies with California red-legged frogs and Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs are designed to assess population size and trends, as well as frog movements, growth, and longevity. The research program has an international flavor with active cooperators in both Taiwan and China. This work is led by Gary Fellers (Ph.D. University of Maryland) who has been conducting research on declining amphibians since 1991, and was the catalyst for the design and implementation of the ARMI program.

Contact: Robert Fisher
Telephone: 619-225-6422
Address:
4165 Spruance Rd, #200
San Diego, CA, 92101
San Diego Field Station
Robert Fisher. Amphibian monitoring and research, through the ARMI program, is an integral part of the USGS San Diego Field Station’s mission. Principal Investigator, Robert Fisher’s (PhD UC Davis) research focuses on conducting inventory, monitoring, population estimates, restoration, and species recovery. Our geographic area of research extends from the California–Mexico border north through Ventura and San Bernardino Counties to Inyo County at the north end. Our studies occur in a diverse variety of habitats including coastal salt marshes, coastal sage scrub, inland chaparral, oak and riparian woodlands, high elevation coniferous forests, and deserts. We partner with many public agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private entities. The goal is to provide data that our partners can use to guide management activities. Several on-going studies involve sensitive, threatened, and endangered amphibian species including the federally listed arroyo toad (Anaxyrus californicus), mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa), and the California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii).

Contact: Cecil Schwalbe
Telephone: 520-621-5508
Address:
1110 E. South Campus Dr. RM123
University of Arizona, Bldg. 33
Tucson, AZ, 85719
Southwest Biological Science Center
Cecil Schwalbe demonstrating his commitment to research. Amphibian research and monitoring has been an important part of the mission of the Sonoran Desert Research Station since 1993. Principal Investigator Cecil Schwalbe's (PhD University of Arizona) research includes monitoring, population estimates, ecology and control of invasive species, disease, and conservation of vulnerable species, focusing primarily in Arizona, but extending to adjacent states. Research funded and facilitated by ARMI has ushered in a ground swell of cooperative research and management efforts to conserve native amphibians in Arizona, focusing on control and elimination of invasive American bullfrogs on a landscape scale through cooperation with federal and state agencies, universities, non-governmental organizations, and privateranchers. Ranchers throughout the range of the threatened Chiricahua leopard frog have sought technical advice on similar efforts.

Rocky Mountains

Contact: Bill Battaglin
Telephone: 303-236-6872
Address:
Denver Federal Bldg
MS-415, Bldg 53
Lakewood, CO, 80225
Colorado Water Science Center
Bill Battaglin. William Battaglin, Research Hydrologist, at the U.S. Geological Survey Colorado Water Science Center. Bill first worked for the U.S.G.S. in 1982. He has helped design and conduct studies investigating the occurrence of pesticides and other contaminants in streams, reservoirs, groundwater, rain, and the air. He is currently working on investigations of the occurrence of glyphosate in Midwestern streams, fungicides in potato growing regions, the effects of pesticides on amphibian populations in North America, the fate of emerging contaminants in Colorado surface- and groundwater, and the potential effects of climate change on Colorado snowpack.

The USGS Colorado Water Science Center conducts water-resources related activities in the Rocky Mountain Region in formal partnerships with more than 100 organizations from all levels of government. The Center operates statewide data-collection networks, and conducts research on a wide range of issue that are of concern to Colorado's water-management entities and citizens.

Contact: Steve Corn
Telephone: 406-542-4191
Address:
790 East Beckwith
Missoula, MT 59801
Download: Information Sheet*
Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center
Steve Corn at Black Rock. ARMI activities in the northern Rocky Mountains are conducted through the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute in Missoula, Montana. Partners include the National Park Service Greater Yellowstone Inventory and Monitoring Network, US Fish and Wildlife Fish Technology Center, and faculty and graduate students at Idaho State University and the University of Montana. Steve Corn is the principal investigator for the northern portion of the Rocky Mountain Region. He received his PhD from Colorado State University, and has been working on amphibian decline issues since 1986. Steve was an active participant in the development of ARMI. Blake Hossack coordinates field activities and has worked at the Leopold Institute since 1999. ARMI research in the northern Rocky Mountains is focused primarily on measuring population-levels effects of global change, disease, forest management, and wildfire.

Contact: Erin Muths
Telephone: 970-226-9474
Address:
2150 Centre Ave, Bldg C
Fort Collins, CO 80526
Fort Collins Science Center
Erin Muths conducting 'research' in the Rocky Mountain National Park. ARMI activities in the southern Rocky Mountains are conducted through the Fort Collins Science Center (FORT) and partners, including Rocky Mountain National Park and faculty and graduate students at Colorado State University. FORT is located on the Natural Resources Research Campus (NRRC) at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. The NRRC is a partnership of six federal agencies and CSU and was established to support and enhance cooperative research on natural resource issues. Erin Muths is the principal investigator for the southern portion of the Rocky Mountain Region. Erin received her PhD from the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. She has been working on amphibians and amphibian decline since 1995 and has been involved in ARMI since its inception. ARMI research in the southern Rocky Mountains is focused primarily on assessing population-level effects of disease and global climate change on amphibians.

Midwest

Contact: Walt Sadinski
Telephone: 608-781-6337
Address:
2630 Fanta Reed Road
La Crosse, WI 54603
Download:
Midwest Information Sheet*
Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Walter Sadinski. ARMI staff and key collaborators in the Midwest region include Walt Sadinski (Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center [UMESC]; research ecologist and principal investigator; Ph.D., Penn State University), Mark Roth (UMESC; biologist; MS, University of Arkansas, Monticello), Perry Jones (Minnesota Water Science Center; hydrologist; MS University of Minnesota), and Alisa Gallant (Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, ecogeographer; Ph.D., Colorado State University). We are assessing the statuses of regional amphibian populations relative to drivers of global change, primarily land use, climate change, and emergent disease, on Department of Interior and other lands in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. We also are leveraging these efforts with those of a wide range of partners in several additional states (including Alaska) and Canadian provinces to collect and analyze data across a network of research sites. By using standardized protocols with our partners, results from our work are intended to provide information necessary to assess and help conserve amphibian populations at local and broader scales along North American environmental gradients.

South Central

Contact: Hardin Waddle
Telephone: 337-266-8671
Address:
700 Cajundome Blvd
Layfayette, LA 70506
Fact Sheet 2011-3056
National Wetlands Research Center
Hardin Waddle. Hardin Waddle (PhD University of Florida) coordinates ARMI activities in the south-central ARMI region from the National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC) in Lafayette, LA. The mission of the NWRC is to develop and disseminate scientific information needed for understanding the ecology and values of our Nation's wetlands and for managing and restoring wetland habitats and associated plant and animal communities. Dr. Waddle’s particular interests include population ecology and conservation of amphibians and reptiles. The focus of south-central ARMI research involves using occupancy analysis to detect trends in anuran populations. Since 2002, south-central ARMI has been monitoring anuran populations in the Atchafalaya Basin of south-central Louisiana, with similar monitoring now being conducted at Coldwater River National Wildlife Refuge in north Mississippi and Big Thicket National Preserve in east Texas. In addition, a population ecology study commenced in Fall 2010 on ambystomatid salamander populations in Kisatchie National Forest in north central Louisiana. Data garnered from these studies will assist land managers to make more informed decisions regarding resource management.

Northeast

Contact: Evan Grant
Telephone: 413-863-3854
Address:
Conte Anadromous Fish Laboratory
1 Migratory Way
Turners Falls MA 01376
Download:
Northeast Information Sheet**
Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
Evan Grant during a night survey. Dr. Evan H. Campbell Grant (PhD University of Maryland) coordinates ARMI activities in the Northeast by conducting and developing amphibian research and monitoring projects. Information from surveys in the Northeast are used to determine the proportion of surveyed areas that are occupied by various species of amphibians, and to estimate amphibian survival, dispersal, and population sizes and trends over space and time. This information is used to inform management of National Park and Wildlife Refuge Resources in the northeast.

Southeast

Contact: Susan Walls
Telephone: 352-264-3507
Address:
7920 NW 71st Street
Gainesville, FL 32653-3071
Southeast Ecological Science Center
Susan Walls at Peaks of Otter in 2005. Biology-based ARMI activities in the southeast are coordinated by Dr. Susan Walls at the Southeast Ecological Science Center (SESC). Susan received a PhD from the University of Louisiana (Lafayette) and has conducted ecological studies of amphibians for nearly 30 years. Current research of southeast ARMI includes monitoring anuran response to hydrologic restoration of the Big Cypress regional ecosystem, discriminating the effects of climate and hydrology on winter-breeding amphibians of St Marks National Wildlife Refuge, determining the salinity tolerance of regional anurans, and documenting the spatial and temporal distribution of amphibian pathogens. ARMI research in the southeast is focused primarily on assessing the effects of global climate change and disease on amphibians.

Contact: Dan Calhoun
Telephone:770-903-9144
Address:
3039 Amwiler Road, Suite 130
Atlanta, GA 30360-2824
Georgia Water Science Center
Dan Calhoun. Dan Calhoun, a hydrologist at the USGS Georgia Water Science Center (GWSC), provides support for hydrology and water-quality aspects of ARMI for the Southeast Region. Key personnel in the GWSC involved in ARMI studies are Brian Hughes (MS Geology; Southern Illinois University), Jeff Riley (MS Hydrology; University of Georgia), Anna McKee (PhD Population Genetics; University of Georgia), Alan Cressler and Chris Walls. Primary science support for the ARMI program comes in the form of hydrologic assessments, water chemistry, spatial analysis, environmental genetics, amphibian sampling, and pathogen detection. The GWSC has been associated with ARMI soon after its formation and continually seeks program development to expand its ability to meet the needs of federal, state, and local partners to further the goals of amphibian conservation and research.
Dan has worked across many fields of study in the physical and ecological sciences including erosion and sedimentation, contaminant fate and transport, surface and groundwater water quality sampling and analysis, wetland and karst hydrology, ecological community sampling and analysis, and the occurrence of aquatic pathogens. He finds the most professional satisfaction in the integration of people with diverse expertise.

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