Robert Lee Schooley

Biography

He has done his B.S., Wildlife Science, Pennsylvania State University, 1986, M.S., Wildlife Management, University of Maine, 1990, Ph.D., Ecology, Colorado State University, 2002.

Research Interest

My general research areas include wildlife ecology, conservation biology, and landscape ecology. I have particular interests in habitat fragmentation, landscape connectivity, and metapopulations; animal movements; behavioral landscape ecology; spatial scaling; and statistical modeling of species distributions. As a field ecologist, I attempt to combine rigorous sampling with GIS and statistical analyses within a theoretical framework to understand how the distribution and abundance of species is related to habitat structure. I enjoy integrating aspects of behavioral ecology and landscape ecology, such as investigating how a species perceptual range affects its dispersal behavior and landscape connectance. I also am interested in how spatial scale affects inferences about organism-environment relationships. Finally, I enjoy applied research aimed at understanding how human land-use practices influence persistence of wildlife species, especially those inhabiting patchy landscapes. My current research program is centered on the ecology and conservation of mammals, but I welcome graduate students and other collaborators with different taxonomic preferences but interesting questions.