James E Lyons, Ph.D.
Biography
EDUCATION:
- Ph.D. Biology, 2001, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, Dissertation: Population Ecology and Foraging Behavior of Breeding Birds in Bottomland Hardwood Forests (Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey R. Walters)
- M.S. Aquaculture, Fisheries, and Wildlife Biology, 1994, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, Thesis: Eco-physiology of Shorebirds During Winter and Migration at South Island, SC, (Advisor: Dr. Susan M. Haig)
- B.S. Wildlife and Fisheries Biology, 1986, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405
STRUCTURED DECISION MAKING AND ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT PROJECTS (DECISION ANALYST & TEAM LEAD)
- Development of an Integrated Avian Monitoring Framework for the Northern Gulf of Mexico: Application of Structured Decision Making. (3 SDM workshops: USFWS/USGS SDM Workshop, National Conservation Training Center, Shepherdstown, WV, 3-7 February 2014; Spanish Fort, AL, 7-8 May 2014; Cedar Key, FL, 12-14 August 2014)
- Use of Structured Decision Making to Identify Management Priorities and Monitoring Targets for Salt Marsh Ecosystems (2 SDM workshops, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, 11-12 and 24-26 January 2012)
- Decision Analysis for Optimal Wetland Management at Patuxent Research Refuge: Application of SDM for Comprehensive Conservation Planning (worked with Refuge staff during multiple meetings over a period of six months, 2011-2012)
- Decision Analysis for Coastal Wetland Management in Delaware Under Uncertainty about Sea Level Rise (USFWS/USGS SDM Workshop, National Conservation Training Center, Shepherdstown, WV, 13-17 September 2010)
- Scaup Conservation Action Plan: Linking Models to Conservation Actions and the Revised NAWMP (4 SDM workshops, 2009-2011)
- Impoundment Management at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge for the Benefit of Breeding Whooping Cranes (SDM workshop, Necedah NWR, 23-27 March 2009)
- Conservation and Management Decisions for Mountain Plovers throughout the Annual Cycle (USFWS/USGS SDM Workshop, National Conservation Training Center, Shepherdstown, WV, 21-25 July 2008)
- Application of Structured Decision Making to Assessment of Salt Marshes on National Wildlife Refuges in the Northeastern, Southwestern, and Northwestern U.S. (SDM workshop, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, 7-11 April 2008)
- Impoundment Management at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge (SDM workshop, Necedah NWR, 4-7 March 2008)
- Integrated Wetland Bird Management and Monitoring Initiative. (USFWS/USGS SDM Workshop, National Conservation Training Center, Shepherdstown, WV, 28 January-1 February 2008)
- Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) in the Prairie Pothole Region. (USFWS/USGS SDM Workshop, La Crosse, WI, 14-18 January 2008)
- Wetland Loss and Fire Effects at Blackwater NWR and Fishing Bay WMA. (USFWS Adaptive Management Consultancy, Cambridge, MD, 23-24 October 2007 and 29-30 April 2008)
- Application of Structured Decision Making for Multi-species Management of Horseshoe Crab and Shorebird Populations in Delaware Bay. (SDM Workshop, National Conservation Training Center, Shepherdstown, WV, 9-13 July 2007)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Instructor
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Conservation Training Center
- Introduction to Structured Decision Making 01/2010, 03/2008, 05/2013
- Shorebird Ecology and Management 6 times in 2007-2014
Lecturer in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Biology 08/2002 - 08/2004
Humbolt State University
- Department of Wildlife, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA
- Conservation Biology (lecture)
- Ornithology (lecture)
- Ecology of Wildlife Populations (lecture)
- Ecology and Management of Wetland Habitats for Wildlife (lecture)
- Introduction to Wildlife Conservation and Administration (lecture)
- Senior Seminar in Wildlife Management (discussion)
- Ecology of Animal Movements (discussion)
- Advanced Population Ecology (discussion)
Science and Products
Marine Bird Populations and the Gulf of Mexico Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (GoMMAPPS)
The Challenge: The Gulf of Mexico has critically important breeding, staging, and wintering habitats for North America’s migratory birds. Unfortunately, limited information is available to quantitatively characterize species composition, distribution, and abundance of birds Gulf-wide, particularly for seabirds. The number of platforms and cumulative level of oil and gas activity in the...
Use of Structured Decision Making to Optimize Salt Marsh Management Decisions at Northeastern National Wildlife Refuges
A regional assessment of salt marsh integrity (SMI) has been completed on 15 National Wildlife Refuges/Refuge Complexes in the northeastern US. Developed within a structured decision making (SDM) framework, the SMI assessment provides essential baseline data on salt marsh condition relative to regional management objectives. These data now provide the basis for applying the SDM framework to...
Structured Decision Making: Methods, Applications, and Capacity-Building
The Challenge: The field of decision analysis is a rich and mature discipline that provides robust methods for helping decision makers understand the nature of their decisions, involve stakeholders and scientists in appropriate steps of the process, and develop transparent records for the public. The use of these structured approaches is emerging in natural resource management, and there is...
Optimization of salt marsh management at the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware, through use of structured decision making
Structured decision making is a systematic, transparent process for improving the quality of complex decisions by identifying measurable management objectives and feasible management actions; predicting the potential consequences of management actions relative to the stated objectives; and selecting a course of action that maximizes the total...
Neckles, Hilary A.; Lyons, James E.; Nagel, Jessica L.; Adamowicz, Susan C.; Mikula, Toni; Guiteras, Susan T.; Mitchell, Laura R.
Accounting for surveyor effort in large-scale monitoring programs
Accounting for errors in wildlife surveys is necessary for reliable status assessments and quantification of uncertainty in estimates of population size. We apply a hierarchical log-linear Poisson regression model that accounts for multiple sources of variability in count data collected for the Integrated Waterbird Management and Monitoring...
Aagaard, Kevin; Lyons, James E.; Thogmartin, Wayne E. Post-breeding migration and connectivity of red knots in the Western Atlantic
Red knots (Calidris canutus rufa) have 3 distinct nonbreeding regions: 1 in the southeastern United States and Caribbean, another on the northeast coast of Brazil in the Maranhão region, and a third along the Patagonian coasts of Chile and Argentina. Effective conservation and recovery of this threatened long-distance migrant will require...
Lyons, James E.; Winn, Bradford; Keyes, Timothy; Kalasz, Kevin S. Migration ecology and stopover population size of Red Knots Calidris canutus rufa at Mingan Archipelago after exiting the breeding grounds
Populations of migratory birds present unique conservation challenges given the often vast distances separating critical resources throughout the annual cycle. Migration areas close to the breeding grounds represent a link between two key stages of the annual cycle, and understanding migration ecology as birds exit the breeding grounds may be...
Lyons, James E.; Baker, Allan J.; González, Patricia M.; Aubry, Yves; Buidin, Christophe; Rochepault, Yann
Integrated wetland management for waterfowl and shorebirds at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, North Carolina
Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge (MNWR) offers a mix of open water, marsh, forest, and cropland habitats on 20,307 hectares in coastal North Carolina. In 1934, Federal legislation (Executive Order 6924) established MNWR to benefit wintering waterfowl and other migratory bird species. On an annual basis, the refuge staff decide how to manage...
Tavernia, Brian G.; Stanton, John D.; Lyons, James E.
Balancing habitat delivery for breeding marsh birds and nonbreeding waterfowl: An integrated waterbird management and monitoring approach at Clarence Cannon National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri
The Clarence Cannon National Wildlife Refuge (CCNWR) in the Mississippi River flood plain of eastern Missouri provides high quality emergent marsh and moist-soil habitat benefitting both nesting marsh birds and migrating waterfowl. Staff of CCNWR manipulate water levels and vegetation in the 17 units of the CCNWR to provide conditions favorable to...
Loges, Brian W.; Lyons, James E.; Tavernia, Brian G. Quantifying the relative contribution of an ecological reserve to conservation objectives
Evaluating the role public lands play in meeting conservation goals is an essential step in good governance. We present a tool for comparing the regional contribution of each of a suite of wildlife management units to conservation goals. We use weighted summation (simple additive weighting) to compute a Unit Contribution Index (UCI) based on...
Aagaard, Kevin; Lyons, James E.; Thogmartin, Wayne E. Bayesian analysis of Jolly-Seber type models
We propose the use of finite mixtures of continuous distributions in modelling the process by which new individuals, that arrive in groups, become part of a wildlife population. We demonstrate this approach using a data set of migrating semipalmated sandpipers (Calidris pussila) for which we extend existing stopover models to allow for individuals...
Matechou, Eleni; Nicholls, Geoff K.; Morgan, Byron J. T.; Collazo, Jaime A.; Lyons, James E. An evaluation of rapid methods for monitoring vegetation characteristics of wetland bird habitat
Wetland managers benefit from monitoring data of sufficient precision and accuracy to assess wildlife habitat conditions and to evaluate and learn from past management decisions. For large-scale monitoring programs focused on waterbirds (waterfowl, wading birds, secretive marsh birds, and shorebirds), precision and accuracy of habitat measurements...
Tavernia, Brian G.; Lyons, James E.; Loges, Brian W.; Wilson, Andrew; Collazo, Jaime A.; Runge, Michael C. Population size and stopover duration estimation using mark–resight data and Bayesian analysis of a superpopulation model
We present a novel formulation of a mark–recapture–resight model that allows estimation of population size, stopover duration, and arrival and departure schedules at migration areas. Estimation is based on encounter histories of uniquely marked individuals and relative counts of marked and unmarked animals. We use a Bayesian analysis...
Lyons, James E.; Kendall, William L.; Royle, J. Andrew; Converse, Sarah J.; Andres, Brad A.; Buchanan, Joseph B. Use of structured decision making to identify monitoring variables and management priorities for salt marsh ecosystems
Most salt marshes in the USA have been degraded by human activities, and coastal managers are faced with complex choices among possible actions to restore or enhance ecosystem integrity. We applied structured decision making (SDM) to guide selection of monitoring variables and management priorities for salt marshes within the National Wildlife...
Neckles, Hilary A.; Lyons, James E.; Guntenspergen, Glenn R.; Shriver, W. Gregory; Adamowicz, Susan C. Developing objectives with multiple stakeholders: adaptive management of horseshoe crabs and Red Knots in the Delaware Bay
Structured decision making (SDM) is an increasingly utilized approach and set of tools for addressing complex decisions in environmental management. SDM is a value-focused thinking approach that places paramount importance on first establishing clear management objectives that reflect core values of stakeholders. To be useful for management,...
McGowan, Conor P.; Lyons, James E.; Smith, David