Dave is interested in how environmental cycles mediate animal behavior and influence the efficacy of conservation actions. For his PhD, he designed field experiments to elucidate movement and predation dynamics of tidal wetland fishes. This culminated in a habitat suitability model, intended to help optimize restoration design for fishes in a variety of coastal wetlands ecosystems.

Dave is now seeking to better understand how tidal and day-night cycles influence the swimming behavior of juvenile salmon. He looks forward to gleaning these insights from archival acoustic telemetry datasets in the California Delta. Ultimately, Dave seeks to help align flow management actions with fish behavior tendencies in a way that maximizes emigration survival for imperiled Central Valley salmon.