Research

My research interests span the fields of behavior, movement ecology, population biology, and landscape ecology.

Although my doctoral research focused on the wintering behavior and ecology of three tidal marsh songbird species in coastal South Carolina, I am not tied to a particular set of species or habitats. My experiences as a research assistant and a graduate student have involved studies in tropical forests, temperate grasslands, and a variety of coastal habitats. In addition, I have worked with a wide range of bird species and other vertebrate groups (e.g., salamanders, aquatic turtles, and small rodents). Despite this breadth (or, if you like, lack of focus) the overriding goal that unites much of my research experience over the last 12 years is understanding species/habitat relationships to an extent that enables effective modeling and anticipation of the biodiversity challenges that natural communities soon will face.

Doctoral Research

My dissertation research involves a convergence of methodologies. It stems from a long-term winter marsh sparrow monitoring project that I began contributing to in 2012 as a volunteer field technician on Kiawah Island, South Carolina. My dissertation uses the bird banding data set from that project both to derive estimates for the survival and density of three tidal marsh sparrows (Nelson’s, Saltmarsh, and Seaside Sparrows) and to evaluate the suitability of two different open-population capture-recapture analysis paradigms (classical non-spatial mark-recapture analyses (i.e. Cormack-Jolly-Seber model) and a more modern spatially explicit method (i.e. spatial analog of Pradel-Link-Barker model) as described by Efford and Schoefield (2018)).

My dissertation builds upon this fundamental population data with a series of landscape-scale translocation (aka displacement) experiments wherein I captured individual birds and strategically moved them away (up to 2km) from their capture sites across continuous and fragmented salt marsh landscapes. I then used radio telemetry to monitor their return to the capture sites and used the return rate (return success) and speed (return time) to evaluate the functional connectivity of the salt marsh landscape and the degree of within-winter site fidelity among the species.

Finally, the last chapter of my dissertation combines the population data and site fidelity information to generate a risk analysis for the wintering marsh sparrow populations at Kiawah Island. This analysis involves the application of predicted sea-level rise scenarios via Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) simulations to evaluate habitat loss and forecast challenges to the sustainability of tidal marsh songbird populations.

References

Efford, M. G., & Schofield, M. R. (2020). A spatial open‐population capture‐recapture model. Biometrics, 76(2), 392-402.