M. Zachariah Peery
Post-doctoral Researcher
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
7544 Sandholdt Road
Moss Landing, CA 95039
Phone: 831-771-4139
zpeery@mlml.calstate.edu

 

General Research Interests

I am interested in the application of methods and concepts from the fields of population ecology, population genetics, behavior, and marine biology to the conservation of threatened wildlife species and populations. Most of my recent and current research is focused on the Marbled Murrelet, a small diving seabird that nests in old-growth coniferous forests in western North America. The murrelet is a particularly interesting and rewarding species to study because it is dependent on both the integrity of old growth forest and nearshore marine ecosystems. Moreover, because of its unusual life-history, the murrelet was the last North American bird species for which a nest was found and very little is known about its basic life history – almost anything we figure out seems to be new, exciting, and unexpected! I have also worked extensively on the demography and habitat associations of Spotted Owls in the Sierra Nevada and New Mexico.

Specific Research Interests

Integrating ecological approaches to the study of factors limiting endangered species: My collaborators and I used a variety of methods such as radio-telemetry, mark-recapture methods, stable isotope analyses, genetics, physiological analysis, geographic information systems, and population modeling – to solve problems associated with threatened species. This work is united by the themes of rigorous hypothesis development and testing as well as the use of sophisticated analytical and modeling techniques to solve challenging problems. Studies we have conducted over the past decade with Marbled Murrelets provide 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. 2004a). This work involved mark-recapture and radio-telemetry methods to estimate demographic rates (Peery et al. 2006a), hormone and blood chemistry analysis to measure breeding condition (Peery et al. 2004a), development of alternative estimators of fecundity from the ratio of juveniles to adults (Peery et al. 2007), demographic modeling of source-sink dynamics (Peery et al. 2006b), and studies of foraging ecology using stable isotopes (Becker et al. 2007). We also conducted a detailed analysis of the inland habitat use that is being used by local and regional land managers to manage old-growth redwood forests in California (Baker et al. 2006). Finally, we developed new methods to reconstruct demographic rates of murrelets prior to population declines in the early 1900's using museum specimens (Beissinger and Peery 2007).

Characterizing the demography of wildlife populations with molecular methods:
My current research is largely focused on developing and applying novel genetic methods to address population level questions that are difficult to address with traditional field techniques. Commonly used genetic methods for estimating population parameters such as migration and effective population size generally apply to evolutionary time scales and can be of limited utility for addressing contemporary conservation issues. We are currently developing a molecular parentage-based approach for estimating migration on ecological time scales and are using this approach to test hypotheses about sources-sink dynamics for murrelets. Parentage analyses require many highly polymorphic loci and we have recently developed a 31-loci microsatellite library specifically for murrelets (Rew et al. 2006). We are also using DNA extracted from hundreds of historically collected museum specimens and comparing historic genetic variability to variation in modern samples collected from Alaska to California to estimate centennial scale changes in murrelet populations. Finally, I am collaborating with Dr. Vicki Friesen in conducting a range-wide assessment of genetic variation for murrelets.

Foraging ecology, habitat use, and biology of seabirds in the California Current:
Along with my collaborators, I am studying how seabirds use the marine environment in the California Current System to meet their life-history needs. This research has also largely focused on Marbled Murrelets and has involved the use of radio-telemetry, behavioral observations, prey sampling, and stable isotopes. We have shown that murrelet diet, distribution, reproductive success, and survival is closely coupled with both local and large-scale physical oceanographic processes that drive the availability of prey resources (Becker et al. 2007, Peery et al. 2004a). We have also studied fine scale variation in the foraging behavior of radio-marked birds to show that foraging decisions (where, when and how much to forage) are a complex and influenced by breeding constraints as well as short and long term changes in the marine environment (Peery 2004). We are currently studying the post-breeding dispersal behavior and pre-basic molting dynamics of murrelets to understand how individuals meet the energetic requirements of the molting process (Peery et al. In press).

Developing sampling designs for the long-term monitoring of wildlife populations:
Developing sound management plans for wildlife requires an understanding of the status and trend of populations as well as an understanding of how populations will respond to management. Developing robust, and of course logistically and economically feasible monitoring programs requires careful consideration of objectives, the biology of the species and system in question, and quantitative assessments of the ability of the program to detect change in the system. I have worked extensively to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of monitoring murrelet populations and their responses to land management with inland radar and audio-visual counts. This work has involved a combination of radio-telemetry to study the inland flight behavior of murrelets (Peery et al. 2004b) and analyses of long-term inland count datasets on managed lands in northern California and the Olympic National Park to estimate statistical power and biases in detection probabilities (Bigger et al. 2006a,b; Cooper et al. 2007). Another current project involves developing and evaluating a monitoring plan for Steller’s Jays and Common Ravens, both frequent avian nest predators, in the Headwaters Reserve and Redwood National Park. Finally, I have recently been involved in developing and evaluating a long-term monitoring plan to estimate population trends for Pallid Sturgeon in the Missouri River.

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