Lydia Beaudrot, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and Postdoctoral Scholar – Michigan Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Prof. Beaudrot combines observational data with ecoinformatic and modeling approaches to investigate questions at the interface of ecological theory and conservation biology. The primary goals of my research are to 1) identify the mechanisms that structure ecological communities 2) understand how tropical mammals and birds respond to global change and 3) apply results to biodiversity conservation.
In an era of “Big Data,” in which data-driven decisions are pivotal to modern society, the field of conservation trails behind, with critical decisions based on expert opinion, biased information and irreproducible research. Global conservation targets require long-term monitoring of biodiversity trends, and a new paradigm for how these data are collected, shared and synthesized. Prof. Beaudrot conducts research with the TEAM Network, the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network, which is a partnership between Conservation International, the Smithsonian Institute and the Wildlife Conservation Society. She creates robust analytics to assess biodiversity change and provide scalable solutions for a vital paradigm shift in conservation biology. She is particularly interested in the effects of global change on tropical biodiversity. One of the ways that she assesses this is by monitoring the population status of ~250 mammal and bird species with the Wildlife Picture Index. See wpi.teamnetwork.org.
