Frances E.C. StewartWilfrid Laurier University | WLU · Department of Biology
Frances E.C. Stewart
PhD
Canada Research Chair in Northern Wildlife Biology
About
29
Publications
15,122
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Introduction
I am a wildlife ecologist interested in human influences on animal ecology. My research spans the autecological - macroecological divide; I use field, genetic, and statistical methods to quantify ecological processes, and more recently project these processes through time using simulations. My ultimate goal is to better understand the predictors of species persistence in varying environments.
Find out more at my webpage: www.StewartResearch.ca or Follow me on Twitter @StewartResearch.
Additional affiliations
May 2018 - present
January 2014 - April 2018
September 2010 - August 2012
Publications
Publications (29)
Outdoor recreation is widespread, with uncertain effects on wildlife. The human shield hypothesis (HSH) suggests that recreation could have differential effects on predators and prey, with predator avoidance of humans creating a spatial refuge 'shielding' prey from people. The generality of the HSH remains to be tested across larger scales, wherein...
Conservation approaches that efficiently protect multiple values, such as the umbrella species concept, have been widely promoted with expected dramatic ecosystem changes. Due to its social and cultural importance, and recent declining trends, boreal populations of woodland caribou have been suggested as potential umbrella species for other declini...
Most research on boreal populations of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) has been conducted in areas of high anthropogenic disturbance. However, a large portion of the species' range overlaps relatively pristine areas primarily affected by natural disturbances, such as wildfire. Climate‐driven habitat change is a key concern for the cons...
The Bowtie Risk Assessment Technique (BRAT) is a risk analysis approach that can be used to visualize and synthesize the key elements of an environmental risk assessment. This guide explains use of the BRAT for risk assessment and analysis in the context of regional environmental issues (including threats posed by cumulative effects). Original at:...
Aim:
Macroecological studies that require habitat suitability data for many species often derive this information from expert opinion. However, expert-based information is inherently subjective and thus prone to errors. The increasing availability of GPS tracking data offers opportunities to evaluate and supplement expert-based information with de...
Making predictions from ecological models-and comparing them to data-offers a coherent approach to evaluate model quality, regardless of model complexity or modelling paradigm. To date, our ability to use predictions for developing, validating, updating, integrating and applying models across scientific disciplines while influencing management deci...
Distributions of landbirds in Canadian northern forests are expected to be affected by climate change, but it remains unclear which pathways are responsible for projected climate effects. Determining whether climate change acts indirectly through changing fire regimes and/or vegetation dynamics, or directly through changes in climatic suitability m...
Making predictions from ecological models – and comparing these predictions to data – offers a coherent approach to objectively evaluate model quality, regardless of model complexity or modeling paradigm. To date, our ability to use predictions for developing, validating, updating, integrating and applying models across scientific disciplines while...
Prediction from models and data in Ecology has a long history and can be made from many types of statistical, simulation, and other classes of models. To date, our ability to use the predictive approach as a tool for developing, validating, updating, integrating and applying models across scientific disciplines and to influence management decisions...
For species at risk, it is important that demographic models be consistent with our most recent knowledge because alternate model versions can have differing predictions for wildlife and natural resource management. To establish and maintain this consistency, we can compare predicted model values to current or past observations and demographic know...
Boreal caribou (Woodland Caribou, boreal population; Rangifer tarandus caribou) is a prominent mammal at the heart of a decades-long conflict between a growing resource sector and the associated risks to biodiversity. We employed the ISO 31010 Bow-tie Risk Assessment Tool (BRAT) to evaluate the cumulative effects of anthropogenic and natural factor...
Protected areas (PA) networks are promoted globally as an effective method of biodiversity conservation and are increasingly implemented to meet the Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi objectives. However, whether PA networks actually conserve biodiversity, and how surrounding landscape features impact their efficacy, is controversial. We used...
Biologging data allow animal ecologists to directly measure species’ fine-scale spatiotemporal responses to environments, such as movement – critical for our understanding of biodiversity declines in the Anthropocene. Animal movement between resource patches is a behavioral expression of multiple ecological processes that affect individual fitness....
The use of bait (or attractants) to lure animals to a sampling site is common in wildlife research and important for optimizing species detection rates. The effect of bait on animal movement and space‐use, however, is contested, fueled by concerns bait may affect animal movement and increase residency time. If founded, bait may bias parameter estim...
Density estimation is integral to the effective conservation and management of wildlife. Camera traps in conjunction with spatial capture-recapture (SCR) models have been used to accurately and precisely estimate densities of “marked” wildlife populations comprising identifiable individuals. The emergence of spatial count (SC) models holds promise...
The estimation of animal population density is a fundamental goal in wildlife ecology and management, commonly met using mark recapture or spatial mark recapture (SCR) study designs and statistical methods. Mark-recapture methods require the identification of individuals ; however, for many species and sampling methods, particularly noninvasive met...
Animal ecologists often use stationary point-count surveys, such as camera traps, to collect presence–absence data and infer distribution, abundance, and density of species. Rarely do these surveys explicitly consider variations in the magnitude of animal movement despite movement assumptions being implicit in their interpretation. For example, eco...
Reintroductions are a common tool for restoring lost biodiversity around the globe and across taxa. The decision to pursue a reintroduction is often based upon the success of past efforts, yet in most cases the assumption that resulting populations are the products of recolonization, is not tested. By collecting data from source populations , reint...
The heat dissipation limit (HDL) hypothesis suggests that energy output during lactation in mammals might be constrained by their ability to dissipate heat. This hypothesis predicts that wild mammals ought to adjust nest insulation in response to heat load, but these predictions have rarely been tested in wild mammals. Here we developed a simple sc...
Understanding a species’ behavioral response to rapid environmental change is
an ongoing challenge in modern conservation. Anthropogenic landscape modification,
or “human footprint,” is well documented as a central cause of large
mammal decline and range contractions where the proximal mechanisms of
decline are often contentious. Direct mortality i...
Individual variation in maternal care has been shown to have important consequences for offspring development, physiology, and behaviour. However, investigating the evolutionary consequences of differences in maternal behaviour requires the extension of well established protocols for measuring maternal behaviour in the lab to a wild rodent species....
Individual variation inmaternal care has been shown to have important consequences for offspring behaviour, development, and physiology. The proximate mechanisms associated with these ma- ternal effects have been elegantly detailed in laboratory rodents where environmental variation is typically minimized. However, investigating the ultimate conseq...
Background: Natural selection is expected to favour the dispersing sex when one sex has a greater tendency to disperse and resources are limited, i.e. during periods of high population density. This is termed the local resource competition hypothesis. Among deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, males are more likely to disperse than females. The mascu...
Highly productive native and non-native perennial grasses are being grown for bioenergy purposes in North America, and ecological risks of their large-scale production are being assessed to inform breeding and management practices. Giant Miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus) and Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) were introduced into an old-field habitat...
During a laboratory study in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, I videotaped a female North American Deer Mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus gracilis, consuming a botfly larva, Family Cuterebridae, that had just emerged from her chest.Although botfly parasitism has been widely studied in several species of small mammals, there are no prior repo...
Invasive macrophyte species are generally associated with negative ecological impacts. However, the physiological and morphological characteristics that successfully allow macrophytes to establish in new ecosystems have yet to be determined. In organisms, such as terrestrial angiosperms, algae, and corals morphology, surface area to volume ratio, a...
Questions
Question (1)
I am looking for efficient protocols for extracting DNA from hair - I've tried including DTT with protinase K to dissolve the sample and then using both a QIAGEN Blood and Tissue kit or phenol/chloroform extraction from the hair roots, but both methods have yielded very low concentrations of DNA (< 10 ng/uL). I'm looking for alternative ways to isolate DNA involving either just the hair follicle or the entire hair shaft.
