Grantee Research Project Results

Utah's Montane Mammals: Indicators of Climate Change

EPA Grant Number: U916137
Title: Utah's Montane Mammals: Indicators of Climate Change
Investigators: Rowe, Rebecca J.
Institution: University of Chicago
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: January 1, 2003 through January 1, 2006
Project Amount: $108,000
RFA: STAR Graduate Fellowships (2003) Recipients Lists
Research Category: Fellowship - Zoology , Academic Fellowships , Biology/Life Sciences

Objective:

The objective of this research project is to study regional and local species richness patterns of small mammals across elevational gradients in eastern Utah.

Approach:

This research project will be unique in that it combines both geographic and phylogenetic criteria, and it therefore may offer insight into distributions over evolutionary time scales and with and between clades. Moreover, this research project may provide more refined methods of predicting elevational changes in species distributions as a result of current and future climate change and for developing approaches for managing and conserving small mammal species. There is an existing database of regional small mammal distributions, and this will be used for this project. I will need to visit only a few inadequately sampled locations. This will contribute greatly to the likely success of the project because the task would be too great for one person. This project will make a significant contribution to conservation biology and studies of species diversity and distributions.

Supplemental Keywords:

fellowship, montane mammals, climate change, small mammal species, small mammal distributions, conservation, endangered species issues, conservation biology, Utah, UT, species diversity.

Progress and Final Reports:

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.