Vaughn Shirey
Towards a Novel Integrative Framework for Rapid Conservation Assessments of Insect Decline in the Anthropocene
Abstract
Researchers have sounded the alarm for the potential existence of large-scale insect declines across the planet. Declines in insect populations are of critical conservation importance since insects are a fundamental component of food webs and perform invaluable ecosystem services such as pollination. Unfortunately, due to challenges in monitoring insects at broad spatiotemporal scales, identification of insect declines and associated key environmental drivers (climate change, habitat loss, pesticide use, etc.) has proved elusive. Thus, rapid synthesis of insect population-level trends using cutting-edge machine learning (e.g., computer vision) and modeling techniques is essential to extract trends from our best records of insect occurrence information – natural history museum and community science platforms. Using butterflies as a model system, my postdoctoral research will leverage “big data” from museums and community science platforms to identify causal drivers of butterfly biodiversity change in the American Southwest (a region of notably high butterfly biodiversity). In partnership with two conservation mentors (Dr. Pedro Cardoso and the Xerces Society) who work across scales of conservation assessment and listing, my advanced modeling pipelines will impact both global and regional conservation listing and local, land- management education and training.
Mentors
Dr. Laura Melissa Guzman at University of Southern California and Dr. Rob Guralnick at University of Florida - Florida Museum of Natural History, Dr. Pedro Cardoso at the Finnish Museum of Natural History - University of Helsinki and Dr. Kevin Burls and Scott Black at Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
Undergraduate Education
B.S. Environmental Sciences (Biodiversity and Systematics), Drexel University, 2017
Graduate Education
Ph.D. Biology (Ecology, Evolution, and Animal Behavior), Georgetown University, 2023
