Links to my publications can be found by following links to Google Scholar, ResearchGate, or OrcID profiles.
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ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jeff_Martin
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Summary
To study the drivers and effects of body size change, my research has two primary nodes with a few aspects therein:
1. I study the drivers of body size change of bison through the lens of ecology, evolution, vertebrate paleontology, wildlife biology and sciences, and climate and meteorological sciences.
2. I study the effects of body size change of bison through the lens of community-based conservation, adaptive management, natural resource property ownership and stewardship, and environmental identities.
1. I study the drivers of body size change of bison through the lens of ecology, evolution, vertebrate paleontology, wildlife biology and sciences, and climate and meteorological sciences.
- I study the fossil record of bison and associate major climatic changes in the past to the respective changes we see in bison adaptation and evolution to improve the understanding of natural change over large geographic and time scales.
- I study how bison cope with extreme heat and extreme cold (thermoregulation) ranging from central Saskatchewan to southeastern Texas to improve our knowledge of physiological responses to acute and chronic weather and climatic extremes.
- I study how bison adapt their energy use (metabolism) across varying available forages geographically and seasonally using stable isotopes of Carbon and Nitrogen to improve our knowledge of seasonal and geographic scales of dietary effects on bison.
2. I study the effects of body size change of bison through the lens of community-based conservation, adaptive management, natural resource property ownership and stewardship, and environmental identities.
- I study attitudes, values, and practices of wildlife managers (stakeholders) across various geographic scales and across sectors (wildlife populations managed by public, private (for-profit), NGO (non-profit), tribal, and state entities) to gain insight into acceptable practices of management and conservation protocols.
- I study the environmental identities of direct stakeholders (i.e. managers, stewards, and owners) and indirect stakeholders (i.e. consumers, viewers, and recreationalists) of wildlife and wild lands to improve management of wildlife across cultural and geographic areas.
- I study the best-practices and evidence-based practices of private and public bison herd managers to improve the re-coupling of economic externalities and ecological services across wildlife systems.
- Ultimately, my goal is to produce evidence-based policies and recommendations to improve, and perhaps reshape/rethink, management and conservation of wildlife across working and wild lands.
Some FAQs:
Why body size?
- Because body size is a primary control for many ecological interactions for species, including reproductive rates, productivity rates (including but not limited to meat production and population dynamics), lifespans, metabolic demands, and water and dietary consumption.
- I study large-bodied ungulates because they do not receive as much physiological research attention as smaller animals. Many smaller species (less than 10 kg (22 lbs)) have been studied because small animals tend to have short life spans and can have many more generations, which is ideal for the short durations of most scientific studies. However, large animals (especially those greater than 100 kg (220 lbs)) are long-lived and have longer exposures to environmental factors that influence their development, growth, and ecological interactions resulting in body size changes that may seem subtle in absolute numbers, but are in fact relatively large changes (on the order of 11-24% mature body mass loss per 1°C global temperature rise).
- Grasslands are where we find most of these grazers and grasslands are the largest biome on the planet—nearly 40% of our terrestrial landscapes is characterized as a grassland or savanna (grasslands with intermittent trees). This biome is also the most productive for agriculture but is warming and aridifying, resulting in declining productivity.
- Because large-bodied, long-lived grazing ungulates are the most prolific type of animal we use as a meat source (food security), land reclamation purposes, grassland and invasive plant management (think goats for katsu in southeastern USA), and they contribute greatly to global carbon, water, and energy cycles.
- The rates of interactions these animals have with their ecological and economic surroundings are influenced by their mature body sizes, including but not limited to reproduction rates, population levels, rates of consumption of water, food, energy, etc., productivity rates, agriculturally derived gross domestic product values, and life spans.
- When body size shifts, these traits also shift. If left unanticipated or unaccounted for in management or conservation strategy plans on both working lands and wild lands that rely upon consistent and predictable life history traits, this will cause major declines in populations or productivity.
- Managing for higher variability and resilience in agricultural and ecological systems must include the application of variable and allometric life history traits with scaling body size to climatic changes.