Research Assistant

Education

• M.E.S. Wildlife Ecology, Yale University, Connecticut, 2004
• B.S. Environmental Science, Cornell University, New York, 1998

Professional Experience

• 2005 – present, Research Assistant, Ecological Restoration Institute, Northern Arizona University, Arizona
• 2002 – 2005, Teaching and Research Assistant, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, Connecticut
• 2004, Research Assistant, Northeastern University, Nahant, Massachusetts
• 1999 – 2005, Environmental Consultant, Tetra Tech EM Inc., San Francisco, California and Boston, Massachusetts

Research Interests

• My research examines how small mammals respond to different forest management practices, including restoration and fuels reduction treatments, in ponderosa pine forests of the Southwest. I am conducting this research at three scales including species, community, and the predator-prey food web. The first study on species responses to forest management focuses on the golden-mantled ground squirrel as a species that would like respond favorably to restoration treatments. I assess this by comparing ground squirrel home range size, habitat use, and diet in dense forests versus restoration treatments, using radiotelemetry and isotope analysis. The second study examines small mammal community-level responses to forest management practices. I use occupancy modeling and trapping methodology to compare species community composition in sites that have been treated using a variety of methods including thinning, prescribed fire, and restoration. I will also be able to determine extinction/immigration of small mammal populations in response to treatments. The third study uses an evidence-based approach to assess the impacts of forest management up the food-chain, to birds of prey. I use meta-analysis to determine whether changes in habitat, climatic cycles, and/or changes in small mammal community composition or abundance drive raptor population dynamics. Only by examining all three scales can I fully assess diet, habitat use, and predator-prey dynamics as possible drivers of small mammal responses to forest management practices.

Publications

• Schmitz, O.J., E.L. Kalies, and M.G. Booth. 2006. Alternative dynamic regimes and trophic control of plant succession. Ecosystems 9:659-672.

Professional Affiliations

• The Wildlife Society, Arizona Chapter Corresponding Secretary
• Ecological Society of America