Brandon Peoples

Associate Professor of Fisheries Ecology
Forestry and Environmental Conservation Department

Office: Lehotsky 232
Phone: 864-656-4855

Email: peoples@clemson.edu
Vita: Download CV
Personal Website: http://peoplesfish.weebly.com/

Educational Background

PhD Fish & Wildlife Conservation
Virginia Tech 2015

MS Fisheries & Wildlife Science
Virginia Tech 2010

BS Fisheries & Wildlife Biology
Arkansas Tech 2007

Courses Taught

Undergraduate:
-Ichthyology (WFB 4771), every fall
-Fisheries Techniques (WFB 4611), every spring
-Creative Inquiry: Fish Biodiversity Challenge (FNR 4700-030), every semester
-Creative Inquiry: Black Bass Conservation (FNR 4700-041), every semester

Graduate:
-Analysis & Communication in Ecology (WFB 8550), even-year springs
-Fish Ecology (WFB 8540, online), every summer

Research Interests

Our team studies fishes and the habitats and interactions that sustain them. We work in a variety of systems from small mountain streams to large tidal rivers to understand fish population and community patterns. We use observational field studies, experiments, and modeling of large datasets to investigate key questions regarding reproductive ecology, invasive species, population characteristics, and movement.

Publications

A few recent publications representative of what our team does:

-*Thompson, L.M., *W.K. Annis, J.D. Olden, S.R. Midway, & B.K. Peoples. 2025. Spatial Scale and the Underestimation of Stream Fish Community Invadedness. Global Ecology & Biogeography. DOI: 10.1111/geb.13951.

-*Annis, W.K., *L.M. Thompson, J.D. Olden, S.R. Midway, & B.K. Peoples. 2025. Indirect Effects and Context Dependency in Stream Fish Invasions. Diversity & Distributions. DOI: 10.1111/ddi.13968.

-Cheek, C., B.K. Peoples, C. Dott, & R.R. Goforth. Crossing the line: Mutualism between invasive species at the terrestrial–aquatic interface. Freshwater Biology. DOI: 10.1111/fwb.14356.

-Ureta, J.U, J.C. Ureta, *L.M. Bower, B.K. Peoples, & M. Motallebi. The value of improving freshwater ecosystem services: South Carolina residents’ willingness to pay for improved water quality. Journal of Environmental Management 353: 120260.

-*Sliger, R., J. Graham, K. Hoenke, M.E. Kimball, K.A. Sterling, & B.K. Peoples. Integrating fish swimming abilities into rapid road crossing barrier assessment: Case studies in the southeastern United States. PLoS One. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298911.

-Chen, K., Midway, S. R., Peoples, B.K., Wang, B., & Olden, J. D. 2023. Shifting taxonomic and functional community composition of rivers under land use change. Ecology, e4155.

-*Denison, C.D., A. Cottrell, T.M. Farmer, D.A. Fox, D.M. Hood, W.C. Post, G. Sorg, E. Waldrop, & B.K. Peoples. Seasonal migration cues differ for dual-spawning Atlantic Sturgeon in the Great Pee Dee River. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. DOI: 10.1002/tafs.10431.

-Evelyn, E., J.C. Morse, & B.K. Peoples. 2023. Facilitation of benthic assemblages by Bluehead Chubs: Testing the stress-gradient hypothesis in streams. Ecology of Freshwater Fish. DOI: 10.1111/eff.12748.

-*Brumm, K. J., R. D. Hanks, R. F. Baldwin, and B. K. Peoples. 2022. A scale-linked conservation planning framework for freshwater ecosystems. Landscape ecology 37:2589-2605.

-*Bower, L. M., B. K. Peoples, M. C. Eddy, and M. C. Scott. 2022. Quantifying flow–ecology relationships across flow regime class and ecoregions in South Carolina. Science of the Total Environment 802:149721.

-Peoples, B. K., T. M. Farmer, and J. H. Roberts. 2022. Applied Fish Ecology. Pages 643-694 in S. R. Midway, C. L. Hasler, and P. Chakrabarty, editors. Methods for Fish Biology, Second Edition. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda.

-*Stoczynski, L., Brown, B. L., Midway, S. R., & Peoples, B. K. 2021. Landscape features and study design affect elements of metacommunity structure for stream fishes across the eastern USA. Freshwater Biology 66:1736-1750.

-Peoples, B.K., E. Judson*, T.L. Darden, D.J. Farrae, K. Kubach, J. Leitner, and M.C. Scott. 2021. Modeling distribution of endemic Bartram’s Bass: disturbance and proximity to invasion source increase hybridization with invasive Alabama Bass. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 41:1309-1321.

-*Denison, C. D., M. C. Scott, K. M. Kubach, and B. K. Peoples. 2021. Integrating Regional Frameworks and Local Variability for Riverine Bioassessment. Environmental Management 68:126-145.

-*Brumm, K. J., R. D. Hanks, R. F. Baldwin, and B. K. Peoples. 2021. Accounting for multiple dimensions of biodiversity to assess surrogate performance in a freshwater conservation prioritization. Ecological Indicators 122:107320.

-*Silknetter, S., R. P. Creed, B. L. Brown, E. A. Frimpong, J. Skelton, and B. K. Peoples. 2020. Positive biotic interactions in freshwaters: A review and research directive. Freshwater Biology 65:811-832.



*indicates a graduate or postdoctoral mentee

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