Northern Arizona University
IGERT: Intergrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship

Paul BeierDr. Paul Beier

Wildlife Ecology

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Two very different research strands in our lab address the IGERT “genes to ecosystems” theme. First, Bill Bridgeland started a project to determine whether forest birds eat enough tree-eating arthropods to affect tree growth and reproduction – that is whether birds exert enough top-down regulation to drive a trophic cascade. We quickly realized that a more interesting question is to measure the strength of such regulation, and what factors affect it, particularly how genetically-controlled tolerance for keystone arthropods influences the trophic cascade. Bill is building whole-tree exclosures to remove birds from some experimental trees. We are generating as many questions as we answer, opening doors for new projects.

Second, while in our lab, Brad McRae (now at NCEAS) developed a novel and successful “isolation by distance” (IBR) model to account for patterns of population genetics in heterogeneous landscapes. Although the model was developed in the context of genetics, we see exciting opportunities to adapt it to design and evaluate proposed wildlife corridors – a problem we have been working for over 15 years. For example (if genetic data are available for a species in a regional landscape), the model could parameterize a cost surface; this should be superior to the current practice of inferring travel cost from habitat suitability maps. It will be a challenge to tackle the conceptual and statistic difficulties of this procedure or other applications of the IBR model to landscape connectivity.

Finally, “genes to ecosystems” thinking can also help conservation biologists evaluate how well a corridor functions after a corridor design has been implemented. It may be a decade before we have a statistically robust sample of scientifically-designed corridors truly conserved in real landscapes. Conservation practitioners need feedback before then to determine whether corridor designs are working, but monitoring dollars are precious. Designing a cost-effective, rigorous, gene-based monitoring program that can be applied to any landscape of interest would be a major contribution to conservation science.

 
For more information click on the links below:
IGERT Program Summary
Students, Faculty & Their Research
Application Procedure & Information
NAU IGERT Materials for Students
IGERT Undergraduate Program
Resources for Ecological Analysis in R

Program Directors:
Amy Whipple, Assistant Research Professor and MP Research Station
Director, Amy.Whipple@nau.edu

Catherine Gehring, Associate Professor of Biology, Catherrine.Gehring@nau.edu

Maribeth Watwood, Professor and Chair of Biological Sciences, Maribeth.Watwood@nau.edu
 
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