The underlying theme of my research is the intersection of theory and application in evolutionary ecology and biogeography, and I am particularly interested in how findings from such studies can be applied to conservation of biodiversity. Taken together, my interests fall rather neatly into a recently identified research field that has been dubbed Conservation Biogeography, in which I have a specific focus on the mechanisms and consequences of habitat selection.
This interest in a broad view of biodiversity conservation has led me to explore, for example, how microclimate varies with respect to edge in tropical forests and in turn how that variation affects regional bird populations (Biol. Conserv. 155:85–93, 2012), how predictors of extinction risk vary with spatial scale (Conserv. Biol. 25:1203–1211, 2011), how a vulnerable species shifts its home range and spatial patterns in habitat use in response to energy development (Conserv. Biol. 23:1253–1259, 2009), and how occupancy of an assemblage of birds changed over a century in response to regional deforestation (Biodivers. Conserv. 19:21–36, 2010). And we recently explored whether limitations and conflicts associated with surrogacy—the use of one set of species to design a reserve to protect other sets of species—can be overcome by considering a suite of taxa in combination to assess reserve selection (Biotropica 47:128–135, 2015). Moreover, my specific interest in habitat selection has spawned conceptual, theoretical, and experimental explorations of its underpinnings and effects (e.g., Evolution 58:2144–2155, 2004; J. Wildl. Manage. 69:1270–1278, 2005; Ecol. Appl. 20:2148–2156, 2010; Biol. Rev. 90:1248–1262, 2015).
Within the realm of conservation biogeography, my research program has four foci:
1) anthropogenic impacts on tropical forests and associated effects on biodiversity,
2) evolutionary ecology and population genetics of the Song Sparrow,
3) conservation ecology of grassland birds, and
4) biogeography and macroecology of Odonata (and now Asilidae, too).
From:
Patten MA, Kelly JF (2010) Habitat selection and the perceptual trap. Ecol. Appl. 20:2148–2156.
