Conservation Science

Fellow Story

Wiley part of 'whalecopter' team

Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have developed and successfully tested a method of collecting vital data on whales. According to a WHOI release, researchers used "whalecopters" to photograph and take non-invasive samples from humpback whales in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in July.
August 19, 2015
Fellow Story

Wolf says next hunting season could do irreversible damage to rare wolf population in Alaska

In 1994, southeast Alaska was home to about 300 Prince of Wales wolves, a subspecies of Alexander Archipelago wolves. By 2013, there were fewer than 250. Last year the population plummeted 60 percent to 89 wolves. New numbers confirm that the rare breed may have dropped to as few as 50. But the diminishing numbers won’t stop hunters from trapping and killing the wolves, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is moving ahead with its 2015–2016 hunting and trapping season on Prince of Wales Island.
August 13, 2015
Fellow Story

Forrester part of team that discovers cats don't roam where coyotes are present

In one of the largest studies of its kind, a volunteer-fueled camera trapping effort showed that where coyotes have moved in, cats are nowhere to be found.
August 4, 2015
Fellow Story

UMass Amherst hosts regional stream crossing database coordinated by Levine

If you have ever witnessed the damage done by hurricanes that result in severe flooding to regional roads and wash outs at stream crossings, you may long for a crystal ball that would help prevent future destructive scenarios. However, the University of Massachusetts and their collaborators have a much better plan: assess and develop protocols that determine which roadway stream crossings are most vulnerable to climate change conditions well in advance of a disaster. Oh, and place culverts at the top of that list.
August 3, 2015
Fellow Story

Johnson hopes for a drought of invasives in 'water-wise' yards

Many Californians appear to be taking up Gov. Jerry Brown's call for the removal of 50 million square feet of lawn energetically and enthusiastically. But all that energy may be misplaced: As homeowners and businesses seek out drought-tolerant, low-water plants at local nurseries and big-box garden departments, they may unwittingly be picking up invasive plants that wreak havoc on the state's ecology. ...
August 3, 2015
Fellow Story

de Gouvenain's mentorship featured in student profile

Biology major Bruno Ramos ’15 discovered the field of research by focusing on an area of biology he disliked most – the study of plants. “My intention is to go into the medical field,” Ramos said. “So, whenever the study of plants came up in my intro to biology courses, I couldn’t understand how it was relevant to me.” But when the future doctor became a recipient of a STEM scholarship in the spring of 2012, he decided to challenge his own bias and find out if he could possibly be wrong about plants.
July 30, 2015
Fellow Story

Washburn on sage grouse war in West

When Jack Connelly first began studying the greater sage grouse in Idaho in the late 1970s, "it was not unusual to see 500 in a single flock," says the biologist, who is retired from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. "Today, it would be unusual to see 200." That dramatic decline has made the sage grouse—a large, pointy-tailed bird with showy mating habits—the subject of one of the biggest endangered species battles ever in the United States.
June 30, 2015
Fellow

Joseph Hoyt

2015 Fellow
Joseph is currently a Research Scientist in Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech. He did his Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). His dissertation research has focused on the ecology of infectious wildlife diseases. He...
Fellow

Megan Kelso

2015 Fellow
Megan is a NatureNet Science Fellow at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and The Nature Conservancy. She is a specialist in blue carbon, the carbon stored in coastal vegetated ecosystems such as salt marshes, seagrass...
Fellow

Katherine Zeller

2015 Fellow
Kathy's research uses theory and methods from landscape ecology, wildlife biology, biostatistics, landscape genetics and conservation biology to model animal populations, movement, and habitat use in both wildlands and human-dominated...