Wildlife and conservation biology

Ensuring the survival of the world’s wildlife populations requires a complex understanding of the relationship between wildlife and their environment. Faculty and graduate students at URI conduct fundamental and applied ecological studies of wildlife, emphasizing this relationship at the scale of the individual, the population, the community, and the ecosystem. Research is conducted in cooperation with public and private natural resource organizations at local, state, national, and international levels.

Examples of recent and current research projects include: a long-term study of the ecology, genetics, and behavior of the Agrimi, the endangered Cretan mountain goat; faunal surveys in remnant patches of Atlantic forest in coastal Brazil; population ecology of breeding colonial waterbirds on Long Island, New York; ecology of Snowy Plovers at Great Salt Lake, Utah; nutritional ecology of arctic-nesting geese in Canada and Alaska; physiology and behavior of songbirds at stopover sites during migration; population dynamics of amphibians in Rhode Island vernal pools; and the influence of habitat and landscape features on avian species and communities in wetlands.