Climate, Grasslands, and Trust Species Webinar | August 31st Webinar

For the past half century, grassland birds have been declining faster than any other group of birds. Habitat loss and degradation are driving many of these declines, but the emerging threat of climate change and associated increases in extreme events pose even more challenges. Using grassland birds as a case study, we will discuss new research on how climate change impacts grassland birds, from range shifts to demographic consequences. We will also explore ongoing efforts to identify how climate adaptation strategies can increase the resilience of grassland birds to future climate change.
Dr. Benjamin Zuckerberg is a professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Zuckerberg received his Masters from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and doctorate from the State University of New York where he then went on to serve as a research associate in citizen science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. His research focuses on how modern climate change and habitat loss influence wildlife behavior, abundance, and distribution. Members of his lab often work closely with natural resource managers to provide guidance on various aspects of climate change adaptation. Dr. Zuckerberg teaches a course on Climate Change Ecology and is a strong advocate for the role of citizen science in understanding how species will respond to the global pressures of the 21st century.
Dr. Christine Ribic studies grassland bird ecology and conservation and climate change impacts on birds. Dr. Ribic was one of the first researchers to demonstrate that landscape factors affect within-patch abundance of grassland birds and her later work investigated how patch and landscape-scale factors interact to affect grassland bird abundance. Dr. Ribic has studied how climate change might affect future distributions of grassland birds and recovery efforts for Kirtland’s Warbler. Overall, Dr. Ribic’s work was the basis for the Wisconsin DNR’s landscape-scale approach for conserving grassland birds. Currently, Dr. Ribic is a Professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Jacy’s interests are primarily focused on the applied demographics of grassland songbirds, and more broadly the conservation and management of North American grasslands. In 2016, he completed a masters of Natural Resource Management at the University of Manitoba. Following completion of his degree, Jacy held a position as an Avian Ecologist for Colorado-based non-profit Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. His previous research topics have included the effects of conventional oil and gas infrastructure on nesting mixed-grass prairie songbirds, and the full annual cycle demographics of Baird's Sparrow and Grasshopper Sparrow. In his present capacity as a doctoral student in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at UW-Madison, Jacy is exploring remote sensing applications to examine the drivers of microclimate variation within midwestern grasslands, and subsequently, the ecological importance of fine-scale climate conditions to nesting grassland birds.