Ellen O. Aikens, PhD (Former Employee)

Developing and testing alternate hypotheses about patterns, mechanisms, and consequences of movement in geographically-large, heterogeneous, natural systems can advance the scientific understanding of animal migration and benefit the conservation of most mobile species. Within organismal movement trajectories, different combinations of residence and movement are predicted from existing...

A common problem for interdisciplinary sustainability research is that scientists trained in different disciplines are often not rowing their boat effectively in the same direction. Sustainability tools can aid the implementation of this team-melding process. Here, our purpose is to illustrate our Multi-step Integrated graphical and structured discussion eXercise (MIX) tool that...

The ability to accurately quantify biodiversity is fundamental to understanding ecological trends, identifying drivers of declines, and selecting effective conservation options. Scientists and resource managers have grappled with what metrics best show relevant biodiversity patterns and are still practical enough to aid on-the-ground resource conservation. Our purpose is to construct...

Scientific experts from different disciplines often struggle to mesh their specialized perspectives into the shared mindset that is needed to address difficult and persistent environmental, ecological, and societal problems. Many traditional graduate programs provide excellent research and technical skill training. However, these programs often do not teach a systematic way to learn team...

Connecting individual datasets from different projects to each other and to decisions can help manager-researcher-administrator teams build on what is known and adapt their environmental decision-making process as new information becomes available. Throughout their careers, environmental professionals often collect data on many individual projects that address similar sets of natural...

Science has played a mixed role in guiding conservation and sustainability-oriented decision-making by individuals, policymakers, institutions, and governments. Not all science-based conservation and sustainability initiatives that address issues facing humanity and ecosystems and global problems have gained public support. Conservation decisions and policy prescriptions are and may be...

Harvest regulations are important tools that fisheries professionals use to impact fish abundance, alter population size structure, and improve fishing opportunities. Fisheries professionals often assume that specialized harvest regulations will have specific effects on target fish populations, but these predictions are not always realized because theory and practice do not always match...

Identifying patterns of organismal distribution can provide valuable insights for basic and applied marine and coastal ecology because understanding where animals are located is foundational to both research and science-based conservation. Understanding variation in distributional patterns can lead to a better assessment of ecological drivers and an improved ability to predict...

Agricultural landscapes are the bleeding-edge in the advancement of sustainability and climate change adaptation. Our study focuses on how individual support for sustainability policy is shaped in coupled natural and human systems. We present an agent-based model in which a cultural decision-rule quantifies the probability that a stakeholder decides to support an easement policy for a...

By merging our specialization silos, fisheries professionals can expand the options that are available to them to address difficult fisheries and aquatic conservation problems, which require an understanding of spatial patterns in geographically large systems. Our purpose is to start a profession-wide conversation about additional ways to think about and use spatial data. We use case...

Fisheries professionals frequently measure habitat type and amount, but less often measure the importance of where those habitats are located and in what combinations. We address this challenge by testing whether the individual and combined type, quantity, and location of habitat affects fish diversity in the upper Neosho River basin, Kansas, as a different approach to measuring habitat...

Climate change is altering the spatial and temporal patterns of temperature and discharge in rivers, which is expected to have implications for the life stages of anadromous fish using those rivers. We developed an individual-based model to track American Shad Alosa sapidissima offspring within a coarse template of spatially and temporally variable habitat conditions defined by a...