About

Brad Taylor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Ecology at NC State University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming in 2005. His research focuses on freshwater ecosystems, particularly rivers and lakes, which constitute a small fraction of Earth's water but are vital to ecological and evolutionary studies. His lab investigates how individual species influence phenotypic traits, community interactions, and ecosystem functions such as carbon flow and nutrient cycling within river systems. Additionally, he is interested in interdisciplinary research that combines ecological and economic concepts to understand the proliferation and control of invasive species.

Research topics

• Biology
• Environmental science
• Sociology
• Ecology
• Evolutionary biology
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Neuroscience

Selected publications

• ANTHROPOGENIC METALS AS NOVEL TRACERS OF COASTAL PROCESSES IN NORMANDY, FRANCE – THE GEOLOGY OF OPERATION OVERLORD AND THE ALLIED INVASION 80 YEARS LATER

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Detailed reservoir characterization of Mesozoic siliciclastic strata for sedimentary geothermal exploration, Colorado Plateau to Basin and Range transition zone, Utah

  AAPG Bulletin · 2025-09-01

  article

  ABSTRACT The Basin and Range provides excellent opportunities for geothermal resource development. In addition to large fault-controlled geothermal exploration targets along basin margins, elevated heat flow and presence of porous and permeable sedimentary rocks within the sedimentary basins are candidates for sedimentary geothermal energy production. Using a sedimentary approach has the potential to dramatically expand geothermal production in both established and frontier basins. This study characterizes Mesozoic siliciclastic reservoirs through detailed outcrop characterization and laboratory analysis of reservoir quality to assess suitability for sedimentary geothermal exploration. Based on porosity and permeability measurements from 164 samples and thin sections from key stratigraphic intervals, three siliciclastic units were identified as prospective reservoir targets. These units have median porosities of 15.7% (Springdale Member of the Kayenta Formation), 15.1% (Moenave Formation), and 11.4% (Shurtz Tongue of the Navajo Sandstone), with median permeabilities of 18.7, 10.2, and 6.4 md, respectively. Regression analysis of porosity/permeability data from outcrops shows a strong correlation, suggesting that permeability values can be predicted using log or core-based porosity values from nearby geothermal and oil wells. Porosity and permeability variability within each unit is substantial, and the Navajo Sandstone in particular ranges from submillidarcy to 379 md across three sampled localities. Petrographic description demonstrates that this high variability of porosity and permeability is caused by heterogeneity in textural and compositional maturity, diagenetic alteration, and cementation. This highlights the need for detailed petrographic characterization of potential sedimentary geothermal reservoirs to understand lithological factors impacting spatial distribution of porosity and permeability.

  PublisherDOI

• BASIN MODELING OF MESOZOIC SILICICLASTIC STRATA APPLIED TO SEDIMENTARY GEOTHERMAL EXPLORATION, IRON COUNTY, UT

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Author response for "Prey detection by a stepwise visual template matching mechanism"

  2024-10-11

  peer-reviewSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Prey detection by a stepwise visual template matching mechanism

  Royal Society Open Science · 2024-11-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Predators can improve prey capture using a search image, and recent prey provide a visual template with which subsequent prey are compared. Considering trout feeding responses to mayfly prey of different sizes and phenological availability across years, we tested if changing relative abundances (ratios) of prey of the same species, but different body sizes, shifted trout feeding behaviour. For example, we hypothesized that a feeding switch from larger to smaller prey required continuous exposure to the novel smaller prey. The hypothesis that continuous exposure to novel small prey results in their acceptance was not supported. Rather, we discovered that trout identify novel prey using a dynamic stepwise visual neural template prey matching process, which involves the formation of focal prey template based on size or type, rejection of novel prey that do not match the size or type templates and modification of the existing or development of multiple prey templates that eventually enabled recognition of novel, small prey. We also discovered trout store multiple visual prey templates in memory. These results have implications for predator and prey dynamics, optimal foraging, the persistence of rare prey, prey species coexistence and predator selection on prey phenology.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Consequences of climate-induced range expansions on multiple ecosystem functions

  Communications Biology · 2023-04-10 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access

  Climate-driven species range shifts and expansions are changing community composition, yet the functional consequences in natural systems are mostly unknown. By combining a 30-year survey of subalpine pond larval caddisfly assemblages with species-specific functional traits (nitrogen and phosphorus excretion, and detritus processing rates), we tested how three upslope range expansions affected species' relative contributions to caddisfly-driven nutrient supply and detritus processing. A subdominant resident species (Ag. deflata) consistently made large relative contributions to caddisfly-driven nitrogen supply throughout all range expansions, thus "regulating" the caddisfly-driven nitrogen supply. Whereas, phosphorus supply and detritus processing were regulated by the dominant resident species (L. externus) until the third range expansion (by N. hostilis). Since the third range expansion, N. hostilis's relative contribution to caddisfly-driven phosphorus supply increased, displacing L. externus's role in regulating caddisfly-driven phosphorus supply. Meanwhile, detritus processing contributions became similar among the dominant resident, subdominant residents, and range expanding species. Total ecosystem process rates did not change throughout any of the range expansions. Thus, shifts in species' relative functional roles may occur before shifts in total ecosystem process rates, and changes in species' functional roles may stabilize processes in ecosystems undergoing change.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Dissolved free amino acids could be odorants for imprinting and homing by Atlantic Salmon

  Freshwater Science · 2023-10-09 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The phenomenon of homing by salmonid fishes to natal sites for breeding is well established, but the chemicals in rivers that they learn as juveniles and identify as adults are not fully determined. Dissolved free amino acid (DFAA) profiles have been hypothesized to allow salmonids to distinguish their natal river from others nearby. To evaluate this hypothesis, we sampled DFAAs in spring and autumn (when juveniles learn and adults return, respectively) from 3 rivers in New England, USA, that support the landlocked Atlantic Salmon, Salmo salar Linnaeus, 1758. We used 3 approaches to determine the level of consistency between seasons and difference between rivers that would be needed for DFAA to support imprinting and subsequent homing for reproduction: hierarchical cluster analysis, statistical difference tests, and equivalence tests. DFAAs were not detected in the water column of the study rivers, but sediment porewater samples yielded DFAAs at measurable concentrations. Hierarchical cluster analysis, difference testing, and equivalence testing all indicated that some combinations of sediment porewater DFAA concentrations differed among rivers and were similar between spring and autumn within a river. Specifically, equivalence tests revealed subsets of sediment porewater DFAAs that were seasonally equivalent within each river, and none of the seasonally equivalent DFAAs were common among all 3 rivers (i.e., each river had a unique DFAA profile). However, exceptions detected in the cluster analysis and equivalence testing raise questions regarding the extent to which DFAAs might be sufficient for salmon imprinting and homing. Thus, DFAAs may fulfill some of the hypothesized prerequisites as salmon imprinting and homing odor cues, but our lack of understanding of salmon discriminatory abilities and limited DFAA data preclude definitive conclusions about the sufficiency of DFAAs alone as homing cues.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Facilitating the recovery of insect communities in restored streams by increasing oviposition habitat

  Ecological Applications · 2023-12-10 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Recruitment limitation is known to influence species abundances and distributions. Recognition of how and why it occurs both in natural and in designed environments could improve restoration. Aquatic insects, for instance, rarely reestablish in restored streams to levels comparable to reference streams even years after restoration. We experimentally increased oviposition habitat in five out of 10 restored streams in western North Carolina to test whether insect egg-laying habitat was limiting insect populations in restored streams. A main goal was to test whether adding oviposition habitat in the form of rocks that partially protrude above the water surface could be used to increase the abundance and richness of stream insect eggs and larval insects in restored streams. Adding egg-laying habitat enhanced several response variables (e.g., protruding rocks, number of eggs, egg masses, egg morphotype richness, and oviposition habitat stability) to levels similar to those found in reference streams. Following the addition of protruding rocks, egg mass abundance increased by 186% and richness by 77% in restored-treated streams. Densities of larval insects that attached their eggs to protruding rocks showed an overall pattern consistent with treatment effects due to the combination of nonsignificant and significant increases of several taxa and not just one taxon. Our results indicate that these stream insect populations are limited by oviposition habitat and that adding egg-laying habitat alleviated this component of recruitment limitation. However, the weaker larval response indicates that additional post-recruitment factors, such as egg or larval mortality, may still be limiting a full recovery of larval insect abundances in these restored streams. This study shows the importance of integrating information from animal life histories, ecology, and geomorphology into restoration practices to improve the recovery of aquatic insects, which are commonly used to assess water quality and the biological efficacy of stream restoration.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Nature's chefs: Uniting the hidden diversity of food making and preparing species across the tree of life

  BioScience · 2023-04-19 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract There may be no such thing as a free meal, but many species have evolved mechanisms for other species to consume the literal fruits of their labors. In the present article, inspired by a chef's recognition that such species are “nature's chefs,” we consider food-making species from the plant, animal, and fungal kingdoms, which produce food or mimic food to increase their own fitness. We identify three ways that species can produce or prepare meals—as food, drinks, or lures—and further distinguish between those providing an honest meal and those deceiving consumers with food mimics. By considering these species holistically, we highlight new hypotheses about the ecology and evolution of the widespread phenomenon of organisms that produce food for other organisms. We find surprising and useful generalities and exceptions among species as different as apple trees and anglerfish by examining species interactions across taxa, systems, and disciplines.

  PublisherDOI

• Readers of Tea-Leaves: A Common Sense Good-Faith Defense for Private Party Section 1983 Defendants in the Seventh Circuit

  Indiana Health Law Review · 2022-02-08

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  For better or worse, private actors have an increasingly prominent hand in providing historically governmental services in the United States. The privatization of public function is perhaps most apparent in prisons. 1 Private citizens in many prisons are now charged with overseeing prison operations, providing security as guards, and offering medical services to inmates. 2 Government service providers face the prospect of civil liability under 42 U.S.C. 1983 by acting "under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia." 3 Despite the threat of litigation, public officials are generally able to perform their public functions without fear thanks to the qualified or absolute immunities inherent in the functions they perform. 4 In contrast, private citizens performing identical functions do not benefit from those immunity doctrines. 5 The United States Supreme Court, in Wyatt v. Cole, (Wyatt I), held policies favoring the immunity doctrines for public officials do not apply with equal force to private parties. 6 The Court found "principles of equality and fairness" favored qualified immunity for private actors performing public functions, but did not, alone, justify that extension. 7 Without immunity, private citizens, accountable under 1983 for acting under color of law when providing government services, are potentially liable if a law they relied on when providing those services is later deemed * Associate Attorney, Cassiday Schade, LLP,

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Predator-induced effects on insect flight and dispersal across landscapes

  NSF · $310k · 2016–2018

• Collaborative Research: Consequences of Climate-Induced Range Shifts on Multiple Ecosystem Functions

  NSF · $357k · 2016–2022

• EAGER: Discovering how geologic and fossil methane sources support a contemporary river ecosystem

  NSF · $296k · 2018–2019

Frequent coauthors

• R. L. Welcomme

  University of California System

  81 shared

• Carmen Revenga

  The Nature Conservancy

  81 shared

• Zeb Hogan

  University of Nevada, Reno

  81 shared

• Robin Abell

  The Nature Conservancy

  81 shared

• Kirk O. Winemiller

  Texas A&M University

  81 shared

• J. David Allan

  81 shared

• Barbara L. Peckarsky

  38 shared

• Angus R. McIntosh

  University of Canterbury

  34 shared

Labs

• Applied EcologyPI