Expertise

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.
Past Affiliations

Associate Professor, Division of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Kansas State University

Ancillary Associate Professor, Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Kansas State University

Assistant Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, Kansas State University (past)

Ancillary Assistant Professor, College of Agriculture, Kansas State University (past)

Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences, Bowling Green State University (past)

Communities
Biological Science, Entomology
Degrees
PhD, Colorado State University, Zoology, 1993
MS, Northern Arizona University, Biology, 1988
BS, San Francisco State University, Biology (Zoology), 1985
Keywords
animal ecology population biology biological sciences conservation biology ornithology landscape ecology environmental sciences environmental biology
Honors

Marsh Ecology Book of the Year Award (With 2019. Essentials of Landscape Ecology. Oxford University Press, UK), British Ecological Society, 2020

Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award, International Association for Landscape Ecology--North America (IALE-North America), 2016

Outstanding Paper , International Association for Landscape Ecology--North America, 2002

Outstanding Paper , International Association for Landscape Ecology--North America, 1996

Associations
Ecological Society of America
International Association for Landscape Ecology
Society for Conservation Biology