A fair bit of our research involves questions of applied relevance, both for logistical reasons (it is easier to find funds to work on wolves than tadpoles!), as well as because for many of us our interest in ecology grew directly out of a desire to make a difference for populations and species under duress. Not surprisingly, our research in the realm of conservation biology involves mostly the big furry species.
Population viability assessment and species range limits
We have been involved in assessing the status of several populations, and currently we are active in population viability analysis and range limit determination towards understanding why some populations are imperiled. These efforts tend to be multidisciplinary and involve several collaborators, a range of study systems, and include work such as population genetics, landscape ecology, population ecology, climate analysis, habitat and nutritional ecology, and anthropogenic disturbance assessment.
For instance, we recently completed a comprehensive study of a declining moose population in Minnesota, and showed that the combined effects of climate change, parasitism, and poor nutrition are involved in the dieoff, and in the foreseeable future these factors likely will drive the population to extinction. Consequently, we predict that over the next decades a widespread northward push of the distributional limit for moose will occur.
Currently, we are undertaking assessment of the causes of range recession and numeric decline in Canada lynx populations. Several factors may be implicated in this decline, including isolation of southern populations due to habitat fragmentation and loss of population connectivity, climate change and its effects on winter snow cover and snowshoe hare abundance, and hybridization with bobcats or competition with coyotes. Our work involves the analysis of genetic samples, landscape attributes, as well as population time series for lynx, their prey, and their competitors. Because lynx are listed in the contiguous United States and populations in several Canadian provinces also are faced with decline, this work has notable conservation relevance.
Our second effort in this area concerns the viability of an introduced red wolf population in North Carolina, and the southern extent of eastern wolf distribution in south-central Ontario. In both cases, hybridization with coyotes appears to be a driving factor affecting the range and abundance of wolves. Near the southern edge of Algonquin Provincial Park, we are studying wolves along a hybrid zone with coyotes and documenting differences in population and habitat ecology of the two groups. We suspect that coyotes act as a ‘hybrid swarm’, and that over the long term hybridization could impose a major threat to the genetic integrity of the wolf population in the Park. Because the Park holds the closest genetic remnants to the original eastern wolf species, this research will be critical in understanding the likelihood of the species’ long-term viability both in the Park as well as across its range in Ontario and Quebec.
We have been involved in assessing the status of several populations, and currently we are active in population viability analysis and range limit determination towards understanding why some populations are imperiled. These efforts tend to be multidisciplinary and involve several collaborators, a range of study systems, and include work such as population genetics, landscape ecology, population ecology, climate analysis, habitat and nutritional ecology, and anthropogenic disturbance assessment.
For instance, we recently completed a comprehensive study of a declining moose population in Minnesota, and showed that the combined effects of climate change, parasitism, and poor nutrition are involved in the dieoff, and in the foreseeable future these factors likely will drive the population to extinction. Consequently, we predict that over the next decades a widespread northward push of the distributional limit for moose will occur.
Currently, we are undertaking assessment of the causes of range recession and numeric decline in Canada lynx populations. Several factors may be implicated in this decline, including isolation of southern populations due to habitat fragmentation and loss of population connectivity, climate change and its effects on winter snow cover and snowshoe hare abundance, and hybridization with bobcats or competition with coyotes. Our work involves the analysis of genetic samples, landscape attributes, as well as population time series for lynx, their prey, and their competitors. Because lynx are listed in the contiguous United States and populations in several Canadian provinces also are faced with decline, this work has notable conservation relevance.
Our second effort in this area concerns the viability of an introduced red wolf population in North Carolina, and the southern extent of eastern wolf distribution in south-central Ontario. In both cases, hybridization with coyotes appears to be a driving factor affecting the range and abundance of wolves. Near the southern edge of Algonquin Provincial Park, we are studying wolves along a hybrid zone with coyotes and documenting differences in population and habitat ecology of the two groups. We suspect that coyotes act as a ‘hybrid swarm’, and that over the long term hybridization could impose a major threat to the genetic integrity of the wolf population in the Park. Because the Park holds the closest genetic remnants to the original eastern wolf species, this research will be critical in understanding the likelihood of the species’ long-term viability both in the Park as well as across its range in Ontario and Quebec.