Our research uses movement ecology as a framework to understand how individuals and populations respond to changes in their environment in order to project how future change may alter a population’s dynamics and evolutionary trajectory. ​
Our Philosophy
​The natural world knows no political boundaries. That means that we are all stakeholders in the conservation of our biodiversity and our lab welcomes the involvement of anyone and everyone, no matter where they come from or how they identify themselves. We are also working to overcome our own biases, as well as those that have long prevailed in the scientific and conservation communities, by learning from and engaging with the communities whose lives intersect with the species we study.

Breaking News

  • Whimbrel are among the many long-distance migratory shorebirds exhibiting increasingly rapid declines. Previous studies have suggested that low adult survival is the main cause. In our new study in Journal of Avian Biology lead by Anne Ausems, we used both contemporary and historical data on adult Whimbrel survival to test this hypothesis. Surprisingly, we found that survival rates have not changed in 40 years. Although we did find the survival rates are likely too low to maintain a stable population size, declines in reproductive success are the likely cause of the increasingly steep declines. This is critical information, as most current conservation efforts are focused on stopover sites.
  • Check out the latest from Rose Swift's PhD research in the journal Ibis. Rose found that disturbance and predation risk have substantial negative effects on the condition and distribution of Hudsonian Godwits during the nonbreeding season. In combination with her results from the breeding grounds with the same individual godwits, this study shows how profoundly disturbance can influence the population dynamics of migratory species. 
nsenner at umass.edu
Department of Environmental Conservation
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Holdsworth Hall 219
Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.A.