Our Research | Alex Baecher

Citizen Science for Monitoring Birds

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Integrated population modeling

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Forecasting ecological dynamics and disease

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Publications
Forthcoming

J Alex Baecher, V a Askshay, Robert Guralnick, Amy M Bauer, Yasmin N Tavares, Yesenia Sánchez, James T Thorson, Lindsay P Campbell (2025). Toward Ecological Forecasting of West Nile Virus in Florida: Insights from Two Decades of Surveillance. EcoEvoRxiv. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.32942/X2QH09

Appalachian Salamander Ecology

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Appalachian Salamander Ecology

Salamanders are among the most abundant vertebrate animals in temperate deciduous forests of eastern North America. Because of their abundance, salamanders are responsible for the transfer of energy between highly disparate levels of trophic organization: detrital food webs and high‐order predators. By predating leaf litter insects (particularly shredders), salamanders are thought to slow the leaf litter decomposition process, resulting in less soil respiration and fewer carbon emmissions. Therefore, salamanders represent one of the most important ecosystem services in forests. Unfortunately, salamanders’ predicted sensitivity to climate change suggests these services may not be rendered indefinitely… My research aims to understand how salamanders will respond to natural and anthropogenic disturbances, as well furthering out understand of their natural history.

Interests in Appalachian Salamander Research:

Studying population dynamics of salamanders in relation to natural disturbance (e.g. canopy perforation)
Investigating how salamanders respond to a competition-disturbance gradient
Understanding how climate change will affect salamanders across elevation gradients

Publications

Baecher, JA, E Jones, SC Richter. 2020. Tail bifurcation in two species of Desmognathus salamander Caudata: Plethodontidae in southeastern Kentucky, USA. Herpetological Bulletin https://doi.org/10.33256/hb150.2930
Baecher, JA, SC Richter. 2018. Environmental gradients in an old-growth Appalachian Forest predict fine-scale distribution, co-occurrence, and abundance of woodland salamanders. Ecology and Evolution https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4736

Biodiversity redistribution

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Spatiotemporal statistics

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Spatiotemporal modeling Basic generalized linear mixed effects models can account for spatial (and spatiotemporal) autocorrelation using latent Gaussian random fields (GRFs). However, GRFs are computationally intense due to costly covariance functions. Stochastic Partial Differential Equations (SPDE) can be used to minimize the scale of this problem by approximating GRFs with Gaussian Markcov random fields (GMRFs) with a Matern covariance function (Lindgrin et al., 2011; Krainski et al. 2018). This solution has been adopted by the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) software, and has later been implimented in Template Model Builder (TMB) software (Thorson et al., 2015).

Landscape connectivity

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Publications
Forthcoming

Baecher, JA, et al. .In review. Isolating what limits the spread of an invasive predator. Journal of Applied Ecology https://advance.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.22541/au.171248322.23946990/v1
Baecher, JA, et al. .In prep. Informing species range shifts with global connectivity. TBA

Reptile and Amphibian Ecology

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Reptile and Amphibian Ecology

Publications

Baecher, JA, et al. 2023. Experimental evaluation of how invasions and climate change interact to alter the vertical assembly of an amphibian community. Journal of Animal Ecology https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.13899
Basham, EW, et al. 2022. Large, old trees define the vertical, horizontal, and seasonal distributions of a poison frog. Oecologia https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-022-05108-9
Swartwout, M, et al. 2020. Prey Size and Growth Rate do not Influence Trophic Morphology of Juvenile Water Snakes Nerodia sipedon. Herpetologica https://doi.org/10.1655/Herpetologica-D-18-00007
Baecher, JA, et al. .2018. Herpetofaunal Communities in Restored and Unrestored Remnant Tallgrass Prairie and Associated Wetlands in Northwest Arkansas, USA. Wetlands https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-017-0966-5
Baecher, JA, et al. .2014. Lithobates areolatus, Predation. Herpetological Reviews 45(4):681-682