Robert Fletcher

Conservation biology with an emphasis on wildlife ecology and landscape conservation.

Research Area

My research focuses on applied ecology and conservation science. Concepts and quantitative tools in landscape and population ecology are critical for making effective decisions for conserving biodiversity from local to global scales. My research focuses on these issues and targets problems such as preventing extinction of imperilled species, identifying key areas for conservation, and how to best manage and restore landscapes for biodiversity. I work with several natural resource partners in North America, Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia, focusing on wetland, savanna, and forested ecosystems. Throughout, we advance concepts, models, and evidence for reliable decision making in conservation.

I use a variety of approaches and tools to address problems in ecology and conservation science. These include field work through long-term monitoring and experiments on imperilled species and ecosystems, such as work on endangered species in the Everglades and elephants in southern Africa. My team also derives new models and synthesizes data in biodiversity science, focusing on how habitat loss and fragmentation, habitat corridors, invasive species, human-wildlife conflict, and climate change impact biodiversity. Much of this work is interdisciplinary and includes collaborations with engineers, social scientists, statisticians, evolutionary biologists, and computer scientists to deliver guidance for conservation.

Project Interests

I am interested in developing projects that focus on three key areas. First, what are the drivers of species decline and how can we effectively guide species recovery? Second, how do we best identify where and how to conserve and restore landscapes for biodiversity? Third, how can we deliver rapid and reliable information to help conservation and management? Project development could focus on field-based projects on imperilled species (including working in our long-term projects or in other areas), landscape modelling and synthesis, or conservation forecasting and decision analysis. Interdisciplinary projects that probe these areas are encouraged.