Headquarters Staff Member
Brent H Sigafus
-1.jpg "Assisting with the retrieval of a radio collar ripped off of a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park.")
Safety and Occupational Health Specialist
Email: bsigafus@usgs.gov
Biography
My career started in 2000 working under Dr. Cecil Schwalbe as a university Science Technician working on Chiricahua Leopard Frogs and Bullfrogs at the University of Arizona. Over the next few years, I went from a university employee to a federal employee as a Biologist. My main research focus has been on amphibians of the Southwest under the USGS, Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative. My main work has been in Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Mexico with a focus on threatened and endangered amphibians, aquatic invasives, habitat change and alteration, population dynamics, and drought.
In 2009 I became an instructor under the USGS Firearms Safety Program instructing Specimen Collection and Defense Against Wild Animals. I worked my way to become the Regional Firearms Safety Manager for the Southwest, Northwest-Pacific Islands in 2012. A few years later I was asked to take over as the Safety Officer for the Southwest Biological Science Center pushing me even more into the safety world.
The transition to a full time Occupational Safety and Health Specialists seemed the logical choice. Not only do I instruct under the Firearms Safety Program but, instruct other courses like Wilderness First Aid, CPR/AED, Off Road Driving, Bear Spray, and other safety courses that our field biologists use to stay safe while working.
| Research Publications | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| Waddle, J.H., Grear, D.A., Mosher, B.A., E. H. Campbell Grant, M. J. Adams, A. R. Backlin, W. J. Barichivich, A. B. Brand,G. M. Bucciarelli, D. L. Calhoun, T. Chestnut, J. M. Davenport, A. E. Dietrich, R. N. Fisher, B. M. Glorioso, B. J. Halstead, M. P. Hayes, R. K. Honeycutt, B. R. Hossack, P. M. Kleeman, J. A. Lemos-Espinal, J. M. Lorch, B. McCreary, E. Muths, C. A. Pearl, K. L. D. Richgels, C. W. Robinson, J. C. Rowe, B. H. Sigafus, I. Stasiak, S. Sweet, S. C. Walls, G. J. Watkins-Colwell, C. L. White, L. A. Williams, M. E. Winzeler. Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) not detected in an intensive survey of wild North American amphibians. Sci Rep 10, 13012 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69486-x | Abstract | Publisher Website | August 2020 |
| Sall, I., Jarchow, C.J., Sigafus, B.H., Eby, L.A., Forzley, M.J. and Hossack, B.R. (2021), Estimating inundation of small waterbodies with sub-pixel analysis of Landsat imagery: long-term trends in surface water area and evaluation of common drought indices. Remote Sens Ecol Conserv, 7: 109-124. https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.172 | Abstract | Publisher Website | July 2020 |
| Paige E. Howell, Blake R. Hossack, Erin Muths, Brent H. Sigafus, Richard B. Chandler "Informing Amphibian Conservation Efforts with Abundance-Based Metapopulation Models," Herpetologica, 76(2), 240-250, (23 June 2020) | Abstract | Publisher Website | June 2020 |
| Oyler-McCance, S.J., Ryan, M.J., Sullivan, B.K. et al. Genetic connectivity in the Arizona toad (Anaxyrus microscaphus): implications for conservation of a stream dwelling amphibian in the arid Southwestern United States. Conserv Genet (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-024-01606-w | Abstract | Download | Publisher Website | March 2024 |
| Michael J. Forzley, Mason J. Ryan, Ian M. Latella, J. Tomasz Giermakowski, Erin Muths, Brent H. Sigafus, Blake R. Hossack; Staggered-Entry Analysis of Breeding Phenology and Occupancy Dynamics of Arizona Toads from Historically Occupied Habitats of New Mexico, USA. Ichthyology & Herpetology 1 October 2021; 109 (3): 851–859. doi: https://doi.org/10.1643/h2020133 | Abstract | Publisher Website | October 2021 |
| Hossack, Blake R., Oja, Emily B., Owens, Audrey K., Hall, David, Cobos, Cassidi, Crawford, Catherine L., Goldberg, Caren S., et al. 2023. “ Empirical Evidence for Effects of Invasive American Bullfrogs on Occurrence of Native Amphibians and Emerging Pathogens.” Ecological Applications 33(2): e2785. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2785 | Abstract | Publisher Website | December 2022 |
| Hossack, B. R., P. E. Howell, A. Owens, C. Cobos, C. S. Goldberg, D. Hall, S. Hedwall, S. MacVean, M. McCaffery, A. H. McCall, C. Mosley, E. B. Oja, J. C. Rorabaugh, B. H. Sigafus, and M. J. Sredl. 2022. Identifying factors linked with population persistence: Lessons learned from 25 years of amphibian translocations. Global Ecology and Conservation 35: e02078. | Abstract | Download | Publisher Website | March 2022 |
| Hossack, B. R., Lemos-Espinal, J. A., Sigafus, B. H., Muths, E., Carreón Arroyo, G., Toyos Martinez, D., Hurtado Félix, D., Padilla, G. M., Goldberg, C. S., Jones, T. R., Sredl, M. J., Chambert, T., & Rorabaugh, J. C. (2021). Distribution of tiger salamanders in northern Sonora, Mexico: comparison of sampling methods and possible implications for an endangered subspecies. Amphibia-Reptilia, 43(1), 13-23. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685381-bja10072 | Abstract | Publisher Website | November 2021 |
| Hossack, B. R., Hall, D., Crawford, C. L., Goldberg, C. S., Muths, E., Sigafus, B. H., & Chambert, T. (2023). Successful eradication of invasive American bullfrogs leads to coextirpation of emerging pathogens. Conservation Letters, 00, e12970. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12970 | Abstract | Download | Publisher Website | July 2023 |
| DiRenzo G. V., D. A. W. Miller, B. R. Hossack, B. H. Sigafus, P. E. Howell, E. Muths, and E. H. C. Grant. 2021. Accommodating the role of site memory in dynamic species distribution models. Ecology 102(5):e03315. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3315 | Abstract | Publisher Website | February 2021 |