H. Resit Akcakaya, Professor (CV) Ph.D., Stony Brook University 1989 Applied ecology, conservation biology Email: Resit.Akcakaya@stonybrook.edu Office: LS674 Phone:  (631)632-8605 Lab Website: Akcakaya Lab Website

Research Summary:

My research focuses on developing and applying quantitative methods to address questions in conservation biology and environmental risk assessment. The following topics are examples of the types of questions that I am currently interested in:

Climate change impacts on biodiversity: I am developing methods that link climate change models, species distribution or habitat suitability models, and metapopulation models with dynamic spatial structure, to predict the vulnerability of species to global climate change.

Status and trends of biodiversity: I am interested in methods to quantify and analyze the threat status of species and trends in threat status, including quantitative methods for estimating spatial and temporal uncertainties in parameters used in threatened species assessments based on the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria.

Species conservation: I use habitat-based metapopulation models to estimate the risk of extinction or decline, and to evaluate the chances for recovery with different management and conservation options.

Population dynamics: I am interested in developing new methods for modeling population dynamics, estimating model parameters, analyzing population declines, and validating extinction risk estimates.

Demographic toxicity: Currently, most assessments of the ecological impacts of pollutants use bioassays at the individual organism level. I am interested in developing standard methods that will allow ecotoxicological impacts to be assessed at the more relevant population and species levels.

For more information, see the Akcakaya Lab web site (see link above).