Wildlife: Indicators of Ecosystem Health
Who We Are
BRI’s Center for Wildlife Ecology unifies our diverse research programs dedicated to understanding wildlife and the ecosystems they depend on. This center encompasses interdisciplinary science spanning birds, mammals, fish, and other key wildlife taxa.
The Center for Wildlife Ecology integrates ecological research across multiple taxa and habitats to advance scientific understanding of wildlife ecology, evaluate population trends, habitat use, and responses to environmental stressors, inform natural resource decision-making, and foster collaborative research with partners in government, academia, and conservation communities.
Who We Are
Programs and Studies
Avian Studies
BRI’s Avian Studies assess current and emerging threats to different species and contribute to understanding basic avian ecology and the impacts of ecological stressors.
Fisheries Studies
BRI’s Fisheries Program focuses on projects involving the capture, tagging, inventory, sampling, and collection of fish and/or their tissues. Analytical projects include designing and implementing biomonitoring programs and analyzing and interpreting data for the implications for human health and environment.
Mammal Program
BRI focuses its research efforts on meeting the conservation needs of selected species and using them as bioindicators to evaluate the health of individuals, populations, and ecosystems. Our primary areas of research emphasis include (1) contaminants monitoring; (2) movement studies; and (3) surveys and population monitoring.
Marine Mammal Program
A number of human and environmental stressors may impact marine mammal health. To provide the information necessary to effectively conserve and manage marine mammal populations, it is important to understand their distributions, population abundances and vital rates, behavioral ecology, and risk factors.
