Dr. Paul Stapp
Associate Professor
Department of Biological Science
California State University
Fullerton, CA 92834-6850
Office: 207E McCarthy Hall
Lab: 338 McCarthy Hall
Phone: 714.278.2849
Fax: 714.278.3426
Email: pstapp@fullerton.edu
CSUF Courses Taught:
Spring 2008
BIOL517T Insular Ecology and Evolution (Graduate Seminar)
BIOL480/580 Biology Department Seminar
PAST SEMESTERS
BIOL274 Principles of Physiology and Ecology
BIOL314 Population and Community Ecology
BIOL316 Principles of Ecology
BIOL478 Mammalogy
BIOL480/580 Biology Department Seminar
BIOL500AB Professional Aspects of Biology (Graduate)
BIOL517T Ecology of Invasions (Graduate Seminar)
BIOL517T Landscape Ecology and Conservation (Graduate Seminar)
Research:
My
work has focused on the population and community ecology of terrestrial
vertebrates, particularly mammals and other wildlife, and applications of basic ecological
principles to conservation and natural resources management problems.
I am principally a field ecologist, although I use laboratory experiments
and computer modeling to address questions that are not tractable with field
approaches. Most of my field work has been
conducted in arid and semi-environments, and in agricultural or other
human-impacted systems. Broadly, my research addresses questions such as:
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Some ongoing and recent projects:
Prairie dogs have important ecological effects on grassland ecosystems but their populations are threatened by human activities (urbanization, shooting, poisoning) and sylvatic plague. From 1997-1999, I directed comparative studies of the ecological effects of prairie dogs on plant and animal communities in shortgrass prairie. In addition to completing this work, my collaborators at Colorado State University and Centers for Disease Control and I have begun a new study of the ecology of plague of small mammals and their fleas in prairie dog colonies, which is funded by a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation. You can learn more about our research at the Plague Page kept by Mike Antolin at CSU. (Photo by Lars Hansen)
The ecological effects of livestock grazing are controversial, but grazing may be beneficial for some species that evolved with native grazers. With Bill Lauenroth at Colorado State University and Justin Derner at the USDA Agricultural Research Service, we have been conducting a large-scale experimental study of the potential utility of using cattle to provide critical habitat for species of concern such as the Mountain Plover. My students and I, in particular, are examining the effects of altering the timing and intensity of grazing on mammals, birds and arthropods in shortgrass prairie, and comparing responses to areas with traditional summer grazing, prairie dog colonies, and long-term grazing exclosures. (Photo by Justin Derner)
In collaboration with the Shortgrass Steppe Long-Term Ecological Research project at Colorado State University, I am continuing to conduct long-term studies of small mammal and carnivore populations and their habitat and food resources in shortgrass prairie of north-central Colorado. These studies, which began in 1994, allow us to track long-term temporal trends of mammal populations in the region and provide baseline information to support other SGS-LTER research projects. They form part of a network of LTER sites located in arid and semi-arid grasslands, which can be used to evaluate the effects of climatic variation and land-use such as grazing on wildlife populations. (Photo by Lars Hansen)
Island systems are widely recognized as natural laboratories for studying the effects of isolation and patch size on evolution of populations and communities; however, they also are model systems for studying the flow of nutrients, energy and organisms across ecological boundaries. A fundamental concept that has emerged from these and similar studies is that resource subsidies, inputs of resources from outside the boundaries of one system, may have significant direct and indirect effects on populations and communities in adjacent or connected systems. My postdoctoral research with the late Gary Polis focused on how spatial (marine resources) and temporal (pulsed rainfall associated with El Niño events) subsidies affect insular rodent populations and their interactions with each other, their resources and predators on small, barren islands. Future research will investigate the effects of subsidies in terrestrial ecosystems, especially in landscapes where adjacent patches differ dramatically in productivity or other ecosystem properties (agricultural mosaics, fire-prone systems, urbanized vs. natural systems). (Photo by April Boulton)
Effects
of exotic predators on native species
The effects of invasive species are second only to habitat loss as a cause of
threats to native wildlife populations and ecosystems. Many exotic predators are
subsidized directly by humans, or indirectly, by human modifications to the
environment. My students and I have been investigating the ecology of
exotic predators such as feral cats and rats on islands. Recent projects
include an experimental study of the efficacy of sterilization as a method of
reducing effects of
Catalina
Island, in the California Channel Islands,
and an examination of the consumption of seabirds by black rats in the Outer
Hebrides, Scotland, which I conducted while at the University of
York. As a postdoc at the University of Wyoming with
Greg Hayward, I
developed a matrix demographic model to examine potential impacts of
the recent introduction of piscivorous lake trout on native cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake.
Selected Publications:
Anderson, W.B., D.A. Wait, & P. Stapp. Resources from anther place and time: Community responses to pulses in a spatially subsidized system. Ecology, in press.
Stapp, P., D.J. Salkeld, R.J. Eisen, R. Pappert, J. Young, L.G. Carter, K.L. Gage, D.W. Tripp & M.F. Antolin. Exposure of small rodents to plague during black-tailed prairie dog epizootics. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, in press.
Stapp, P., B. Van Horne, & M.D. Lindquist. Ecology of mammals of shortgrass steppe. In: Ecology of shortgrass steppe: perspectives from long-term studies (I.C. Burke & W.K. Lauenroth, eds.). Oxford Univ. Press. In press.
Millus, S.A., P. Stapp, & P. Martin. 2007. Experimental control of a native predator may improve breeding success of a threatened seabird in the California Channel Islands. Biological Conservation 138:484-492. pdf
Stapp, P. 2007. Rodent communities in active and inactive colonies of black-tailed prairie dogs in shortgrass steppe. Journal of Mammalogy 88:241-249. pdf
Holmgren, M, P. Stapp, C.R. Dickman, C. Gracia, S. Graham, J.R. Gutiérrez, C. Hice, F. Jaksic, D.A. Kelt, M. Letnic, M. Lima, B.C. López, P.L. Meserve, W.B. Milstead, G.A. Polis, M.A. Previtali, M. Richter, S. Sabaté & F.A. Squeo. 2006. Extreme climatic events shape arid and semiarid ecosystems. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 4:87-95. pdf
Stapp, P., M.F. Antolin & M. Ball. 2004. Patterns of extinction in prairie dog metapopulations: plague outbreaks follow El Niño events. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 2:235-240. pdf
Power, M.E., M. Vanni, P. Stapp, & G.A. Polis. 2004. Subsidy effects on managed ecosystems: Implications for sustainable harvest, conservation and control. Pp. 387-409 in: Food webs at the landscape level (G. A. Polis, M. E. Power, & G. R. Huxel, eds.). University of Chicago Press.
Stapp, P., & G. A. Polis. 2003. Influence of pulsed resources and marine subsidies on insular rodent populations. Oikos 102:111-123. pdf
Stapp, P., & G. A. Polis. 2003. Marine resources subsidize insular rodent populations in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Oecologia 134:496-504. pdf
Stapp, P. 2002. Stable isotopes reveal evidence of predation by ship rats on seabirds on the Shiant Islands, Scotland. Journal of Applied Ecology 39:831-840. pdf
Stapp, P., & G.D. Hayward. 2002. Effects of an introduced piscivore on native trout: Insights from a demographic model. Biological Invasions 4:299-316. pdf
Lawlor, T.E., D.J. Hafner, P. Stapp, B.R. Riddle, & S.T. Alvarez Castañeda. 2002. Mammals. Pp. 326-361 in: A new island biogeography in the Sea of Cortés (T. J. Case, M. L. Cody and E. Ezcurra, eds.). Oxford University Press.
Roach, J.L., P. Stapp, B. Van Horne & M.F. Antolin. 2001. Genetic structure of a metapopulation of black-tailed prairie dogs. Journal of Mammalogy 82:946-959. pdf
Stapp, P., G.A. Polis, & F. Sánchez Piñero. 1999. Stable isotopes reveal strong marine and El Niño effects on island food webs. Nature 401:467-469. pdf
Stapp, P. 1998. A reevaluation of the role of prairie dogs in Great Plains grasslands. Conservation Biology 12:1253-1259. pdf
Stapp, P. 1997. Community structure of shortgrass-prairie rodents: competition or risk of intraguild predation? Ecology 78:1519-1530. pdf
Stapp, P., & B. Van Horne. 1997. Response of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) to shrubs in shortgrass prairie: linking small-scale movements and the spatial distribution of individuals. Functional Ecology 11:644-651. pdf
Stapp, P. 1997. Habitat selection by an insectivorous rodent: patterns and mechanisms across multiple scales. Journal of Mammalogy 78:1128-1143. pdf
Updated Jan 2008
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