Broadly, my research interests lie in landscape ecology, conservation planning, and questions relating to species persistence in the context of climate and land-use change. Of particular interest is corridor ecology and examining the roles climate and land-use change have in the efficacy of current strategies to mitigate habitat fragmentation. In response to increasing habitat fragmentation, wildlife corridors have become an important conservation tool for promoting landscape connectivity. However, there remains a need for fundamental behavioral and ecological understanding of large-scale animal movements in order to improve connectivity design. For example, how effective are wildlife corridors at promoting movement for a variety of taxa? How does the habitat matrix affect the distribution of animal populations and their movement between protected areas? What are the best methods for determining which corridors or preserves will be important for species persistence as the climate changes? I explore these questions by studying landscape connectivity and movement patterns of large carnivores in northern California and in the Okavango Delta region of Botswana.
