Research Program

** Note, as of late 2012: due to new fiscal austerity, I will not be accepting any new graduate students who do not already have scholarship or research funding.

Species endangerment occurs only when populations decline past a risk threshold.  These declines can lead to a vortex: failed reproduction reduces recruitment and reduced recruitment precludes reproduction.  The behavioural link between the processes of reproduction (demography) and recruitment (habitat selection and colonization) is dispersal.  Therefore, to provide the greatest gains in preventing and/or reversing species endangerment, the study of dispersal and its attendant processes is the foundation of my research program.  Current and Past Research in my lab serves to provide practical advice on the management of species-at-risk and advancing our general understanding of conservation biology theory and techniques. 

There are two main tenets that guide our current research: (1) even within a species different factors regulate the strategies used by terrestrial animals during dispersal and habitat selection, and (2) in the face of current environmental change, it is critical that we learn what these factors are.