Kimberly A. With Professor

Research in the Laboratory for Landscape and Conservation Ecology (LLACE) is conducted at the interface of landscape ecology and conservation biology, and is distinguished by a combination of theoretical and empirical investigations into the ecological consequences of habitat loss, fragmentation, and land management. Research in the LLACE spans a wide range of scales and a diverse array of systems, from the predictive modelling of species' extinction risk and the risk of invasive or disease spread in fragmented landscapes; to the investigation of arthropod responses to habitat fragmentation in experimental landscapes; to the response of vertebrate populations to grassland-management practices in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas and in the Brazilian Cerrado.

My research program explores the ecological consequences of habitat loss, fragmentation, and land management.

Area(s) of Specialization:

• Landscape Ecology and Conservation Biology.

Specialization:

• Conservation biology, landscape ecology of insects

Some of our recent research projects have involved:

• Modelling extinction risk and the adaptive response of migratory songbirds to habitat loss and fragmentation
• Assessing the regional viability of grassland birds in the Flint Hills, the largest remaining tallgrass landscape in the world
• Determining the landscape ecology of invasive spread
• Assessing the risk of disease spread in spatially heterogeneous landscapes (landscape epidemiology)
• Evaluating landscape and population connectivity for vertebrates (snakes and lizards) in managed grasslands
• Experimental landscape ecology:  partitioning the direct and indirect effects of habitat amount versus fragmentation on species and their interactions (insects)
• Studying the effects of land management and landscape context on the abundance and distribution of vertebrates (anurans and bats) in the Brazilian Cerrado, a tropical savanna and global biodiversity hotspot.

Research: Fundamental Insect Science

Subject areas:

• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.