Conservation and landscape genetics of harvested and at-risk species

Research investigates microevolutionary processes like mating, dispersal, gene flow, spatial genetic structure and the impacts of processes like habitat fragmentation, and landscape and environmental change. Projects combine techniques from molecular and landscape ecology including microsatellite and parentage analysis, GIS and spatial analysis. Projects have focused on Eastern box turtles, snowshoe hares, American black bears, woodland jumping mice, and Galapagos lava lizards.

Research focuses on understanding movement ecology and habitat selection and estimating vital rates (e.g. age-specific survival) and other demographic parameters, including genetic effective population size. Projects use radio telemetry, mark-recapture, GIS and spatial and demographic analyses to investigate movement patterns, spatial structure and population demographics. Prrojects focus on eastern massasauga rattlesnakes, spotted turtles, wood turtles, and Galápagos lava lizards.

Assessing effectiveness of conservation management techniques

We often focus research projects on assessing how effective certain conservation techniques are at achieving their goals. Projects use various methods to assess the effectiveness of techniques like habitat restoration or headstarting. Focal species and ecosystems have included wood turtles and oak savannas and eastern box turtles and sand prairies.