Our research focuses on developing and applying quantitative methods to address questions in conservation biology and environmental risk assessment.

We are currently interested in methods and approaches for predicting the vulnerability of species to global climate change, human land-use, toxicity and other threats. For more information see Research.

If you are interested in joining the Akçakaya lab as a graduate student, please read Information for Prospective Students.

News

Kevin Shoemaker's research is featured in the News section of Nature. The research, which was part of Kevin's PhD and was recently published in Conservation Biology, focused on the viability of North American bog turtle (Glyptemys muhlenbergii) populations, and is relevant to the questions of MVP, conservation triage, and conservation strategies for very rare species.

Jessica Stanton received a Best Poster Award at the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS-NY) at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City (October 10-12, 2012)

Jessica Stanton's research is featured in the Talk Science To Me blog.

H. Resit Akçakaya was awarded the 2012 George Rabb Award for Conservation Innovation, which is given by IUCN Species Survival Commission to individuals in recognition of delivering transformational advances in conservation theory and practice.

Presentations in 2012

H.R. Akçakaya, et al. "Life History Traits and Range Shifts Interact to Determine Species' Vulnerability to Climate Change". At the SCB-North American Congress.

At the 97th annual meeting of ESA

• Kevin T. Shoemaker and H.R. Akçakaya, "Inferring the nature of anthropogenic threats from abundance time series records"
• Jessica Stanton, "Reconstructing the decline and extinction of the passenger pigeon in a spatially explicit and temporally dynamic modeling framework"
• Matthew Aiello-Lammens, "Using herbaria records to examine the spread of the invasive woody plant Frangula alnus"

Highlighted papers

A recent paper in Methods in Ecology and Evolution tested various methods for combining static variables (such as soil or land use) with future climate scenarios in developing species distribution models to project future changes in species' ranges under climate change. Watch a video of Jessica Stanton discussing this paper.

Population density of a gekko species in Madagascar, based on climate change projections.

Global patterns of threat for vertebrates