Cyndy Loftin, PhD
Regional Supervisor - Northeast Units - Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units
Research Interests
Dr. Loftin's interests in systems, landscape, and wetlands ecology drive her research program involving wetlands restoration issues. Her research interest is aquatic ecology with an emphasis on conservation and restoration of perturbed, freshwater systems. The research program encompasses two concentrations: hydrological influences on aquatic vegetation dynamics and identifying effects of selected human-introduced stressors on Maine’s aquatic systems and their inhabitants. Current studies include identifying effects of fish introductions on invertebrate and amphibian communities in Maine's naturally fishless lakes; examining amphibian use of aquatic systems and the surrounding terrestrial landscape; identifying characteristics of wetlands supporting shrubby cinquefoil, host plant for Clayton's copper butterfly; developing algorithms with remote sensing data to estimate water clarity in Maine's lakes; examining uptake of marine derived nutrients by food web components in Atlantic salmon nursery streams; developing methods to remotely monitor disturbance of nesting seabirds; and, studying vegetation response to fire in Okefenokee Swamp, GA.
Teaching Interests
Dr. Loftin teaches a graduate level course (INT527 Applications of Remote Sensing and GIS in Natural Resource Management; 3 credits lecture and lab) each fall semester at the University of Maine. The course is team taught with Dr. Steven Sader, UMaine School of Forest Resources, and provides instruction on using remote sensing and GIS tools to conduct spatial analysis for projects with a conservation focus.
Professional Experience
Supervisor, Cooperative Research Units Program Headquarters, 2021-
Education and Certifications
Ph D University of Florida 1998
MS Auburn University 1987
BA University of Virginia 1984
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 52
Fish beta diversity associated with hydrologic and anthropogenic disturbance gradients in contrasting stream flow regimes
Understanding the role of hydrologic variation in structuring aquatic communities is crucial for successful conservation and sustainable management of native freshwater biodiversity. Partitioning beta diversity into the additive components of spatial turnover and nestedness can provide insight into the forces driving variability in fish assemblages across stream flow regimes. We examined...
Authors
John Tyler Fox, Cyndy Loftin
Vulnerability assessment of groundwater influenced ecosystems in the Northeastern United States
Groundwater-influenced ecosystems (GIEs) are increasingly vulnerable due to groundwater extraction, land-use practices, and climate change. These ecosystems receive groundwater inflow as a portion of their baseflow or water budget, which can maintain water levels, water temperature, and chemistry necessary to sustain the biodiversity that they support. In some systems (e.g., springs...
Authors
Shawn D. Snyder, Cyndy Loftin, Andrew S. Reeve
Trends in colony sizes for five colonial waterbird species in the Atlantic Flyway
Robust estimates of colonial waterbird (CWB) breeding population trends are deficient owing to a lack of range wide, standardized survey efforts. Evaluating conservation priorities and effectiveness of management requires reliable trend estimates across multiple spatial scales. One potential data source for CWB trend estimation is the Colonial Waterbird Database, created in 2003 by U.S...
Authors
Zachary. G. Loman, Cyndy Loftin, Caleb S. Spiegel, Ruth Boettcher
Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) roost site-selection criteria and locations east of the Appalachian Mountains, U.S.A.
The monarch butterfly is a flagship species and pollinator whose populations have declined by 85% in the recent two decades. Their largest population overwinters in Mexico, then disperses across eastern North America during March to August. During September-December, they return south using two flyways, one that spans the central United States and another that follows the Atlantic coast...
Authors
Brandon M. Boxler, Cyndy Loftin, William B. Sutton
Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) roost site-selection criteria and locations east of the Appalachian Mountains, U.S.A.
The monarch butterfly is a flagship species and pollinator whose populations have declined by 85% in the recent two decades. Their largest population overwinters in Mexico, then disperses across eastern North America during March to August. During September-December, they return south using two flyways, one that spans the central United States and another that follows the Atlantic coast...
Authors
Brandon M. Boxler, Cyndy Loftin, William B. Sutton
Effects of an early mass-flowering crop on wild bee communities and traits in power line corridors vary with blooming plants and landscape context
ContextPower line corridors have been repeatedly assessed as habitat for wild bees; however, few studies have examined them as bee habitat relative to nearby crop fields and surrounding landscape context.ObjectivesWe surveyed bee communities in power line corridors near to and isolated from lowbush blueberry fields in two landscape contexts in Maine, U.S.A. We examined the influences of...
Authors
Brianne Du Clos, Francis A. Drummond, Cyndy Loftin
Context-dependent deep learning
Explicitly representing an agent’s context has been shown to have many benefits, which should also apply to machine learning. In this paper, we describe an approach to do this called context-dependent deep learning (CDDL), which is based on earlier work in context-mediated behavior (CMB) that uses contextual schemas (c-schemas) to represent clas-ses of situations along with knowledge...
Authors
Roy M. Turner, Cyndy Loftin, Alex Revello, Logan R. Kline, Meredith Lewis, Salimeh Yasai–Sekeh
Using landscape metrics to characterize towns along an urban-rural gradient
ContextUrban-rural gradients are useful tools when examining the influence of human disturbances on ecological, social and coupled systems, yet the most commonly used gradient definitions are based on single broad measures such as housing density or percent forest cover that fail to capture landscape patterns important for conservation.ObjectivesWe present an approach to defining urban...
Authors
Abigail R. Kaminski, Dana Marie Bauer, Kathleen P. Bell, Cyndy Loftin, Erik J. Nelson
Roadside rights-of-way as pollinator habitat: A literature review
Pollination of crops and naturally-occurring flowering plants is a critical ecosystem service provided by managed and unmanaged animal pollinators. Insects are the most studied pollinators, particularly managed honey bees, unmanaged wild bees, and butterflies. Bees and butterflies thrive in early-successional habitat featuring grasses, exposed soil, wildflowers, and shrubs, which is...
Authors
Brianne Du Clos, Phillip deMaynadier, Frank Drummond, Cyndy Loftin
Habitat associations of breeding conifer-associated birds in managed and regenerating forested stands
Forests are often affected by management that could influence demographics of breeding and post-breeding birds that reside within. Numerous studies have focused on immediate effects from management on wildlife soon after forestry treatment (e.g., 0–5 years), however, fewer studies have examined changes in focal species abundance over longer durations as a forest regenerates after...
Authors
Brian W. Rolek, Daniel J. Harrison, Daniel W. Linden, Cyndy Loftin, Petra B. Wood
Testing prediction accuracy in short-term ecological studies
Applied ecology is based on an assumption that a management action will result in a predicted outcome. Testing the prediction accuracy of ecological models is the most powerful way of evaluating the knowledge implicit in this cause-effect relationship, however, the prevalence of predictive modeling and prediction testing are spreading slowly in ecology. The challenge of prediction...
Authors
Connor M. Wood, Zachary. G. Loman, Shawn T. McKinney, Cyndy Loftin
Non-crop habitat use by wild bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) in a mixed-use agricultural landscape
Homogeneous, agriculturally intense landscapes have abundant records of pollinator community research, though similar studies in the forest-dominated, heterogeneous mixed-use landscape that dominates the northeastern United States are sparse. Trends of landscape effects on wild bees are consistent across homogeneous agricultural landscapes, whereas reported studies in the northeastern...
Authors
Brianne Du Clos, Cyndy Loftin, Francis A. Drummond
Point locations and species and behavioral identifications of colonial nesting seabirds on Maine's coastal islands interpreted from 2019 plane-based imagery
This dataset includes XY coordinates and species and behavioral observations of birds detected in aerial imagery captured over coastal islands along Maine's coast during 30 May. - 3 June 2019. The Partenavia P.68 Observer plane flew over 268 islands within the Gulf of Maine (GOM). The plane flew at an altitude of 310 m above ground level and was equipped with a PhaseOne iXU-RS1000 (100...
Distribution Models Predicting Groundwater Influenced Ecosystems in the Northeastern United States
Globally, groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) are increasingly vulnerable to groundwater extraction and land use practices. Groundwater supports these ecosystems by providing inflow, which can maintain water levels, water temperature, and chemistry necessary to sustain the biodiversity that they support. Many aquatic systems receive groundwater as a portion of base flow, and in some...
Avian point count survey-specific data in Northern New England 2013 to 2015
Avian point count, vegetation, and management data from surveys in Northern New England at four National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs), Baxter State Park, and prviate lands in Northern Maine surveyed during the breeding and postbreeding season bewteen 1 June and 4 August 2013 to 2015. NWRs include Nulhegan (Silvio O. Conte), Umbagog, Moosehorn, and Aroostook. This data release includes five...
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 52
Fish beta diversity associated with hydrologic and anthropogenic disturbance gradients in contrasting stream flow regimes
Understanding the role of hydrologic variation in structuring aquatic communities is crucial for successful conservation and sustainable management of native freshwater biodiversity. Partitioning beta diversity into the additive components of spatial turnover and nestedness can provide insight into the forces driving variability in fish assemblages across stream flow regimes. We examined...
Authors
John Tyler Fox, Cyndy Loftin
Vulnerability assessment of groundwater influenced ecosystems in the Northeastern United States
Groundwater-influenced ecosystems (GIEs) are increasingly vulnerable due to groundwater extraction, land-use practices, and climate change. These ecosystems receive groundwater inflow as a portion of their baseflow or water budget, which can maintain water levels, water temperature, and chemistry necessary to sustain the biodiversity that they support. In some systems (e.g., springs...
Authors
Shawn D. Snyder, Cyndy Loftin, Andrew S. Reeve
Trends in colony sizes for five colonial waterbird species in the Atlantic Flyway
Robust estimates of colonial waterbird (CWB) breeding population trends are deficient owing to a lack of range wide, standardized survey efforts. Evaluating conservation priorities and effectiveness of management requires reliable trend estimates across multiple spatial scales. One potential data source for CWB trend estimation is the Colonial Waterbird Database, created in 2003 by U.S...
Authors
Zachary. G. Loman, Cyndy Loftin, Caleb S. Spiegel, Ruth Boettcher
Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) roost site-selection criteria and locations east of the Appalachian Mountains, U.S.A.
The monarch butterfly is a flagship species and pollinator whose populations have declined by 85% in the recent two decades. Their largest population overwinters in Mexico, then disperses across eastern North America during March to August. During September-December, they return south using two flyways, one that spans the central United States and another that follows the Atlantic coast...
Authors
Brandon M. Boxler, Cyndy Loftin, William B. Sutton
Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) roost site-selection criteria and locations east of the Appalachian Mountains, U.S.A.
The monarch butterfly is a flagship species and pollinator whose populations have declined by 85% in the recent two decades. Their largest population overwinters in Mexico, then disperses across eastern North America during March to August. During September-December, they return south using two flyways, one that spans the central United States and another that follows the Atlantic coast...
Authors
Brandon M. Boxler, Cyndy Loftin, William B. Sutton
Effects of an early mass-flowering crop on wild bee communities and traits in power line corridors vary with blooming plants and landscape context
ContextPower line corridors have been repeatedly assessed as habitat for wild bees; however, few studies have examined them as bee habitat relative to nearby crop fields and surrounding landscape context.ObjectivesWe surveyed bee communities in power line corridors near to and isolated from lowbush blueberry fields in two landscape contexts in Maine, U.S.A. We examined the influences of...
Authors
Brianne Du Clos, Francis A. Drummond, Cyndy Loftin
Context-dependent deep learning
Explicitly representing an agent’s context has been shown to have many benefits, which should also apply to machine learning. In this paper, we describe an approach to do this called context-dependent deep learning (CDDL), which is based on earlier work in context-mediated behavior (CMB) that uses contextual schemas (c-schemas) to represent clas-ses of situations along with knowledge...
Authors
Roy M. Turner, Cyndy Loftin, Alex Revello, Logan R. Kline, Meredith Lewis, Salimeh Yasai–Sekeh
Using landscape metrics to characterize towns along an urban-rural gradient
ContextUrban-rural gradients are useful tools when examining the influence of human disturbances on ecological, social and coupled systems, yet the most commonly used gradient definitions are based on single broad measures such as housing density or percent forest cover that fail to capture landscape patterns important for conservation.ObjectivesWe present an approach to defining urban...
Authors
Abigail R. Kaminski, Dana Marie Bauer, Kathleen P. Bell, Cyndy Loftin, Erik J. Nelson
Roadside rights-of-way as pollinator habitat: A literature review
Pollination of crops and naturally-occurring flowering plants is a critical ecosystem service provided by managed and unmanaged animal pollinators. Insects are the most studied pollinators, particularly managed honey bees, unmanaged wild bees, and butterflies. Bees and butterflies thrive in early-successional habitat featuring grasses, exposed soil, wildflowers, and shrubs, which is...
Authors
Brianne Du Clos, Phillip deMaynadier, Frank Drummond, Cyndy Loftin
Habitat associations of breeding conifer-associated birds in managed and regenerating forested stands
Forests are often affected by management that could influence demographics of breeding and post-breeding birds that reside within. Numerous studies have focused on immediate effects from management on wildlife soon after forestry treatment (e.g., 0–5 years), however, fewer studies have examined changes in focal species abundance over longer durations as a forest regenerates after...
Authors
Brian W. Rolek, Daniel J. Harrison, Daniel W. Linden, Cyndy Loftin, Petra B. Wood
Testing prediction accuracy in short-term ecological studies
Applied ecology is based on an assumption that a management action will result in a predicted outcome. Testing the prediction accuracy of ecological models is the most powerful way of evaluating the knowledge implicit in this cause-effect relationship, however, the prevalence of predictive modeling and prediction testing are spreading slowly in ecology. The challenge of prediction...
Authors
Connor M. Wood, Zachary. G. Loman, Shawn T. McKinney, Cyndy Loftin
Non-crop habitat use by wild bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) in a mixed-use agricultural landscape
Homogeneous, agriculturally intense landscapes have abundant records of pollinator community research, though similar studies in the forest-dominated, heterogeneous mixed-use landscape that dominates the northeastern United States are sparse. Trends of landscape effects on wild bees are consistent across homogeneous agricultural landscapes, whereas reported studies in the northeastern...
Authors
Brianne Du Clos, Cyndy Loftin, Francis A. Drummond
Point locations and species and behavioral identifications of colonial nesting seabirds on Maine's coastal islands interpreted from 2019 plane-based imagery
This dataset includes XY coordinates and species and behavioral observations of birds detected in aerial imagery captured over coastal islands along Maine's coast during 30 May. - 3 June 2019. The Partenavia P.68 Observer plane flew over 268 islands within the Gulf of Maine (GOM). The plane flew at an altitude of 310 m above ground level and was equipped with a PhaseOne iXU-RS1000 (100...
Distribution Models Predicting Groundwater Influenced Ecosystems in the Northeastern United States
Globally, groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) are increasingly vulnerable to groundwater extraction and land use practices. Groundwater supports these ecosystems by providing inflow, which can maintain water levels, water temperature, and chemistry necessary to sustain the biodiversity that they support. Many aquatic systems receive groundwater as a portion of base flow, and in some...
Avian point count survey-specific data in Northern New England 2013 to 2015
Avian point count, vegetation, and management data from surveys in Northern New England at four National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs), Baxter State Park, and prviate lands in Northern Maine surveyed during the breeding and postbreeding season bewteen 1 June and 4 August 2013 to 2015. NWRs include Nulhegan (Silvio O. Conte), Umbagog, Moosehorn, and Aroostook. This data release includes five...