Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences

Current research interests include

•land-ocean interactions and human influences on coastal water quality and biodiversity (including climate impacts, and land-based pollution)

Comparative ecology, behavior and conservation of otter species and other endangered carnivores, Phylogeny, evolution and behavior. 

Research Interests:  Assessing alternative Pacific Northwest ecological futures; Pacific salmon policy and management; ecosystem management and alternative management paradigms; ecological policy and decision analysis; interface between science, scientists, and policy.

My research has focused primarily on the ecology of animal and plant interactions, particularly trophic cascade effects involving large herbivores and top predators

Fish ecology and management of marine and freshwater ecosystems; Specifically: 1) Bioenergetics, food webs, physical-biological interactions, and predator-prey interactions among fishes; 2) The ecology of thermal fronts; 3) Ecosystem forecasting; 4) Spatial modeling of fish growth and production;

Fire Behavior and Modeling, Habitat Ecology, Rangeland Ecology, Restoration Ecology, Representation in STEM

Evaluating population level responses of gallinaceous birds to large scale conservation effort and/or habitat perturbations, whether they be natural (e.g., wildfire) or anthropogenic. 

Interactions of ecosystems, land use, and climate change in wetlands and tropical forests (current emphasis is on mangroves and other coastal ecosystems, tropical swamp forests, and riparian zones). Riparian ecology and restoration. Approaches to climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Research Areas: Aquaculture; nutrition of oysters and other bivalves; microencapsulation; polyculture of abalone; genetic selection of oysters.

Avian Ecology, Conservation Biology, Animal Telemetry, Predator-Prey Dynamics, Ecological Energetics, Natural Resource Decision Making Processes, and Communicating Science to Diverse Audiences

Research Areas: Fisheries genetics and genomics, fisheries conservation and management.

• Quantitative ecology & habitat modeling
• Analysis and visualization of whale telemetry data
• Characterization of critical habitat for large whales
• Study of long-distance migration and navigation in whales

Mammalian space use and habitat selection. Human-wildlife issues.

Prospective graduate students should read through Future Ecologists on my Extension Wildlife site before contacting me. 

Ichthyology, Systematics, Evolution, Biodiversity and Conservation of Fishes

I study the impacts of anthropogenic activities (e.g. eutrophication, climate change, overfishing, invasive species) on the functioning of marine benthic communities.

Exotic Species, North American Ungulates. Biology of Introduced Mammals on Islands, Ruminant behavioral ecology

My research interests are on the ecology and management of birds with a particular focus on rare and uncommon raptors and passerines in managed landscapes.

Systematics of fishes, zoogeography of northwest fishes, endangered species recovery, early life history ecology of fishes, and ichthyology.