Above: Redband trout encountered while fly fishing a local river.

Above: Example of ecological-evolutionary model of climate change accounting for thermal tolerance and habitat selection through behavior. These two represent a subset of the 4 eco-evo scenarios I am exploring.

Adaptive Capacity of Cold-Adapted Trout

I am currently working on designing agent-based models and landscape genomics to understand the adaptive capacity of Redband trout in Idaho as part of the Idaho GEM3 project. Much of this work is on-going, and in collaboration with folks from across Idaho at part of the Idaho EPSCoR program: www.idahoepscor.org/ and for the project www.idahogem3.org/

Currently my focus has been on extending CDMetaPOP to include plasticity in the models to understand its impact on population persistence in combination with local adaptation (see GitHub page here). This has been in collaboration with Erin Landguth from the University of Montana. This will likely be published as a theoretical paper, prior to incorporating the wide-array of empirical data that are currently being collected.

In addition, I've been working on the landscape genomics of Redband trout.

I also am involved in Yellowstone Cutthroat trout modeling of hybridization across different restoration and connectivity scenarios. This work is being done by a student at Idaho State University whose committee I serve on.