Thomas Nudds
Professor, Department of Integrative Biology
Interests: Research in my lab encompasses three broad areas: 1. behavioural, population and community ecology of waterfowl; 2. conservation biology, generally, at scales ranging from genetics to landscapes; and 3. applications of decision analysis and adaptive management to fisheries, forestry and wildlife conservation. Research into the behavioural ecology of geese, seaducks, and trumpeter swans focussed primarily on group formation, with special attention to pre-hatch (nest parasitism, egg dumping) and post-hatch (creching, adoption) periods, brood amalgamation and induced migration. However, the principal focus of waterfowl ecology continues to be comparative and experimental studies of ecology and morphology of duck assemblages in prairie and boreal wetlands, with a long-term view to understanding population fluctuations. Recent work emphasizes food web manipulations in marine intertidal areas and prairie potholes, and the effect of climate and landuse change on distribution, abundance and reproductive success of prairie-nesting ducks. We studied factors affecting the distribution and diversity of birds and mammals in real and functional ecological islands, and analyzed how landscape configuration influences the diversity of vertebrates in and around nature reserves to design protected area networks for the efficient conservation of biodiversity. For this work, we link large scale, long term data about land use and species' distribution and abundance. A reintroduction of an extirpated species afforded a Ômanagement experiment' for effects of genetics on population viability. Finally, we advocate and analyze the treatment of resource management policies as hypotheses that can and should be revised in light of management experience, with special reference to Great Lakes fisheries.