We live in a time of extreme biodiversity loss popularly known as the sixth mass extinction event. To mitigate future losses there is an urgent need to understand how remnant wildlife populations are adapting to global change. Taking the more optimistic glass half full perspective, there are opportunities for science to help advance the restoration of wildlife populations. Our research seeks to inform management that falls along these two themes of either conserving or restoring wildilfe populations.
Mammalian community ecologyWe are interested in understanding the vulnerability and resiliency of mammalian wildlife communities to environmental change, particularly habitat alteration, emerging infectious disease, human persecution, and changing predator communities. We typically conduct observational and experimental research on remnant populations of impacted mammalian species to better understand how they are responding to changing conditions, and how those responses influence mammals at other trophic levels. We utilize these data to build predictive models on how species will respond to and function in the future. Perhaps most importantly, our research is always based on informing urgent conservation decisions facing managers.
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Restoration of wildlife populationsGrowth in the field of reintroduction biology over the past 20 years has been exponential, leading to new tools and frameworks for successfully restoring species. Our lab group tests restoration approaches and provides information critical to enhancing those tools for the future restoration of fish and wildlife populations. Further, the testing of these approaches often leads to novel ecological understanding of the functioning of ecosystems and associated ecological theory.
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Small carnivore conservationSmall carnivores are on the decline globally, with comparatively little research on what is causing their declines. We are interested in filling these conservation knowledge gaps to inform better management of small carnivores by conducting studies on the basic species' natural history, helping design better monitoring strategies and provide recommendations on how to mitigate threats to populations of these species.
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