Investigating how natural and anthropogenic forces influence species distribution and persistence across scales
Analysis of microclimatic temperature patterns in occupied versus unoccupied pika territories in Emerald Lake, Montana, spanning 2021-2024.
Key Focus: Identifying thermal characteristics that determine habitat suitability for American pikas, a climate-sensitive alpine mammal.
Conservation Significance: As climate change constrains alpine species distributions, identifying which thermal characteristics determine habitat suitability becomes critical for conservation planning. By comparing microclimates in occupied versus unoccupied pika territories, this research reveals the specific thermal thresholds and refugia characteristics that enable pika persistence. These findings provide managers with quantitative criteria for identifying high-quality habitat, prioritizing conservation areas, and predicting where populations are most vulnerable to warming—essential information for protecting climate-threatened alpine species.
Coming SoonEmpirical validation of Species Distribution Models (SDMs) using five years of field data from Niwot Ridge LTER. This research tests whether habitat configuration, winter cold stress, and summer heat stress accurately predict American pika occurrence by comparing the Schwalm et al. (2016) model predictions against independent field observations from 72 spatially-representative plots.
Key Focus: Advancing ecological forecasting by testing SDM predictions against long-term empirical data—the first validation using more than two years of independent field observations. This work will either support current understanding of pika range dynamics or reveal novel research directions for improving ecological niche theory and modeling.
Conservation Significance: American pikas serve as sentinel species for climate change impacts. Understanding where pikas persist provides insights into future water resource availability and helps predict ecosystem responses to warming.
Coming SoonA comprehensive model to predict microclimatic temperatures inside talus slopes. This project combines extensive field measurements with statistical modeling in R to understand temperature dynamics in rocky alpine habitats.
Key Focus: Understanding how talus slopes create thermal refugia for alpine species in a changing climate.
Conservation Significance: Conservation planning relies on Species Distribution Models built from weather station data, but these stations measure air temperatures 1.5+ meters above ground within sparse networks. Weather station data does not represent the cool microsites where pikas actually live. By downscaling from weather stations to rock-scale thermal environments, this research reveals where thermal refugia exist and how they might buffer alpine species against warming, providing critical information for targeted conservation strategies.
Learn MoreThis publication expands on our previous project titled "Lagomorph ladders: Assessing a multi-host community and potential for spillover of rabbit hemorrhagic disease at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve" to include a landscape resistance to gene flow model to assess the risk during natal dispersal.
Key Findings:Full project details will be available upon publication. Meanwhile, enjoy fieldwork photos, an overview, and motivation
Conservation Implications:Understanding disease spillover pathways is essential for protecting climate-threatened alpine species. This work will inform targeted monitoring strategies and help managers identify high-risk areas for disease transmission.
Learn MorePublished professional report about our research investigating whether rabbits and hares could act as "ladder fuels"—transmitting Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus type 2 (RHDV2) upslope to American pika populations. We surveyed 115 plots across Great Sand Dunes National Park to map spatial patterns of pika and leporid (rabbit/hare) habitat use and model potential contact zones. This project won the 2023 Rocky Mountains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (RM-CESU) Student Award
Key Findings: Pika occupancy remains high (95%) in the park, while leporid presence (48%) overlaps with pika habitat primarily in subalpine forests. Spatial models identified specific transmission risk areas where disease could spillover from lower-elevation species to climate-threatened pika populations.
Conservation Implications: This work provides critical baseline data for monitoring disease spread and highlights how emerging wildlife diseases could compound climate-mediated threats to cold-adapted species.
Read PublicationFirst implementation of theodolite-based whale monitoring in Mexico. Established a remote field station on Islote Tijeras in Loreto Bay National Park to study how whale-watching and research vessels affect blue whale surface behavior and diving patterns.
Key Findings: Blue whales exhibited vertical avoidance behavior in the presence of boats—increasing dive duration while decreasing surface time and respiratory rates. Land-based observations revealed behavioral patterns more consistent with satellite telemetry studies than boat-based methods, suggesting that observation methodology fundamentally influences behavioral data quality.
Research Significance: This undergraduate thesis demonstrated that where we observe from matters as much as what we observe. The methodology established that non-invasive land-based monitoring reduces observer effects, providing more accurate baseline data for conservation management. Funded by the Society for Marine Mammalogy and Cetacean Society International; awarded third place at the 2014 Mexican Society of Marine Mammalogy congress.
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