Pacific Southwest Research Station

Education

B.A. Environmental Science, Claremont McKenna College.

M.S. Biology, California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.

Ph.D. Ecology, University of California, Davis.

Research Interests/Duties

My research focus is on the conservation and ecology of northern California amphibians. I primarily work in montane habitats of the Klamath Mountains and southern Cascades studying the interactions between amphibians and non-native trout and the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis.

In March 2008, I completed my dissertation research on the direct and indirect effects of introduced fish on both aquatic and terrestrial wildlife. I conducted a 16-basin ecosystem-scale manipulative experiment in the Trinity Alps Wilderness to assess whether changes in fish presence and abundance could aid amphibian recovery and whether trout predation of larval amphibians and aquatic invertebrates suppresses prey subsidization and, thereby indirectly affect the density of terrestrial predators.

Selected Publications

Pope, K.L., J.M. Garwood, H.H. Welsh and S.P. Lawler. 2008. Evidence of Indirect Impacts of Introduced Trout on Native Amphibians via Facilitation of a Shared Predator. In press. Biological Conservation.

Welsh, H.H., Jr., K.L. Pope and C.A. Wheeler. 2008. The effects of forest succession on population metrics of two Pacific Northwest (U.S.A.) salamanders. In Press. Biological Conservation.

Fellers, G.M., K.L. Pope , J.E. Stead, M.S. Koo, and H.H. Welsh, Jr. 2008. Turning Population Trend Monitoring into Active Conservation: Can we save the Cascades Frog in the Lassen region of California. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 3:28-39.

Welsh, H. H., K. L. Pope and D. Boiano. 2006. Sub-alpine amphibian distributions related to species palatability to non-native salmonids in the Klamath mountains of northern California. Diversity and Distributions 12: 298–309.

Pope, K. L. and K. R. Matthews. 2001. Movement ecology and seasonal distribution of mountain yellow-legged frogs, Rana muscosa, in a high-elevation Sierra Nevada basin. Copeia 2001: 787-793.

Matthews, K. R., K. L. Pope , H. Preisler and R. A. Knapp. 2001. Effects of non-native trout on Pacific treefrogs ( Hyla regilla) in the Sierra Nevada. Copeia 2001:1130-1137.

Matthews, K. R. and K. L. Pope . 1999. A telemetric study of the movement patterns and habitat use of Rana muscosa, mountain yellow-legged frog, in a high elevation basin in Kings Canyon National Park , California. Journal of Herpetology 33: 615-623.