Michael Runge is a research ecologist at the Eastern Ecological Science Center, where he has worked since 1999.
Professional Experience
2001-present Research Ecologist at USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center (Previously Patuxent Wildlife Research Center)
2009 to 2010 visiting scientist at the University of Melbourne, School of Botany
1989 to 1994 taught math and science at St. Francis High School in Louisville, Kentucky
Education and Certifications
B.A. in biology and philosophy (1989) from the Johns Hopkins University
M.A.T. (Master of Arts in Teaching) in biology (1994) from Spalding University
Ph.D. in wildlife science (1999),with minors in biometrics and agricultural economics, from Cornell University
Honors and Awards
Regional Director’s Award for Excellence in Communication. USGS Western Region. November 2007. “In recognition of outstanding science leading to enhanced understanding of the relation bet
Unit Award for Excellence of Service. U.S. Department of Interior. November 2007. In recognition of the outstanding contributions of the International Polar Bear Science Team
Unit Award for Excellence of Service. U.S. Department of Interior. September 2007. In recognition of introducing the adaptive management initiative across the Department
Regional Director’s Conservation Award, USFWS Region 4. May 2007. For contributions to and partnership in the science and recovery efforts of the Florida manatee.
Extraordinary Contribution. Chief, National Wildlife Refuge System, USFWS. June 2003. For extraordinary contributions to Fulfilling the Promise.
Superior Service Award. United States Department of Interior. October 2005. For making your science available to natural resource managers for use in their management decisions
STAR Award - USFWS Region 5. June 2004. For outstanding contributions to improving wildlife management science on National Wildlife Refuges
STAR Award - USGS. August 2003. For supporting the USFWS in the manatee incidental take rule-making.
STAR Award - PWRC, U.S. Geological Survey. January 2002. For helping organize and present the Adaptive Management Workshop at the 2001 Wildlife Society Meeting.
STAR Award - PWRC, U.S. Geological Survey. January 2002. For helping organize and present the Adaptive Management Workshop at the 2001 Wildlife Society Meeting.
Gamma Sigma Delta. Cornell University. Election, May 1998.
Delta Epsilon Sigma. Spalding University. Election, April 1994.
Phi Beta Kappa. Johns Hopkins University. Election, March 1988.
Presidential Scholar. The White House. June 1985.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 144
Resilience and risk: a demographic model to inform conservation planning for polar bears
Climate change is having widespread ecological effects, including loss of Arctic sea ice. This has led to listing of the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) and other ice-dependent marine mammals under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). Methods are needed to evaluate the effects of climate change on population persistence to inform recovery planning for listed species. For polar bears, this includes
Making decisions in complex landscapes: Headwater stream management across multiple federal agencies
Headwater stream ecosystems are vulnerable to numerous threats associated with climate and land use change. In the northeastern US, many headwater stream species (e.g., brook trout and stream salamanders) are of special conservation concern and may be vulnerable to climate change influences, such as changes in stream temperature and streamflow. Federal land management agencies (e.g., US Fish and W
How much is new information worth? Evaluating the financial benefit of resolving management uncertainty
Conservation decision-makers face a trade-off between spending limited funds on direct management action, or gaining new information in an attempt to improve management performance in the future. Value-of-information analysis can help to resolve this trade-off by evaluating how much management performance could improve if new information was gained. Value-of-information analysis has been used e
Adaptive management and the value of information: learning via intervention in epidemiology
Optimal intervention for disease outbreaks is often impeded by severe scientific uncertainty. Adaptive management (AM), long-used in natural resource management, is a structured decision-making approach to solving dynamic problems that accounts for the value of resolving uncertainty via real-time evaluation of alternative models. We propose an AM approach to design and evaluate intervention strate
Minimizing the cost of keeping options open for conservation in a changing climate
Policy documents advocate that managers should keep their options open while planning to protect coastal ecosystems from climate-change impacts. However, the actual costs and benefits of maintaining flexibility remain largely unexplored, and alternative approaches for decision making under uncertainty may lead to better joint outcomes for conservation and other societal goals. For example, keeping
Application of threshold concepts to ecological management problems: Occupancy of Golden Eagles in Denali National Park, Alaska
In this chapter, we demonstrate the application of the various classes of thresholds, detailed in earlier chapters and elsewhere, via an actual but simplified natural resource management case study. We intend our example to provide the reader with the ability to recognize and apply the theoretical concepts of utility, ecological and decision thresholds to management problems through a formalized d
Identifying objectives and alternative actions to frame a decision problem.
In this chapter, we discuss the role of objectives and alternative actions in framing a natural resource management decision problem, with particular attention to thresholds. We outline a number of considerations in developing objectives and measurable attributes, including when utility thresholds may be needed to express the decision-makers’ values.We also discuss the development of a set of alte
Managing harvest and habitat as integrated components
In 2007, several important initiatives in the North American waterfowl management community called for an integrated approach to habitat and harvest management. The essence of the call for integration is that harvest and habitat management affect the same resources, yet exist as separate endeavours with very different regulatory contexts. A common modelling framework could help these management st
Structured decision making
Wildlife management is a decision-focused discipline. It needs to integrate traditional wildlife science and social science to identify actions that are most likely to achieve the array of desires society has surrounding wildlife populations. Decision science, a vast field with roots in economics, operations research, and psychology, offers a rich set of tools to help wildlife managers frame, deco
A matter of tradeoffs: reintroduction as a multiple objective decision
Decision making in guidance of reintroduction efforts is made challenging by the substantial scientific uncertainty typically involved. However, a less recognized challenge is that the management objectives are often numerous and complex. Decision makers managing reintroduction efforts are often concerned with more than just how to maximize the probability of reintroduction success from a populati
Active adaptive management for reintroduction of an animal population
Captive animals are frequently reintroduced to the wild in the face of uncertainty, but that uncertainty can often be reduced over the course of the reintroduction effort, providing the opportunity for adaptive management. One common uncertainty in reintroductions is the short-term survival rate of released adults (a release cost), an important factor because it can affect whether releasing adults
White-nose syndrome is likely to extirpate the endangered Indiana bat over large parts of its range
White-nose syndrome, a novel fungal pathogen spreading quickly through cave-hibernating bat species in east and central North America, is responsible for killing millions of bats. We developed a stochastic, stage-based population model to forecast the population dynamics of the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) subject to white-nose syndrome. Our population model explicitly incorporated envi
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Science and Products
- Publications
Filter Total Items: 144
Resilience and risk: a demographic model to inform conservation planning for polar bears
Climate change is having widespread ecological effects, including loss of Arctic sea ice. This has led to listing of the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) and other ice-dependent marine mammals under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). Methods are needed to evaluate the effects of climate change on population persistence to inform recovery planning for listed species. For polar bears, this includesMaking decisions in complex landscapes: Headwater stream management across multiple federal agencies
Headwater stream ecosystems are vulnerable to numerous threats associated with climate and land use change. In the northeastern US, many headwater stream species (e.g., brook trout and stream salamanders) are of special conservation concern and may be vulnerable to climate change influences, such as changes in stream temperature and streamflow. Federal land management agencies (e.g., US Fish and WHow much is new information worth? Evaluating the financial benefit of resolving management uncertainty
Conservation decision-makers face a trade-off between spending limited funds on direct management action, or gaining new information in an attempt to improve management performance in the future. Value-of-information analysis can help to resolve this trade-off by evaluating how much management performance could improve if new information was gained. Value-of-information analysis has been used eAdaptive management and the value of information: learning via intervention in epidemiology
Optimal intervention for disease outbreaks is often impeded by severe scientific uncertainty. Adaptive management (AM), long-used in natural resource management, is a structured decision-making approach to solving dynamic problems that accounts for the value of resolving uncertainty via real-time evaluation of alternative models. We propose an AM approach to design and evaluate intervention strateMinimizing the cost of keeping options open for conservation in a changing climate
Policy documents advocate that managers should keep their options open while planning to protect coastal ecosystems from climate-change impacts. However, the actual costs and benefits of maintaining flexibility remain largely unexplored, and alternative approaches for decision making under uncertainty may lead to better joint outcomes for conservation and other societal goals. For example, keepingApplication of threshold concepts to ecological management problems: Occupancy of Golden Eagles in Denali National Park, Alaska
In this chapter, we demonstrate the application of the various classes of thresholds, detailed in earlier chapters and elsewhere, via an actual but simplified natural resource management case study. We intend our example to provide the reader with the ability to recognize and apply the theoretical concepts of utility, ecological and decision thresholds to management problems through a formalized dIdentifying objectives and alternative actions to frame a decision problem.
In this chapter, we discuss the role of objectives and alternative actions in framing a natural resource management decision problem, with particular attention to thresholds. We outline a number of considerations in developing objectives and measurable attributes, including when utility thresholds may be needed to express the decision-makers’ values.We also discuss the development of a set of alteManaging harvest and habitat as integrated components
In 2007, several important initiatives in the North American waterfowl management community called for an integrated approach to habitat and harvest management. The essence of the call for integration is that harvest and habitat management affect the same resources, yet exist as separate endeavours with very different regulatory contexts. A common modelling framework could help these management stStructured decision making
Wildlife management is a decision-focused discipline. It needs to integrate traditional wildlife science and social science to identify actions that are most likely to achieve the array of desires society has surrounding wildlife populations. Decision science, a vast field with roots in economics, operations research, and psychology, offers a rich set of tools to help wildlife managers frame, decoA matter of tradeoffs: reintroduction as a multiple objective decision
Decision making in guidance of reintroduction efforts is made challenging by the substantial scientific uncertainty typically involved. However, a less recognized challenge is that the management objectives are often numerous and complex. Decision makers managing reintroduction efforts are often concerned with more than just how to maximize the probability of reintroduction success from a populatiActive adaptive management for reintroduction of an animal population
Captive animals are frequently reintroduced to the wild in the face of uncertainty, but that uncertainty can often be reduced over the course of the reintroduction effort, providing the opportunity for adaptive management. One common uncertainty in reintroductions is the short-term survival rate of released adults (a release cost), an important factor because it can affect whether releasing adultsWhite-nose syndrome is likely to extirpate the endangered Indiana bat over large parts of its range
White-nose syndrome, a novel fungal pathogen spreading quickly through cave-hibernating bat species in east and central North America, is responsible for killing millions of bats. We developed a stochastic, stage-based population model to forecast the population dynamics of the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) subject to white-nose syndrome. Our population model explicitly incorporated envi - Science
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