I am very interested in the science of island restoration, particularly in the role of seabirds on island ecosystems, the mortality pressure from introduced mammals and the change in plant communities with and without predator pressure.
In 2008, Matthew McKown (UC Santa Cruz) and I traveled to Palmyra Atoll to learn more about the effects of rats on island ecosystems. Located in the Central Pacific Ocean (5.8°N and 162.3 °W), Palmyra is both a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge and a private preserve of The Nature Conservancy. We assisted Island Conservation with a bait biomarker trial to empirically validate the bait density needed to eradicate all rats from the Atoll. Funding for our research was provided by Island Conservation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and ‘SEAPRE’, a grant from National Science Foundation’s Research Coordination Network. In 2011, a rat eradication program was implemented and all indications in 2012 are that it was successful.I am very interested in the science of island restoration, particularly in the role of seabirds on island ecosystems, the mortality pressure from introduced mammals and the change in plant communities with and without predator pressure.
On Haida Gwaii, I worked with Laskeek Bay Conservation Society to assess the effects of introduced deer on offshore temperate island ecosystems as well as inventory rare and endemic plants on these islands to document the small niche they occupy in the presence of deer.
This research has been published in a Oxford University Press book, University of Washington Press book, the journal Bioscience and in Laskeek Bay Conservation Society technical reports.