STATISTICAL MODELING OF ANIMAL POPULATION DYNAMICS, SPACE-USE, AND MOVEMENT ECOLOGY

Wildlife populations are increasingly affected by changes to climate dynamics and land-use. We need a complete understanding of how landscape-level changes effect animal movement and space-use, and how these processes contribute to survival and reproduction, in order to make robust management decisions. Therefore, we need to:1) develop statistical methods to connect ecological processes,2) apply these methods to wildlife populations to answer relevant management questions, and3) use these methods, along with additional statistical tools, to determine why species and sub-populations respond differently.This project focuses on achieving these goals for wildlife both in Pennsylvania and across North America. Work will focus on a range of systems:potential systems and questions include determining the effect of forest management practices and hunting pressure on ungulates (white-tailed deer and elk), assessing the contribution of movement processes to the genetic composition of waterfowl populations, evaluating the connection between habitat-use and mortality in waterfowl populations and how this can contribute to population trends, improving our understanding of bat species' habitat use and population trends, and determining temporal changes in stream fish habitat use across multiple species.