Erica F. Stuber, PhD
Assistant Unit Leader - Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Erica joined the Utah Unit in 2021. The central theme of her research revolves around spatial ecology of wildlife - from individuals to populations and communities. Much of her research investigates the spatial scales at which organisms respond to their environment to inform spatial 'precision conservation' and management. She is also interested in individual variation in spatial behaviors, and the consequences of that variation on population distributions and dynamics. Dr. Stuber is active in multi-scale analytics development, Bayesian data integration, and incorporation of citizen science information within management decision-making contexts. Dr. Stuber has taught graduate-level courses on Spatial Ecology, and Global Biodiversity Change, and currently teaches Landscape Ecology.
Dr. Stuber received graduate degrees from the Pennsylvania State University and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, and was a Research Scientist with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Yale University, and Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Professional Experience
Assistant Unit Leader, Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, 2021-
Education and Certifications
PhD, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, 2011
MS, The Pennsylvania State University, 2009
BS, The Pennsylvania State University, 2006
Science and Products
Coyotes in the Great Basin desert do not exhibit a spatial response following the removal of anthropogenic water sources
Coyote (Canis latrans) range expansion into desert ecosystems has highlighted the role of anthropogenic water sources in arid ecosystems. Despite hypotheses that additional water facilitated this expansion, previous studies reported that coyotes did not exhibit a spatial or dietary response to removal of anthropogenic water. We used GPS data to examine if coyotes responded to water removal at a fi
Authors
Nadine Pershyn, Eric Gese, Erica Francis Stuber, Brian Kluever
Leveraging the strengths of citizen science and structured surveys to achieve scalable inference on population size
Population size is a key metric for management and policy decisions, yet wildlife monitoring programmes are often limited by the spatial and temporal scope of surveys. In these cases, citizen science data may provide complementary information at higher resolution and greater extent.We present a case study demonstrating how data from the eBird citizen science programme can be combined with regional
Authors
Andrew N. Stillman, Paige E. Howell, Guthrie S. Zimmerman, Emily R. Bjerre, Brian A. Millsap, Orin J. Robinson, Daniel Fink, Erica Francis Stuber, Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez
Conflict of energies: Spatially modeling mule deer caloric expenditure in response to oil and gas development
ContextWildlife avoid human disturbances, including roads and development. Avoidance and displacement of wildlife into less suitable habitat due to human development can affect their energy expenditures and fitness. The heart rate and oxygen uptake of large mammals varies with both natural aspects of their habitat (terrain, climate, predators, etc.) and anthropogenic influence (noise, light, fragm
Authors
Samuel Norton Chambers, Miguel L. Villarreal, Olivia Jane Marie Duane, Seth M. Munson, Erica Francis Stuber, Gayle L Tyree, Eric K Waller, Michael C. Duniway
The potential of semi-structured citizen science data as a supplement for conservation decision-making: Validating the performance of eBird against targeted avian monitoring efforts
Methods are being developed to capitalize on citizen science data for research and monitoring, but these data are rarely used within established decision-making frameworks of wildlife agencies. Citizen science data are often collected at higher resolution and extent than targeted monitoring programs, and may provide complementary information. Here, we demonstrate that carefully filtered semi-struc
Authors
Erica Francis Stuber, Orin Robinson, Emily R. Bjerre, Mark C. Otto, Brian A. Millsap, Guthrie S. Zimmerman, Michael G. Brasher, Kevin M. Ringelman, Auriel M.V. Fournier, Aaron Yetter, Jennifer Isola, Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez
Many avenues for spatial personality research: a response to comments on Stuber et al. (2022)
We are grateful for the thought-provoking and forward-looking commentaries (Dingemanse et al. 2022; Mabry 2022; Spiegel and Pinter-Wollman 2022; Vander Wal et al. 2022) in response to our meta-analysis of evidence for consistent among-individual differences in animals’ spatial behaviors (Stuber et al. 2022). A clear consensus is that our demonstration of the prevalence of repeatability across spat
Authors
Erica Francis Stuber, Ben Carlson, Brett Jesmer
Spatial personalities: A meta-analysis of consistent individual differences in spatial behavior
Individual variation in behavior, particularly consistent among-individual differences (i.e., personality), has important ecological and evolutionary implications for population and community dynamics, trait divergence, and patterns of speciation. Nevertheless, individual variation in spatial behaviors, such as home range behavior, movement characteristics, or habitat use has yet to be incorporate
Authors
Erica Francis Stuber, Ben Carlson, Brett Jesmer
Scale-dependent population drivers inform avian management in a declining saline lake ecosystem.
R code for data prep, processing, and population analysis associated with manuscript of same title.
Science and Products
Coyotes in the Great Basin desert do not exhibit a spatial response following the removal of anthropogenic water sources
Coyote (Canis latrans) range expansion into desert ecosystems has highlighted the role of anthropogenic water sources in arid ecosystems. Despite hypotheses that additional water facilitated this expansion, previous studies reported that coyotes did not exhibit a spatial or dietary response to removal of anthropogenic water. We used GPS data to examine if coyotes responded to water removal at a fi
Authors
Nadine Pershyn, Eric Gese, Erica Francis Stuber, Brian Kluever
Leveraging the strengths of citizen science and structured surveys to achieve scalable inference on population size
Population size is a key metric for management and policy decisions, yet wildlife monitoring programmes are often limited by the spatial and temporal scope of surveys. In these cases, citizen science data may provide complementary information at higher resolution and greater extent.We present a case study demonstrating how data from the eBird citizen science programme can be combined with regional
Authors
Andrew N. Stillman, Paige E. Howell, Guthrie S. Zimmerman, Emily R. Bjerre, Brian A. Millsap, Orin J. Robinson, Daniel Fink, Erica Francis Stuber, Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez
Conflict of energies: Spatially modeling mule deer caloric expenditure in response to oil and gas development
ContextWildlife avoid human disturbances, including roads and development. Avoidance and displacement of wildlife into less suitable habitat due to human development can affect their energy expenditures and fitness. The heart rate and oxygen uptake of large mammals varies with both natural aspects of their habitat (terrain, climate, predators, etc.) and anthropogenic influence (noise, light, fragm
Authors
Samuel Norton Chambers, Miguel L. Villarreal, Olivia Jane Marie Duane, Seth M. Munson, Erica Francis Stuber, Gayle L Tyree, Eric K Waller, Michael C. Duniway
The potential of semi-structured citizen science data as a supplement for conservation decision-making: Validating the performance of eBird against targeted avian monitoring efforts
Methods are being developed to capitalize on citizen science data for research and monitoring, but these data are rarely used within established decision-making frameworks of wildlife agencies. Citizen science data are often collected at higher resolution and extent than targeted monitoring programs, and may provide complementary information. Here, we demonstrate that carefully filtered semi-struc
Authors
Erica Francis Stuber, Orin Robinson, Emily R. Bjerre, Mark C. Otto, Brian A. Millsap, Guthrie S. Zimmerman, Michael G. Brasher, Kevin M. Ringelman, Auriel M.V. Fournier, Aaron Yetter, Jennifer Isola, Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez
Many avenues for spatial personality research: a response to comments on Stuber et al. (2022)
We are grateful for the thought-provoking and forward-looking commentaries (Dingemanse et al. 2022; Mabry 2022; Spiegel and Pinter-Wollman 2022; Vander Wal et al. 2022) in response to our meta-analysis of evidence for consistent among-individual differences in animals’ spatial behaviors (Stuber et al. 2022). A clear consensus is that our demonstration of the prevalence of repeatability across spat
Authors
Erica Francis Stuber, Ben Carlson, Brett Jesmer
Spatial personalities: A meta-analysis of consistent individual differences in spatial behavior
Individual variation in behavior, particularly consistent among-individual differences (i.e., personality), has important ecological and evolutionary implications for population and community dynamics, trait divergence, and patterns of speciation. Nevertheless, individual variation in spatial behaviors, such as home range behavior, movement characteristics, or habitat use has yet to be incorporate
Authors
Erica Francis Stuber, Ben Carlson, Brett Jesmer
Scale-dependent population drivers inform avian management in a declining saline lake ecosystem.
R code for data prep, processing, and population analysis associated with manuscript of same title.