Steve R Beissinger

A. Starker Leopold Chair of Wildlife Biology and Professor of Conservation Biology
Ph.D.  
  

29 Mulford Hall
Berkeley, California 94720
beis@nature.berkeley.edu
office: 510-643-3038   lab: 510-643-3038   fax:  510-642-5438

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My research integrates studies of basic processes in behavioral and population ecology, and applied problems in wildlife and conservation biology. A dominant theme that draws my research in conservation biology and ecology together has been to determine the influence of environmental variation on behavior and life histories, to link these processes to population ecology, and to use this knowledge in the management of endangered or commercially valuable wildlife, and threatened ecosystems through the development of quantitative tools. Most of my work has been with birds, but my students and I have also published on microbes, orchids, invertebrates, herps, and mammals. I am working in tropical ecosystems in South America and the Caribbean, and in California wetlands, marine environments, and forests.

On-going work in my lab includes: (1) An integrative biology approach to the study of endangerment and the ecological causes and correlates of extinction; (2) Understanding the onset of incubation in birds by examining interactions of temperature, humidity, and microbes that affect the shelf-life of unincubated bird eggs;( 3) Studies of the metapopulation dynamics of Black Rails in the foothills of the Sierras in northern California; (4) Examining changes in the distributions vertebrates in California in relation to climate and land use change as part of the Grinnell Project through the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology; (5) Longterm studies of the behavioral and population biology of a tropical parrot, the Green-rumped Parrotlet, in Venezuela; and (6) A retrospective analysis of the diet of seabirds in the California Current.

1. An integrative biology approach to the study of endangerment and the ecological causes and correlates of extinction - We employ a wide range of tools – stable isotope analyses, molecular genetics, hormone analyses, geographic information systems and remotely-sensed data, experimentation, and modeling – to solve problems associated with declining populations of threatened species. The application of quantitative tools ties our work together (Beissinger 2000, Beissinger and McCullough 2002, Beissinger et al. 2006). Our studies over the past decade with Marbled Murrelets provides a good example of this approach, where we developed a formal framework for determining causes of population declines and then pursued an integrated program of marine and terrestrial studies to test a set of candidate limiting factors (Peery et al. 2004). This involved mark-recapture (Peery et al. 2006b) and radio-telemetry study to estimate demographic rates, hormone and blood chemistry analysis to measure breeding condition, development of alternative estimators of fecundity from the ratio of juveniles to adults (Peery et al. in press), demographic modeling of source-sink dynamics (Peery et al. 2006a), and studies of contemporary and historic diets using stable isotopes (Becker and Beissinger 2006, Becker et al. in press). We also conducted a detailed analysis of the habitat use and factors affecting the distribution of murrelets at sea (Becker and Beissinger 2003) and on land (Baker et al. In press). Finally, we developed new methods to reconstruct demographic rates of murrelets prior to population declines in the early 1990's using museum specimens (Beissinger and Peery In press).

2. Understanding the onset of incubation in birds by examining interactions of temperature, humidity, and microbes that affect the shelf-life of unincubated bird eggs - When birds hesitate for several days before initiating incubation, they leave their eggs unattended and susceptible to fluctuating temperatures that erode viability. Experiments in Puerto Rico with Pearly-eyed Thrasher eggs along an altitudinal gradient found that temperature alone was insufficient to account for viability declines (Beissinger et al. 2005). We were surprised to learn that microbes are capable of invading egg shells within a few days of laying and can cause embryo mortality (Cook et al. 2003). Moreover, avian parents can reduce the chance of invasion by microbes and can shift the microbial community on bird eggs by incubating them (Cook et al. 2005a, Cook et al. 2005b). Current work is expanding these ideas to temperate birds in California by examining how microbes may shape the incubation patterns and maternal allocation strategies from three complementary perspectives: (a) the fitness consequences of microbial invasion prior to full incubation; (b) microbial processes on the eggshell affecting trans-shell penetration that may be actively or passively influenced by climate and parental incubation; and (c) avian defenses against microbial invasion, such as partially incubating eggs to disinfect them and differentially endowing eggs with antibiotic properties.

3. Studies of the metapopulation dynamics of Black Rails in the foothills of the Sierras in northern California - We are estimating rates of colonization and extinction at over 200 wetlands and relating them to wetland characteristics, water sources, grazing and other land management factors. Historical aerial photos, remotely sensed data and GIS information are used to map wetlands and their changes through time. Ultimately we will develop models of metapopulation dynamics.

4. Examining changes in the distributions vertebrates in California in relation to climate and land use change as part of the Grinnell Project through the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology - We are revisiting sites in CA first surveyed for birds and small mammals by Joseph Grinnell and colleagues in the early 1900's, and applying occupancy models to relate changes in the distribution of these taxa to climate and land use change. For a description of the Grinnell Project, see < a href="http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/mvz/Grinnell/">http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/mvz/Grinnell/

5. Longterm studies of the behavioral and population biology of a tropical parrot, the Green-rumped Parrotlet, in Venezuela - This work is well known as one of the most detailed and long-term field studies of a tropical bird, and is unique among parrots. Over 7,500 parrotlets have been banded and over 2500 nesting attempts have been tracked to study how demography and social systems integrate with population dynamics for over 20 years. More than 35 publications have appeared. Recent work has examined patterns of sex ratio allocation (Budden and Beissinger 2004) and egg size variation (Budden and Beissinger 2005), while work on infanticide and metapopulation processes are in preparation. Future work will examine the temporal and spatial dynamics of parrotlet populations using models that incorporate the mating and social structure of the population.

6. A retrospective analysis of the diet of seabirds in the California Current – Following up on our ground-breaking work that demonstrate a large decline in the trophic level of Marbled Murrelets in Monterey Bay after the declines of sardines and anchovies and other prey items in the vicinity of Cannery Row (Becker and Beissinger 2006). We use stable isotopes in seabird feathers to trace long-term changes in the proportion of fishes and invertebrates in their diets back to the late 1800's as an indicator of ocean ecosystem change.

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Becker, B. H., and S. R. Beissinger. 2003. Scale-dependent habitat selection by a nearshore seabird, the marbled murrelet, in a highly dynamic upwelling system. Marine Ecology Progress Series 256:243-255.

Becker, B. H., and S. R. Beissinger. 2006. Centennial decline in the trophic level of an endangered seabird after fisheries decline. Conservation Biology 20:470-480.

Becker, B. H., M. Peery, and S. Beissinger. 2007. Ocean climate and prey availability affect the reproductive success of an endangered seabird, the marbled murrelet. Marine Ecology Progress Series 329:267-279.

Beissinger, S. R. 2000. Ecological mechanisms of extinction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 97:11688-11689.

Beissinger, S. R., M. I. Cook, and W. J. Arendt. 2005. The "shelf life" of bird eggs: testing egg viability using a tropical climate gradient. Ecology 86:2164-2175.

Beissinger, S. R., and D. R. McCullough. 2002. Population Viability Analysis. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois.

Beissinger, S. R., and M. Z. Peery. 2007. Reconstructing the historical demography of an endangered seabird. Ecology 88:296-305.

Beissinger, S. R., J. R. Walters, D. G. Catanzaro, K. G. Smith, J. B. Dunning, Jr., S. M. Haig, B. R. Noon, and B. Stith. 2006. Modeling approaches in avian conservation and the role of field biologists. Ornithological Monographs 59.

Budden, A. E., and S. R. Beissinger. 2004. Against the odds? Nestling sex ratio variation in green-rumped parrotlets. Behavioral Ecology 15:607-613.

Budden, A. E., and S. R. Beissinger. 2005. Egg mass in an asynchronously hatching parrot: does variation offset constraints imposed by laying order? Oecologia 144:318-326.

Cook, M. I., S. R. Beissinger, G. A. Toranzos, and W. J. Arendt. 2005a. Incubation reduces microbial growth on eggshells and the opportunity for trans-shell infection. Ecology Letters 8:532-537.

Cook, M. I., S. R. Beissinger, G. A. Toranzos, R. A. Rodriguez, and W. J. Arendt. 2003. Trans-shell infection by pathogenic micro-organisms reduces the shelf life of non-incubated bird's eggs: a constraint on the onset of incubation? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences 270:2233-2240.

Cook, M. I., S. R. Beissinger, G. A. Toranzos, R. A. Rodriguez, and W. J. Arendt. 2005b. Microbial infection affects egg viability and incubation behavior in a tropical passerine. Behavioral Ecology 16:30-36.

Peery, M. Z., B. H. Becker, and S. R. Beissinger. 2006a. Combining demographic and count-based approaches to identify source-sink dynamics of a threatened seabird. Ecological Applications 16:1516-1528.

Peery, M. Z., B. H. Becker, and S. R. Beissinger. 2007. Age ratios as estimators of productivity: testing assumptions on an endangered seabird, the Marbled Murrelet. Auk 124:224-240.

Peery, M. Z., S. R. Beissinger, E. B. Burkett, and S. H. Newman. 2006b. Local survival of Marbled Murrelets in central California: roles of oceanographic processes, sex, and radio-tagging. Journal of Wildlife Management 70:78-88.

Peery, M. Z., S. R. Beissinger, S. H. Newman, E. B. Burkett, and T. D. Williams. 2004. Applying the declining population paradigm: diagnosing causes of poor reproduction in the marbled murrelet. Conservation Biology 18:1088-1098.ian demography. Ecology 81:1351-1370.