Mechanisms of Climate Induced Range Shifts in Animals.Over the past century of climate change, scientists and naturalists have observed shifts in species ranges as populations settle in habitat with more optimal local climates. However, the nature and magnitude of these range shifts can be quite heterogeneous in nature. Understanding the role individual variation plays in driving these climate-induced ranged shifts remains a significant challenge in global change biology. To address this, I am using an integrative, cross-disciplinary approach to analyze the effects of inter and intraspecific variation in behavior on climate induced range shift. I will be reviewing the literature for evidence of climate-induced range shift in a variety of temperate mammals, catalogue behavioral traits that facilitate range expansion, and a variety of ecological traits. I will then conduct a meta-analysis of the relationship between traits, human disturbance and range shifts, using those relationships to parameterize agent-based models of individual habitat selection to forecast species' range shift in real time.
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Behavioral Responses to Climate Change in Alpine and Lodgepole ChipmunksMy dissertation research focused on the behavioral ecology of two chipmunk species in the Eastern Sierra Nevada of California, the lodgepole chipmunk (Tamias speciosus) and the alpine chipmunk (Tamias alpinus). These species co-occur in significant portions of their range, but over the past century, the alpine chipmunk has experienced significant upward contractions of its elevational range, while the lodgepole chipmunk's distribution has remained relatively unchanged. These ecologically similar species seem to differ in their capacity to cope with rapid environmental change, and individual behavioral variation could play any role in these differential population level responses. To address this, I employed in-situ behavioral trials and mark recapture studies of free living animals of each species to assess differences in boldness behavior and survival.
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Modeling Anti-Predator BehaviorEscape theory provides a critical conceptual framework for studying the effects of predation risk, including the effects of the costs of fleeing on flight initiation distance (FID), defined as the predator-prey distance at which escape is initiated. As part of an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) appointment at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel Blumstein, I conducted field experiments with a population of yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer) that has been continuously studies since the 1960's. These FID trials simulated the conditions of escape, and therefore assess and model the effects of quantitative variables, as well as degree of human disturbance on a marmot's decision to flee an approaching predator.
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Other Publications
- Harris, N. Harmon-Threatt, A. Moore, A. Halsey, S. Leggett, Z. Childress, J. Wrensford, K. Gordon, S. Kusi, N.A. Mirti, M. Unpacking and confronting the ecosystem of racism experienced by Black scholars in ecology. In Review.