Department of Environmental Conservation

Adjunct Associate Professor

USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station
Research Wildlife Biologist
Email: rbrooksrbrooks(at)eco.umass.edu

Primary interests

Dr. Brooks’ principal research interests are catchment-scale studies of seasonal forest ("vernal") pool habitats in New England forests. He is interested in the ecology of these under-studied ephemeral aquatic habitats and their unique fauna. He has studied the effects of pool hydroperiod (duration of wet phase) and of pool size and isolation (island biogeographic effects) on aquatic invertebrates. He is currently studying the effectiveness of forestry Best Management Practices for vernal pools in protecting pool fauna, both amphibians and invertebrates. Dr. Brooks has recently begun a study of forest bat community of southern New England, with a specific focus on the northern long-eared bat or northern myotis.

Dr. Brooks also works with the Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis on snag (standing-dead trees) dynamics in northeastern forests and on the development of a “report card” for publicizing the status of northeastern forest resources.

Current Projects

• Hydrology of seasonal forest ("vernal") pool systems
• Effectiveness of forestry vernal pool BMPs for the conservation of faunal resources
• Bat species occurrence and activity in forest habitats of southern New England

Selected Recent Publications 

Brooks, Robert T. 2000. Annual and seasonal variation and the effects of hydroperiod on benthic macroinvertebrates of seasonal forest ("vernal") ponds in central Massachusetts, USA. Wetlands. 20: 707-715.

Brooks, Robert T. and Masaki Hayashi. 2002. Volume-area-depth and hydroperiod of ephemeral (“vernal”) forest pools in southern New England. Wetlands. 22: 247-255.

Brooks, Robert T. et al. 2002. The impact of urbanization on water and sediment chemistry of ephemeral forest pools. Journal of Freshwater Ecology. 17: 485-488.

Brooks, Robert T. 2004. Weather-related effects on woodland vernal pool hydrology and hydroperiod. Wetlands. 24: 104-114.

Brooks, Robert T. and Peter W. C. Paton. 2005. Introduction to the symposium: Woodland Vernal Pools in the Northern Temperate Forests. Wetlands Ecology and Management. 13: 211-212.

Brooks, Robert T. 2005. A review of basin morphology and pool hydrology of isolated ponded wetlands: implications for seasonal forest pools of the northeastern United States . Wetlands Ecology and Management. 13: 335-348.