Ph. D., Florida Institute of Technology

   

Office:     429E Life Sciences Building

Phone:   1-419-372-8559

Email:     kvroot@bgsu.edu

   

Research:

conservation biology, population viability analysis, reserve design

   

Root Lab Home Page

   

Courses taught:

Conservation Biology in Practice

Landscape Ecology

   

Research Interests:

My primary research focus is the conservation of biodiversity, particularly conservation planning and management. This research combines fieldwork with the application of quantitative techniques such as GIS. and risk assessment to conservation issues. Work in my lab includes projects that focus on a variety of organisms and scales from single species population dynamics to landscape-scale multispecies reserve designs. My graduate students work on projects such as habitat suitability analysis for vertebrates, PVA for listed species, mark-recapture studies, and ecosystem characterization. Recently, I have been exploring new methods for multispecies assessments as part of multispecies recovery efforts in Florida and Ohio.

Selected Publications:

Pickens, B. and K. V. Root. In press. Butterfly Behavior as a Tool for Assessing a Managed Landscape: A Case Study of the Karner Blue Butterfly. Landscape Ecology.

Pickens, B. and K. V. Root. In press. Oviposition strategy and behavior of the Karner blue butterfly, Lycaeides melissa samuelis. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society.

Pickens, B. and K.V. Root. 2008. Identifying factors affecting nutrition for the endangered Karner Blue Butterfly, Lycaeides Melissa samuelis. Natural Areas Journal 28: 210-217

Kautz, R., R. Kawula, T. Hoctor, J. Comiskey, D. Jansen, D. Jennings, J. Kasbohm, D. Land, F. Mazzotti, R. McBride, L. Richardson, and K. Root. 2006. How Much Is Enough? Landscape-scale Conservation for the Florida Panther. Biological Conservation 130:118-133.

Root, K. V. (ed.) 2005. Environmental Science Interactive. Web School of Science, Setauket, NY.

Root, K. V. 2004. Using models to guide recovery efforts for the Florida Panther. Pages 491-504 in H. R. Akçakaya, M. Burgman, O. Kindvall, C. C. Wood, P. Sjogren-Gulve, J. Hatfield, and M. McCarthy (eds.), Species Conservation and Management: Case Studies, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

Root, K. V. 2003. Prioritizing Conservation of Biodiversity Using a Multispecies Approach. Gap Analysis Bulletin 11:18-23. (http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/Bulletins/11/Prioritizing_conservation.htm)

Regan, H.M., H. R. Akcakaya; S. Ferson; K.V. Root; L.R. Ginzburg; R. Pastorok. 2003. Treatments of uncertainty and variability in ecological risk assessment of populations, ecosystems, and landscapes. Human Ecological Risk Assessment 9(4):889-906.

Root, K.V.; H.R. Akcakaya; L.R. Ginzburg. 2003. A multispecies approach to ecological valuation and conservation. Conservation Biology 17: 196-206.

Root, K.V. (ed.) 2002. Environmental Science on the Web: Interactive Online Laboratories for Environmental Science. Applied Biomathematics, Setauket, NY.

Root, K.V. 2002. Evaluating risks for threatened aquatic species: the shortnose sturgeon in the Connecticut River. In W. Van Winkle; P.J. Anders; D.H. Secor; and D.A. Dixon (eds), Biology, Management and Protection of North American Sturgeon. American Fisheries Society.

Root, K.V. 2002. RAMAS Multispecies Assessment: Estimating Multispecies Conservation Values across the Landscape. Applied Biomathematics, Setauket, NY.

Root, K.V. 2001. Classification of species. in Pastorok, R.A.; S.M. Bartell; S. Ferson, L.R. Ginzburg (eds). Ecological modeling in risk assessement: Chemical effects on populations, ecosystems, and landscapes. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL.

Shultz, S.M.; A.E. Dunham; K.V. Root; S.L. Soucy; S.D. Carroll; L.R. Ginzburg. 1999. Conservation Biology with RAMAS EcoLab. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.

Root, K.V. 1998. Evaluating effects of habitat quality, connectivity and catastrophes on a threatened species. Ecological Applications 8:854-865.