Contact Information

Office: SCA 322
Phone: 813/974-4694
Email: nhalstea@mail.usf.edu

M.S. Biology, University of South Florida, 2007
B.S. Biology, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, 2001

Research

My research focuses on conservation and community ecology of vertebrates, especially reptiles and amphibians. My thesis examined the long-term effects of prescribed fire on reptile and amphibian communities in Florida sandhill habitat, a threatened upland ecosystem in the southeast United States. I have also examined vertebrate utilization of reclaimed phosphate mines in central Florida, and the use of breeding anuran (frog) assemblages as indicators of vegetative wetland health in cypress domes. I am particularly interested in the dynamics that determine patterns of community composition, the responses of communities to both natural and anthropogenic disturbances, and how changes in community composition may affect ecosystem properties.

Recent Publications

Rohr, J.R., Schoetthofer, A.M., Raffel, T.R., Carrick, H.J., Halstead, N., Hoverman, J.T., Johnson, C.M., Johnson, L.B., Lieske, C., Piwoni, M.D., Schoff, P.K., Beasley, V.R. 2008. Agrochemicals increase trematode infections in a declining amphibian species. Nature. 455: 1235-1239