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Jim Julian

304 Walker Building
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
Telephone: 814.865.6151
FAX: 814.863.7943
E-mail: jjulian@usgs.gov

 

education:

  • Pennsylvania State University - Ph.D. Ecology (in progress)
  • Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD - M.S. Applied Ecology and Conservation Biology
  • Alfred University, Alfred, NY - Biology

professional activities

Jim Julian is a current Ph.D. student in the Penn State Cooperative Wetlands Center who works closely with the U.S. Geological Survey's Leetown Science Center ( Kearneysville, WV) on a variety of studies involving wetland resources in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DEWA). Current research projects include:

  • Assessing the importance of small, isolated wetlands on maintaining amphibian biodiversity.
  • The detection of amphibian breeding habitats using remote sensing Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) techniques.
  • The influences of urban development on the colonization of wetlands by amphibians.
  • Re-assessing demographics of wood turtle populations following historic floods.

Jim has worked closely with National Park Service resource managers at DEWA on issues concerning wetlands used by pond-breeding amphibians. These issues have included assessing the use of man-made, impounded wetlands by amphibians, applying geospatial statistics to remote sensing data to predict the occurrence of wetlands, and developing an extensive Geographic Information System of potential amphibian breeding habitats throughout the Park. As a private contractor, he has been hired by the National Park Service to conduct a mark-recapture study of three populations of wood turtles in DEWA to assess the possible impacts of recent flooding events on these populations.

For his Masters degree, Jim worked on research funded by the U.S. Golf Association and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation that examined the impacts of golf courses on amphibians. In his initial work with the U.S.G.S. Leetown Science Center, he gained experience in aquatic macroinvertebrate identification, and worked in Leetown's wildlife conservation genetics laboratory.

Jim has a strong interest in communicating science to the public, and gives 3-4 public presentations per year. In addition to presentations at scientific meetings, he has given presentations on vernal pool habitats for Clearwater Conservancy, he has given guest lectures for the School of Engineering Design and the Department of Geography at Penn State, and regularly participates in the Cooperative Wetland Center's public outreach events. At Frostburg State University, Jim was a laboratory instructor for General Biology and Vertebrate Zoology, and a laboratory assistant for Herpetology.

professional employment

  • 2004–present: General Biologist-Student Assistantship Program, U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources Division, Leetown Science Center, Kearneysville, WV
  • 2001–2003: Senior Research Assistant, Cooperative Wetlands Center, School of Forest Resources, Pennsylvania State University (stationed at U.S.G.S. Leetown Science Center)
  • 2000–2001: Biological Science Technician, U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources Division, Leetown Science Center, Kearneysville, WV
  • 1996–2000: Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, Department of Biology, Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD

recent publications/presentations

Julian, J.T., J.A. Young, J.A., C.D. Snyder, J.W. Jones, C.W. Wright. The use of Local Indicators of Spatial Association to improve LiDAR-derived predictions of amphibian breeding ponds. In preparation.

Julian, J.T. C.D. Snyder, and J.A. Young. 2006. The use of artificial impoundments by two amphibian species in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, USA. Northeastern Naturalist 13(4):459-468.

Invited symposium presentation, “Egg mass translocations and the colonization of an artificial wetland by amphibians in Rocky Gap State Park, Maryland” at Annual Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, July 2006, New Orleans, LA

Invited symposium presentation “The effects of chronic pesticide exposure on larval amphibians” at Annual Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. July 2006, New Orleans, LA