Catherine S. Jarnevich, PhD
Catherine began working for the USGS while obtaining her doctorate in ecology in 2000. She gained skills in integrating disparate datasets of species’ location data and using these to generate spatially explicit models of species occurrence and abundance.
Catherine has developed a research program to assist multiple agencies and groups with species distributions, focusing on invasive species. Her current research involves the application of habitat suitability models to answer different applied research and management questions for various species across a range of taxa and spatial scales. She has also been working with spatially explicit state and transition modeling to inform efficient landscape scale invasive plant management.
Professional Experience
Research ecologist, Fort Collins Science Center, U. S. Geological Survey, Ft. Collins, CO: 2011 - present
Ecologist, Fort Collins Science Center, U. S. Geological Survey, Ft. Collins, CO: 2000 - 2011
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Colorado State University (Ecology), 2004
B.S., University of New Mexico, NM (Double major: Biology and Anthropology), 1998
Science and Products
Data for giant constrictors - Biological management profiles and an establishment risk assessment for nine large species of pythons, anacondas, and the boa constrictor
Challenges of predicting the potential distribution of a slow-spreading invader: a habitat suitability map for an invasive riparian tree
Distribution and abundance of saltcedar and Russian olive in the western United States
Balancing energy development and conservation: A method utilizing species distribution models
Bounding species distribution models
Challenges in identifying sites climatically matched to the native ranges of animal invaders
Background: Species distribution models are often used to characterize a species' native range climate, so as to identify sites elsewhere in the world that may be climatically similar and therefore at risk of invasion by the species. This endeavor provoked intense public controversy over recent attempts to model areas at risk of invasion by the Indian Python (Python molurus). We evaluated a number
Improving national-scale invasion maps: Tamarisk in the western United States
Improving and integrating data on invasive species collected by citizen scientists
Modeling the human invader in the United States
Forecasting weed distributions using climate data: a GIS early warning tool
Bringing modeling to the masses: A web based system to predict potential species distributions
Ensemble habitat mapping of invasive plant species
Science and Products
Data for giant constrictors - Biological management profiles and an establishment risk assessment for nine large species of pythons, anacondas, and the boa constrictor
Challenges of predicting the potential distribution of a slow-spreading invader: a habitat suitability map for an invasive riparian tree
Distribution and abundance of saltcedar and Russian olive in the western United States
Balancing energy development and conservation: A method utilizing species distribution models
Bounding species distribution models
Challenges in identifying sites climatically matched to the native ranges of animal invaders
Background: Species distribution models are often used to characterize a species' native range climate, so as to identify sites elsewhere in the world that may be climatically similar and therefore at risk of invasion by the species. This endeavor provoked intense public controversy over recent attempts to model areas at risk of invasion by the Indian Python (Python molurus). We evaluated a number