Chris Nadeau

If you had $1000 to invest in the stock market and wanted to ensure the short- and long-term success of that investment, would you: (1) Invest in a stock that is doing really well now, in hopes it will continue to do well in the future? (2) Try to predict which stock will do best in the future despite uncertainty? Or, (3) diversify your portfolio to hedge your bets? Conservation agencies trying to manage species under climate change face similar decisions. When restoring or creating new populations now, is it best to diversify the genetic portfolio of individuals in the population to help the population persist into the future? If so, what mixture of genotypes is best? I am using a variety of field and lab experiments to provide answers to these important questions.

Biologists increasingly recognize that evolution can occur over just a few generations and alter how species interact with each other and their environment. A growing number of studies are suggesting that many species are evolving rapidly in response to climate change. Accounting for and understanding this rapid evolution is critical if we hope to predict the biological impacts of climate change and design effective strategies to conserve biodiversity. I am studying how evolution might change the redistribution of species under climate change, and how evolution and genetic variation can be accounted for when designing climate change adaptation strategies. 

Most climate change studies ignore annual fluctuations in weather and assume that each year will simply be hotter than the previous year.  Moreover, many studies ignore small-scale spatial variation in climate.  Temporal and spatial variation in climate are known to affect the biology, ecology, abundance, distribution, and evolution of many organisms.  Hence, ignoring this variation could dramatically affect our estimates of how species will respond to climate change.  I am currenlty exploring how spatial and temporal variation in climate can affect how species respond to climate change.

Climate change is expected to cause major ecological change. Hence, wildlife management agencies need to adapt management plans to include the potential effects of climate change in order to minimize extinction risk and ensure that future management actions provide long-term benefits for focal species. I developed a climate change vulnerability assessment to overcome many of the limitations of existing vulnerability assessments by taking a spatial approach and using expert knowledge to obtain information on rare and poorly studied species.

Populations of many marsh birds (i.e., rails, bitterns, and grebes) are thought to be declining throughout North America due to the loss and degradation of wetlands. However, rigorous estimates of population trends are not available for many species because they (1) occur in isolated wetlands that are not sampled well by large-scale monitoring programs, (2) are rarely detected visually, and (3) vocalize infrequently.  I coordinated work across North America (led by Dr. Courtney Conway) to develop and field test a standardized monitoring protocol for marsh birds that is now used across much of North America.

Large spring floods on the lower Colorado River were once vital to the quality and persistence of emergent wetlands in the flood plain of the river.  However, water control structures now limit these floods.  Consequently, many management agencies are using active wetland management techniques (e.g., prescribed fire) to manage deteriorating wetlands.  I coordinated numerous field projects (led by Dr. Courtney Conway) to evaluate the effectiveness of many of these wetland management practices at restoring emergent wetlands for two endangered birds.

Burrowing owls are a small owl that nest in burrows created by fossorial mammals.  Burrowing owl abundance is declining in many regions, but appears to be increasing in others.  Moreover, burrowing owls have many interesting behaviors for which the function is currently unknown (e.g., collecting manure to spread at the entrance of their burrow).  I coordinated numerous field projects (led by Dr. Courtney Conway) to monitor populations or burrowing owls and conduct experiments to learn more about the evolution of their interesting behaviors.