James Nichols, Ph.D.
Biography
Dr. Jim Nichols conducts research on animal population dynamics and management
Recent Accomplishments
Education
- B.S. Wake Forest University, Biology, 1971
- M.S. Louisiana State University, Wildlife Management, 1973
- Ph.D. Michigan State University, Wildlife Ecology, 1976
Professional Studies/Experience
- Adaptive management and assessment of habitat changes on migratory birds
- Development of models of mallard population dynamics for adaptive harvest management
- Development of methods to estimate parameters associated with animal population dynamics
- Statistical methods for species richness estimation
- Technical Assistance -Tiger Monitoring and Population Research
- Development of methods for estimating patch occupancy and patch-dynamic parameters from detection-nondetection survey data
- Development of methods to estimate species richness and community-dynamic parameters from species list data
Mentorship/Outreach
Professional societies/affiliations/committees/editorial boardsScientific/Oral Presentations, Abstracts
Honors, awards, recognition, elected offices
- 2005 - U.S. Presidential Rank Award (Meritorious Senior Professional)
- 2004 - U.S. Geological Survey Meritorious Service Award
- 2004 - IFAS Scholar Award, University of Florida
- 1998 - Promoted to Senior Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey
- 1991 - The George W. Snedecor Award of the American Statistical Association
- 1991 - The Wildlife Society's Wildlife Publication Award for Monograph
- 1984 - Southeastern Section of the Wildlife Society, Outstanding Publication Award
Scientific/Oral Presentations, Abstracts
Science and Products
Development of Methods Associated with Animal Population Dynamics
The Challenge: Conservation and management of natural animal populations requires knowledge of their dynamics and associated environmental and management influences. Specifically, informed management requires periodic estimates of system state (e.g., population size) and models for projecting consequences of management actions for subsequent state dynamics. However, it is very difficult to...
Development of Patch Occupancy Models for Assessing the Spatial Distribution of Organisms
The Challenge: A variety of important questions about the conservation and management of natural resources requires information about the spatial distribution of organisms. For species of conservation concern, the size of a species’ range is a criterion used to assign species status as threatened or endangered. For invasive species and disease organisms, the dynamics of the species range ...
Statistical Research for the USGS - Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative
The Challenge: Since its inception in 2002 the USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) has taken the lead in monitoring amphibian populations on Department of Interior lands. ARMI scientists work on a broad spectrum of species and management issues to address the core causes of amphibian declines. In many cases, research requires complex study designs and innovative methods. A...
Occupancy
Many wildlife studies seek to understand changes or differences in the proportion of sites occupied by a species of interest. These studies are hampered by imperfect detection of these species, which can result in some sites appearing to be unoccupied that are actually occupied. Occupancy models solve this problem and produce unbiased estimates of occupancy (ie, occurrence) and related...
Adaptive Management
Adaptive management (AM) combines management and monitoring, with the aim of updating knowledge and improving decision-making over time. We provide a guide for managers who may realize the potential of AM, but are unsure where to start. The urgent need for iterative management decisions, the existence of uncertainty, and the opportunity for learning offered by often highly-controlled captive...
Capture-Mark-Recapture Science
Capture-Mark-Recapture (CMR) can be viewed as an animal survey method in which the count statistic is the total number of animals caught, and the associated detection probability is the probability of capture. The method involves capturing a number of animals, marking them, releasing them back into the population, and then determining the ratio of marked to unmarked animals in the population...
Evaluation of Potential Offshore Wind Projects in the Northeastern U.S. on Endangered Roseate Terns: Who is at Risk and When?
The Challenge: Terns in coastal areas of the Northeastern US likely will be impacted by construction and operation of offshore wind turbines. The “Cape Cod & Islands” (CCMA) area of Massachusetts is a particularly important area for the endangered Northwest Atlantic Roseate Tern (ROST) population as most ROSTs from throughout the breeding range (Nova Scotia to Long Island, New York)...
Avian Indicators of Climate Change Based on the North American Breeding Bird Survey
Appropriate ecological indicators of climate change can be used to measure concurrent changes in ecological systems, inform management decisions, and potentially to project the consequences of climate change. However, many of the available indicators for North American birds do not account for imperfect observation. We proposed to use correlated-detection occupancy models to develop indicators...
SERAP: Assessment of Climate and Land Use Change Impacts on Terrestrial Species
Researchers from North Carolina State University and the USGS integrated models of urbanization and vegetation dynamics with the regional climate models to predict vegetation dynamics and assess how landscape change could impact priority species, including North American land birds. This integrated ensemble of models can be used to predict locations where responses to climate change are most...
A multi-state occupancy modelling framework for robust estimation of disease prevalence in multi-tissue disease systems
Given the public health, economic and conservation implications of zoonotic diseases, their effective surveillance is of paramount importance. The traditional approach to estimating pathogen prevalence as the proportion of infected individuals in the population is biased because it fails to account for imperfect detection. A statistically robust...
Chaudhary, Vratika; Wisely, Samantha M; Hernandez, Felipe A; Hines, James E.; Nichols, James D.; Oli, Madan K. Accumulating evidence in ecology: Once is not enough
Many published studies in ecological science are viewed as stand-alone investigations that purport to provide new insights into how ecological systems behave based on single analyses. But it is rare for results of single studies to provide definitive results, as evidenced in current discussions of the “reproducibility crisis” in science. The key...
Nichols, James D.; Kendall, William; Boomer, G.Scott Confronting uncertainty: Contributions of the wildlife profession to the broader scientific community
Most wildlife professionals are engaged in 1 or both of 2 basic endeavors: science and management. These endeavors are a focus of many other disciplines, leading to widespread sharing of general methodologies. Wildlife professionals have appropriately borrowed and assimilated many methods developed primarily in other disciplines but have also led...
Nichols, James D. Scale‐dependent effects of isolation on seasonal patch colonisation by two Neotropical freshwater fishes
The metapopulation paradigm has been central to improve the conservation and management of natural populations. However, despite the large number of studies on metapopulation dynamics, the overall support for the relationships on which the paradigm is based has not been strong. Here, we studied the occupancy dynamics of two Neotropical fishes (i.e...
Penha, Jerry; Hakamada, Karlo Y. P.; Hines, James E.; Nichols, James D. Occupancy models for citizen-science data
Large‐scale citizen‐science projects, such as atlases of species distribution, are an important source of data for macroecological research, for understanding the effects of climate change and other drivers on biodiversity, and for more applied conservation tasks, such as early‐warning systems for biodiversity loss.However, citizen‐science data...
Altwegg, Res; Nichols, James D. Science alive and well in North American wildlife management
Artelle et al. (1) entitled a recent article with the provocative claim: “Hallmarks of science missing from North American wildlife management”. Although we agree with some of the concerns and recommendations of Artelle et al. (1), we believe that the article is misleading about the distinction between science and management, the role of science...
Nichols, James D.; Johnson, Fred A.; Williams, Byron K.; Boomer, G. Scott Two-species occupancy modeling accounting for species misidentification and nondetection
In occupancy studies, species misidentification can lead to false‐positive detections, which can cause severe estimator biases. Currently, all models that account for false‐positive errors only consider omnibus sources of false detections and are limited to single‐species occupancy.However, false detections for a given species often occur because...
Chambert, Thierry; Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Miller, David A. W.; Nichols, James D.; Mulder, Kevin P.; Brand, Adrianne B. Occupancy in community-level studies
Another type of multi-species studies, are those focused on community-level metrics such as species richness. In this chapter we detail how some of the single-species occupancy models described in earlier chapters have been applied, or extended, for use in such studies, while accounting for imperfect detection. We highlight how Bayesian methods...
MacKenzie, Darryl I.; Nichols, James D.; Royle, Andy; Pollock, Kenneth H.; Bailey, Larissa L.; Hines, James E. Strengthening links between waterfowl research and management
Waterfowl monitoring, research, regulation, and adaptive planning are leading the way in supporting science-informed wildlife management. However, increasing societal demands on natural resources have created a greater need for adaptable and successful linkages between waterfowl science and management. We presented a special session at the 2016...
Roberts, Anthony J.; Eadie, John M.; Howerter, David; Johnson, Fred A.; Nichols, James D.; Runge, Michael C.; Vrtiska, Mark; Williams, Byron K. Are ranger patrols effective in reducing poaching-related threats within protected areas?
Poaching is one of the greatest threats to wildlife conservation world-wide. However, the spatial and temporal patterns of poaching activities within protected areas, and the effectiveness of ranger patrols and ranger posts in mitigating these threats, are relatively unknown.We used 10 years (2006–2015) of ranger-based monitoring data and...
Moore, Jennnifer F.; Mulindahabi, Felix; Masozera, Michel K.; Nichols, James D.; Hines, James E.; Turikunkiko, Ezechiel; Oli, Madan K. A new framework for analysing automated acoustic species-detection data: occupancy estimation and optimization of recordings post-processing
The development and use of automated species-detection technologies, such as acoustic recorders, for monitoring wildlife are rapidly expanding. Automated classification algorithms provide a cost- and time-effective means to process information-rich data, but often at the cost of additional detection errors. Appropriate methods are necessary to...
Chambert, Thierry A.; Waddle, J. Hardin; Miller, David A.W.; Walls, Susan C.; Nichols, James D. Field practices: Assessing tiger population dynamics using photographic captures
From these histories, capture frequency statistics and estimates of capture probabilities can be derived.
Karanth, K. Ullas; Nichols, James D.; Harihar, Abishek; Miquelle, Dale; Kumar, N. Samba; Dorazio, Robert