Warren, Paige S.
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
Assistant Professor
413-545-0061
Email: pswarrenpswarren(at)nrc.umass.edu
Links: Conservation Biology Journal Club
Primary Interests:
Dr. Warren’s research seeks to understand processes generating and maintaining biological diversity in a world that is becoming increasingly dominated by humans. Research in the lab spans the species, community and landscape levels and focuses on the impacts of urbanization on animals. Rapid urbanization is one of the greatest challenges facing conservation biology, with many cities growing in area faster than in population. In addition, the highly managed nature of a city landscape provides biologists with some unique opportunities to understand both the role of humans in altering patterns of biological diversity and the role of behavior in limiting animal distributions. A guiding principle for Dr. Warren’s research is that the typical indices of urbanization, such as human population density, describe only a portion of the habitat structure that is important for wildlife. Human behaviors, values, and resource consumption levels can influence the habitat and resource availability for birds and other organisms.
Current Projects:
- Trophic dynamics in urban versus nearby native environments
- Dead and decaying wood as a limiting resource for cavity nesting birds, measuring the impact of arboricultural practices (with B. Kane)
- Mitigation of road impacts on wildlife (with C. Griffin and S. Jackson)
- Socioeconomic status and avian community composition in urban parks in Phoenix, Arizona (http://caplter.asu.edu/)
- Social and ecological predictors of avian community composition in Baltimore, Maryland (Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER, www.beslter.org)
Courses:
WFCON 697U & 697V – Urban-Suburban Wildlife Ecology & Management
Rapid urbanization is transforming landscapes around the world. This creates an urgent need both for wildlife conservation in cities and for science that addresses the ecology of places where people live.
This course will survey current topics in urban wildlife ecology, such as altered biotic community structure, invasive species, altered trophic dynamics, urban evolutionary biology, and urban ecological theories. Other issues and topics will be determined by the student composition of the course.
Although this will be a graduate course, interested undergraduates are encouraged to contact me for more information
Recent Publications:
Urban Ecology
Martin, C.A., P. S. Warren and A.P. Kinzig. (2003) Landscape vegetation in small urban parks and surrounding neighborhoods: Are socioeconomic characteristics a useful predictor of vegetation taxa richness and abundance? Hortscience 38:733. [abstract of conference proceedings]
Martin, C., P. S. Warren , and A. P. Kinzig. (2004) Socioeconomic characteristics are useful predictors of landscape vegetation in small urban parks and surrounding neighborhoods. Landscape and Urban Planning 69:355-368
Faeth, S. H., P. S. Warren , E. Shochat, and W. Marussich. (2005) Trophic dynamics in urban communities. BioScience 55(5):399-407
Kinzig, A. P., P. S. Warren , C. Martin, D. Hope, and M. Katti. (2005) The effects of human socioeconomic status and cultural characteristics on urban patterns of biodiversity. Ecology and Society 10(1):23 [online] http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol10/iss1/art23/
Hope, D., C. Gries, P. Warren , M. Katti, G. Stuart, J. Oleson, J. Kaye (2005) How do humans restructure the biodiversity of the Sonoran desert? In: Connecting Mountain Islands and Desert Seas: Biodiversity and Management of the Madrean Archipelago II , 2004 May 11-15, Tucson, AZ. USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-26: 189-194 (Fort Collins, CO).
Farber, S., R. Costanza, D. L. Childers, J. Erickson, K. Gross, J. M. Grove, C. Hopkinson, J. Kahn, S. Pincetl, A. Troy, P. S. Warren , and Matthew Wilson. (2006) An Ecosystem Services Framework that Links Science, Values and Environmental Decision-Making. BioScience 56(2):121-133. [ Note : product of an interdisciplinary NCEAS working group, held June 2004]
Shochat, E., P. S. Warren , S. H. Faeth, N. E. McIntyre, and D. Hope. (2006) Urban mechanistic ecology: from pattern to emerging processes. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21(4):186-191. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2005.11.019
Warren, P. S ., C. Tripler, D. Bolger, S. Faeth, N. Huntly, C. Lepczyk, J. Meyer, T. Parker, E. Shochat, and J. Walker. (2006) Urban food webs: predators, prey, and the people who feed them. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 87(4):387-394.
Shochat, E., P. S. Warren , and S. H. Faeth. (2006) The Future of Urban Ecology, Reply to letters to TREE. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21(12):661-662.
Walker; J.S., R.C Balling, Jr., J.M. Briggs, M. Katti, P. S. Warren , E. A Wentz. (in press) Birds of a feather: A story of urban and exurban population biology. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems
Animal Communication
Warren, P. S. (2002) Geographic variation and dialects in the ‘flight whistle’ of the Bronzed Cowbird. Auk 119:349-361.
Warren, P. S. (2003) Winter dialects in the Bronzed Cowbird and their relationship to dialects in the breeding season. Animal Behaviour . 65:1169-1178
Katti, M. and P. S. Warren . (2004) Research Focus: Tits, noise, and urban bioacoustics. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 19(3):109-110. (Order of authorship determined by coin toss.)
Bertram, S. and P. S. Warren (2005) Supermales trade off calling rate with duration and intensity: mate attraction strategies of the field cricket, Gryllus texensis. Animal Behaviour 70:477-484.
Warren, P. S. , M. Katti, M. Ermann, A. Brazel. (2006) Urban Bioacoustics – It’s not just noise. Animal Behaviour 71(3):491-502 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.07.014
Podos, J. and P. S. Warren . (in press) Learning and intraspecific song variation. Advances in the Study of Behavior.
