Scott A. Carleton, PhD

Scott Carleton has been a postdoctoral research scientist in the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Wyoming since 2009.  His research interests are in applied fish and wildlife ecology.  His current work utilizes stable isotope microchemistry of water and fish otoliths to reconstruct movement patterns, differentiate populations, and determine the natal origins for native sport fish in Wyoming.  For his PhD, he worked on white-winged doves in the southwestern United States linking breeding and wintering populations, describing habitat and resource use, and investigating how sympatric species of doves partitioned desert resources.  Scott did his masters work at the University of Arkansas where he studied the breeding ecology of the endangered resplendent quetzal, a bird with cultural, historical and economic importance to the people of Central America.  Scott has worked as an avian biologist in Arkansas and Oklahoma for private and federal agencies investigating the distribution and occurrence of migratory breeding bird species in managed landscapes.  Scott is also an avid fly fisherman, is a fly designer for Montana Fly Company, and enjoys spending his free time floating and fishing western rivers.

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Publications

Carleton, SA and C Martinez del Rio.  2011.  Do birds look like rain? Biotic and anthropogenic landscape factors override abiotic factors in differentiating populations of a migratory game bird.  In review Journal of Applied Ecology View PDF

Martinez del Rio, C and SA Carleton.  2011.  How fast and how faithful – the dynamics of isotopic incorporation into animal tissues.  In review Journal of Mammalogy View PDF

Carleton, SA.  2010.  Burbot in the Wind River drainage.  Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Lander Region Newsletter View PDF

Fair, J, E Paul, and J Jones.  2010.  Guidelines to the use of wild birds in research.  Washington, DC: Ornithological Council.  Contributing author.  Chapter 3: Capture and Marking

Carleton, SA and C Martinez del Rio. 2010. Growth and catabolism in isotopic incorporation: a new formulation and experimental data.  Functional Ecology 24:805-812 View PDF

Martínez del Rio, C, N Wolf, S Carleton, and L. Z. Gannes. 2009.  Isotopic ecology ten years after a call for more laboratory experiments. Biological Reviews 84:91-111 View PDF

Wolf, N, S Carleton, and C Martínez del Rio. 2009.  Ten years of experimental animal isotopic ecology.  Functional Ecology 23:17-26 View PDF

Carleton, SA, L Lane, A Sprecher, and C Martinez del Rio.  2008. Should we use one, or multi-compartment models to describe 13C incorporation into animal tissues?  Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 22:3008-3014 View PDF

Carleton, SA, BH Bakken, and C Martinez del Rio.  2006.  Metabolic substrate use and the turnover of endogenous energy reserves in broad-tailed hummingbirds (Selasphorous platycercus).  Journal of Experimental Biology 209:2622-2627 View PDF

Carleton, SA, and C Martinez del Rio.  2005.  The effect of cold-induced increase in metabolic rate on the rate of 13C and 15N incorporation in house sparrows (Passer domesticus).  Oecologia 144:226-232 View PDF

Carleton, SA, BO Wolf, and C Martinez del Rio.  2004.  Keeling plots for hummingbirds: a method to estimate carbon isotope ratios of respired CO2 in small vertebrates.  Oecologia 141:1-6 View PDF

In Preparation

Carleton, SA. , J Hobbs, and J. Burckhardt.  2011. Revealing the source, timing, and status of an illegal walleye introduction into a Wyoming reservoir using stable isotope analysis. In preparation North American Journal of Fisheries Management

Carleton, SA. , J Hobbs, N English, and P Gerrity.  2011. Landscape links between fish, water,  and geology: reconstructing the life history of Burbot (Lota lota) in the Wind River watershed. In preparation Transactions of the American Fisheries Society

Carleton, SA and C Stricker.  2011. Tracking resource use partitioning and shifts in white-winged and mourning doves between desert and agricultural habitats. In preparation Animal Ecology

Scholarships & Fellowships

2011-14: Linking landscape geomorphology and strontium stable isotopes to delineate seasonal range use in Wyoming ungulates, $125,000
2011-12: Determining source/sink dynamics of burbot (Lota lota) populations in the Wind River watershed and reconstructing life history strategies of sauger (Sander canadensis) in the upper Wind River watershed using scale and otolith microchemistry, $67,000
2009-11: Using biomarkers to determine natal origins of shovelnose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus), channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), Yellowstone cutthroat (Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri), and kokanee salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), $150,000
2009-10: Reconstructing life histories of juvenile and adult burbot (Lota lota) within the Wind River watershed using otolith microchemistry, $10,000
2007-09: Investigating migratory connectivity, habitat use, and post-breeding dispersal patterns in a migratory game bird, the white-winged dove using stable isotopes and AFLP analysis, $38,000
2005: Do hummingbirds fuel metabolism with income or capital: a test using d13C of respired CO2, $2,500
2004: A genetic and isotopic characterization of Eastern and Western White-winged Dove populations in Texas and Arizona, $12,000
2004: Development of a method to measure the d13C of respired CO2 in small birds and mammals, $2,250
2003-05: A genetic and isotopic characterization of Eastern and Western White-winged Dove populations in Texas and Arizona to determine migratory corridors, wintering grounds, and population genetic structure, $56,000
2003: A genetic and isotopic characterization of Eastern and Western subspecies of White-winged Doves (Zenaida asiatica) to determine migratory corridors and wintering grounds, $9,000

Projects