Webinar: Physiological mechanisms influencing population dynamics and distribution in desert systems
Channel: Conservation and Adaptation Resources Toolbox
Date: 2015-11-09

DATE: Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at 9 AM Pacific

Presenter: 
Dr. Gary W. Roemer, Associate Professor, Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology, New Mexico State University

Abstract:
The southwest US is predicted to grow hotter and drier this century with the probability of a long-term megadrought becoming more likely. Vertebrate populations in the southwest US will either have to adapt to these harsher conditions, shift their ranges to newly suitable regions, or, in extreme cases, be assisted by humans.

In this webinar I will showcase 3 case studies that underscore the potential importance of physiological based mechanisms for explaining the population dynamics of desert mammal populations. The first focuses on the influence of abiotic and biotic drivers on the survival of a supremely adapted desert rodent, the banner-tailed kangaroo rat. The second explores the influence of a short-term drought on the efficacy of reintroducing black-tailed prairie dogs into desert grasslands at the southern extent of their range. And the final study, explores ecological interactions between the kit fox, a desert adapted carnivore, and its intraguild predator, the coyote, in White Sands National Monument, New Mexico. Management actions that could mitigate the influence of a hotter and drier southwest are discussed.

Biography:
Gary received his BS in Biology from UW- Parkside, his MS in Wildlife from Humboldt State University, and his PhD in Biology from UCLA. He worked for 16 years on the California Channel Islands employed by a non-profit wildlife management institute, before being hired by NMSU’s wildlife department where he has been for the past 14 years. His work centers on a mechanistic understanding of the factors driving the dynamics and distribution of vertebrate populations, primarily mammals and birds. He has several active projects in the SW including examining the interspecific interactions of carnivores, rabies disease dynamics in gray foxes, population dynamics of an urban Cooper’s hawk population, and the landscape genetics of golden eagles.