Evan H. Campbell Grant

Special Research Associate

Email:

Research

Research in population biology is concerned with factors affecting the change in a population over time, including births, deaths, immigration and emigration. Despite the potential importance of immigration and emigration, empirical data on movement patterns are lacking in many systems. Hence, there is a large body of theory on the causes and consequences of dispersal that remains to be tested in real biological systems. Until recently, research on stream salamanders has not considered the role of dispersal in determining the distribution and abundance of species on the landscape. Recent work suggests that these organisms may be able to move among habitats separated by large distances, despite their diminutive size and physiological reliance on moist microhabitats. My research therefore seeks to characterize the movement ecology of stream salamanders, identify environmental and ecological conditions promoting movement, and estimate population-level consequences of dispersal.

Publications *

• Grant, E.H.C. Accepted. Assessing visual implant elastomer mark retention in amphibian larvae through metamorphosis. Journal of Wildlife Management, to appear.
• Grant, E.H.C., Winsor H. Lowe, and William F. Fagan. 2007. Living in the branches: population dynamics and ecological processes in dendritic networks. Ecology Letters 10:165-175.
• Mattfeldt, Sandra D. and E.H.C. Grant. 2007. Are two methods better than one? Area constrained transects and leaf litterbags for sampling stream salamanders. Herpetological Review 38: 43-45.
• Grant, E.H.C. and Priya Nanjappa. 2006. Observer bias: individual identification of spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) using spot patterns with recommendations for an improved method. Herpetological Review 37: 57-60.
• Grant, E.H.C. 2005. Correlates of vernal pool occurrence in a Massachusetts landscape. Wetlands 25(2): 480-487.
• Grant, E.H.C., Robin E. Jung, James D. Nichols and James E. Hines. 2005. Double observer counts of egg masses. Wetlands Ecology and Management 13:305-320.
• Grant, E.H.C., Robin E. Jung, and Karen C. Rice. 2005. Stream Salamander Species Richness and Abundance in Relation to Environmental Factors in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. American Midland Naturalist 153(2): 348-356.