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Research Interests

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1. Ecological niche variation and biodiversity conservation How can we measure biological diversity and ask what processes maintain or threaten it?  I embrace ecological niche concepts, which figure prominently in evolutionary ecology and, increasingly, conservation.  In a variety of animals, I use stable isotope analysis to evaluate niche diversity at the species, population, and individual level.  A long-term project I lead on Rainforest Wolves and their prey in coastal British Columbia reveals tremendous variation among populations and individuals, driven by both a naturally fragmented landscape and marine resource subsidies like salmon.  My current and future work in this system investigates how this ecological niche variation in turn drives genetic, behavioural, and phenotypic diversity in not only wolves but also bears, herbivores, and disease agents.  I work on similar ecological problems with collaborators in taxa ranging from Canadian arthropods to African carnivores, systems united by similar pressures from contemporary environmental change.  In a world of increasing landscape homogenization and declining natural resources, my work evaluates whether management prescriptions that safeguard some ‘average niche’ for a population can adequately protect diverse populations and the ecological and evolutionary processes underlying them.

 

2. Harvest selection and phenotypic evolution of exploited prey
Example image - aligned to the right In stark contrast with most natural predators, human fishers and hunters commonly target large, reproductively mature individuals and exploit high proportions of populations.  How does this affect biological diversity?  Although never examined, rapid phenotypic changes in the morphology and reproductive biology of exploited prey should be a common pattern.  Using a meta-analytical approach, I am asking how evolutionary rates in human predator systems compare with those in studies examining both natural and other human-driven episodes of selection in the wild.  I am also using time series models to ask if rates might be particularly rapid during certain periods of exploitation, and if management prescriptions like moratoria and changes in capture technology can invoke ‘phenotypic restoration’ in exploited prey.  Finally, I am complementing these quantitative approaches by reviewing the broad suite of technological, economic, and political forces that allow industrial and recreational human predators to change the phenotypic face of biodiversity.

 

3. Conservation Ethics - taking Animal Welfare into the wild
Example image - aligned to the right Whether humans affect wild animals directly (e.g. exploitation) or indirectly (e.g. habitat change), we can cause remarkable suffering. This should not be of trivial concern to conservation scientists. We are well-equipped to recognize animal sentience. Indeed, this is why I practice and advocate for non-invasive research methods. What remains absent, however, is a united animal welfare ethic in the wild, largely because interested parties diverge in perspective. Specifically, conservation scientists focus concern at the population level, monitoring metrics like population growth. Animal welfare scientists, in contrast, largely overlook wild animals, instead concentrating on animals under human care, such as farm, research and companion animals. Most of the public interested in animal welfare likewise focus on these groups, but show disproportionate interest in the suffering of individual animals. How might we proceed when these perspectives collide? When ecological restoration calls for lethal removal of invasive animals? When threats of disease outbreaks argue for the slaughter of thousands of farm animals? I am working with a team of philosophers and scientists to establish guidelines that unite animal welfare and wildlife conservation so that these vexing ethical and practical problems can be addressed.