Lisa Manne

  Spatial Ecology

  Biogeography

I am an ecologist and a biogeographer, with strong interests in conservation. Why are species located in some places and not others? The answer is related to evolutionary history, environmental tolerances, resource availability, and competitive or predatory interactions with other species, among other things. Particularly, my lab pursues research in 3 main areas:

• understanding species' uses of their climatic environments,
• estimating minimum size of habitat required to ensure persistence of species
• macroecology and macroevolution.

I am also interested in how scale affects our inference.

Species use of the climatic environment
The problem of predicting abundance is a problem of characterizing a species' ecological niche. Ecological niche can be viewed as the fundamental niche (locations that the species could inhabit, because the climate and habitat are suitable) vs. the realized niche (locations where the species is actually found, these locations being limited by dispersal barriers, interspecific interactions, etc.). When we view species locations in nature, we are seeing them occupy a realized niche. Characterizing the realized niche requires a treatment of climate and resources, but also a treatment of additional factors including intraspecific competition (Maurer and Taper 2002), interspecific competition (Connell 1961, Brown and Munger 1985, Davis et al. 1998a, Davis et al. 1998b, Anderson et al. 2002), predation (Paine 1974), and dispersal barriers or rates (Pulliam 2000, Svenning and Skov 2004), which may severely depress species abundances, or exclude a species from an otherwise suitable area. Incorporating all other potentially interacting species distributions or abundances as predictors of a focal species' distribution or abundance increases the complexity of the exercise enormously. In fact, studies which have assessed the effect of interactions with other species on the focal species' distribution have typically examined either few focal species, few potential competitors, or both (Leathwick and Austin 2001, Anderson et al. 2002, Gutierrez et al. 2005). Additionally, for most species, and in most areas, we do not have comprehensive information on which processes (e.g., predation, competition) may be acting to substantially influence species abundances. In the studies on relationships between abundance and environmental variables in the literature, the introduced slug of Willis et al. (2006) is the only species that is likely to be relatively free of the processes of competition and predation. Other research shows that while not all species abundances can be predicted using environmental variables (Gilman 2006, Kimmel et al. 2006), for at least some species in some areas, and even in the presence of competition, predation, etc., abundances can be predicted with the use of climate variables alone.

My lab has tested this idea for several bird species in the USA. We used climate variables (e.g., mean annual temperature at a site, hottest temperature of warmest month, average monthly precipitation, etc.), an index of available resources (NDVI), and measures of competition and predation pressure to predict bird abundance. For the particular species we studied, we found that both climate and competition information are equally important for predicting abundances across geographic ranges. (Climate alone was not enough, which does imply that climate change projections which do NOT take competition into account are suspect.). I would like to test this result for other species and areas of the world, and at finer scales, and am looking for doctoral students to work with me on this project.

Macroecology and Macroevolution
Adaptation to the environment is in part shaped by genetics, and descent with modification ensures that superior adaptations are passed on. So we expect that similarity in adaptation to climatic variables will correspond to evolutionary similarity. This relationship has been documented for some groups in some parts of the world, but not for large groups at a hemispheric or global scale. Deviations from the relationship where taxa have similar climatic associations but dissimilar geographic distributions point to ecological equivalence. Deviations where taxa have similar climatic associations but are evolutionarily dissimilar represent convergence. Both types of deviation, investigated at a higher taxonomic level and global scale, are necessary for understanding the relative importance of evolutionary constraints and ecological adaptations for understanding geographical distributions. Incorporating phylogenetic information when analyzing global distribution data would be a significant advance for the discipline, and will inform conservation of evolutionary history (Sechrest et al. 2002). It can be argued that the family level is a coarse taxonomic level, and not relevant to any conservation applications (where the primary unit is species). I counter that, if the climatic association portion of Hutchinson’s niche is phylogenetically conserved, this effect is detectable at a high taxonomic level and coarse spatial scale, and will give an indication of the effect of evolutionary history on current distributions. I am looking for a doctoral student to work with me on this project.

Minimum Habitat Size for Species Persistence
What is the threshold fragment size below which a particular species does not persist? I expect that the answer will vary from species to species. a) The answer for a generalist species will be small compared to that for a specialist species (e.g. a warbler that has very particular habitat requirements). There will be some species (pigeons) seemingly unaffected by changes in land cover. b) Likewise, a species’ ability to travel between fragments will impact a fragment’s seeming ability to maintain that species between time periods. Not all birds are able to fly across inhospitable habitats - for example, woodpeckers will not disperse across large bodies of water. Thus, species with higher dispersal ability are more likely to be maintained within smaller habitat fragments, because a local extinction from the fragment is likely to be followed by an immigration to the fragment from somewhere else. c) If particular species are able to disperse between fragments, the inter-fragment distance may limit the possibility of this dispersal. d) It has been suggested that fragmentation has a stronger effect if a species is at the periphery of its global range, so bird species that reach their northern range edge within the study region may require larger forest fragment sizes to ensure persistence. I am looking for a doctoral student to work with me on this project

Lab members

Marlen Acosta Alamo (expected completion: PhD 2023)

James Herlan (expected completion: PhD 2027)

Veit, Richard Reed; Lisa L. Manne, Lucinda C. Zawadzki, Marlen Acosta Alamo, Robert William Henry. 2022. Editorial: Vagrancy, Exploratory Behavior and Colonization by Birds: Escape from Extinction?  Frontiers in Ecology & Evolution.  (Impact factor: 3.26)

Acosta-Alamo, Marlen, Lisa L. Manne. 2022. Does Population Size Drive Changes in Transatlantic Vagrancy for Gulls? A Study of Seven North Atlantic Species.  Frontiers in Ecology & Evolution. (Impact factor: 3.26)

Curley, S. R., L. L. Manne, J. Ramirez-Garofalo and R. R. Veit 2022. Evaluating Compositional Changes in the Avian Communities of Eastern North America using Temperature and Precipitation Indices. Journal of Biogeography. (Impact factor: 4.327)

Veit, Richard R., Enriqueta Velarde, Michael H. Horn and Lisa L. Manne. 2021. Population growth and long distance vagrancy leads to colonization of Europe by Elegant Terns Thalasseus elgans.  Frontiers in Ecology & Evolution. (Impact factor: 3.26)

Monier SA, Veit RR, Manne LL. 2020. Changes in positive associations among vertebrate predators at South Georgia during winter. Polar Biology 43: 1439–1451. (Impact factor: 1.728)

Manne, Lisa L., Richard R. Veit. 2020.  Temporal changes in abundance-occupancy relationships over 40 years.  Ecology & Evolution  10 (2): 602-611.  (Impact factor: 2.91)

Curley, S., Lisa L. Manne, Richard R. Veit.  2020.  Differential summer and winter range shifts: Implications for migration distances.  Diversity & Distributions 26(4): 415-425. (Impact factor: 5.139)

Zawadskii, L. Richard R. Veit, Lisa L. Manne.  2019.  The influence of population growth and wind on vagrancy in a North American passerine.  Ardea 107: 131-147. (Impact factor: 1.088)

Nicholls, Beth, Lisa L. Manne, Richard R. Veit  2017.  Changes in distribution and abundance of Anuran Species of Staten Island, NY over the last century.  Northeastern Naturalist 24(1): 65-81 (Impact factor 0.583).

Richard R. Veit, Lucinda Zawadzki, Lisa L. Manne, Pearl Cales, Danielle Fibikar, Shannon Curley, Elizabeth Dluhos and Rob Norton 2016.  Vagrancy and Likely Colonization of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands by Adelaide’s Warblers Setophaga adelaidae.  Journal of Caribbean Ornithology 29: 47-60.  (Impact factor:  I couldn’t find an impact factor for this journal, though similar journals (Journal of Field Ornithology, Journal of Ornithology and Advances in Caribbean Ornithology) have impact factors of 1.2, 1.7 and 1.0 respectively).

Van der Hoek, Y., B. Zuckerberg, Lisa L. Manne  2015.  Application of habitat thresholds in conservation: considerations for future directions.  Global Ecology & Conservation 3:  736-743. (Impact factor: 3.38)

Richard Veit and L. L. Manne 2015.  Climate and changing winter distributions of alcids in the Northwest Atlantic.  Frontiers in Ecology & Evolution http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2015.00038. (Impact factor:4.171)

Yntze van der Hoek, Andrew M. Wilson, Rosalind Renfrew, Joan Walsh, Paul G. Rodewald, Jennifer Baldy, Lisa L. Manne 2015.  Regional variability in extinction thresholds for forest birds in the northeastern United States: An examination of potential drivers using long-term breeding bird atlas datasets.  Diversity & Distributions 21:686-697.(Impact factor: 5.469)

Dobson, L., F. LaSorte, L. L. Manne, B. Hawkins 2015.  The diversity and abundance of North American bird assemblages fail to track changing productivity.  Ecology 96: 1105-1114.  (Impact factor:  5.175)

Goyert, Holly, L. L. Manne, Richard R. Veit. 2014. Facilitative interactions among the pelagic community of temperate migratory terns, tunas and dolphins. Oikos. doi: 10.1111/oik.00814.  (Impact factor: 3.71)

Van der Hoek, Y., R. Renfrew, L. L. Manne. 2013.  Assessing regional and interspecific variation in threshold responses of forest breeding birds through broad scale analyses.  PLOS One 8(2): 1-12. (Impact factor: 3.24)

J. Kolasa, L. L. Manne, and S.N. Pandit. 2012. Species-area relationships arise from interaction of habitat heterogeneity and species pool.  Hydrobiologia 685: 135-144.  (Impact factor:  2.35)

Tucker, C. M., A. G. Rebelo, L. L. Manne.  2012.  Contribution of disturbance to distribution and abundance in a fire-adapted system.  Ecography 35(4): 348-355.  (Impact factor: 4.207)

Manne, L.L. 2012. Island populations with nowhere to go; in Wildlife Conservation in a Changing Climate; editors: Jedediah Brodie, Chris Post, Dan Doak, University of Chicago Press.

Mooers, A. O., Doak, D. F., Green, D. M., **Grouios, C., Manne, L. L., *Rashvand, A., Rudd, M. A. & Whitton, J. (2010) Science, Policy, and Species at Risk in Canada. BioScience, 60, 843-849.  (Impact factor:  5.439)

Grouios, Chris and Lisa L. Manne. 2009. Utility of Measuring Abundance versus Consistent Occupancy in Predicting Biodiversity Persistence. Conservation Biology 23: 1260-1269.

Gathmann, F. O., L. L. Manne, and D. D. Williams. 2008. Spatial patterns in insect community composition in coldwater springs Aquatic Ecology 43:501-512

Manne, Lisa L., Williams, P. H., Midgley, G. F., Thuiller, W., Rebelo, T. and Hannah, L. 2007. Turnover rates and patterns will change as climate warms the Fynbos biological hotspot. Ecography 30(6): 852-861

Williams and Manne. 2007. "Complementarity," in: The Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, 2nd edition.

Kark, S. et al. 2007. The role of transitional areas as avian biodiversity centres. Global Ecology & Biogeography.

Williams, P. et al. 2006. Complementarity analysis: mapping the performance of surrogates for biodiversity. Biological Conservation. 128, 253-264.

Williams, P. et al. 2005. Planning for climate change: Identifying multiple near-minimum-dispersal corridors for the Cape Proteaceae. Conservation Biology 19, 1063-1074

Manne, Lisa L. and Paul H. Williams 2003. Building indicator groups based on species characteristics can improve conservation planning. Animal Conservation 6: 291-297.

Manne, Lisa L 2003. Nothing has yet lasted forever: current and threatened levels of biological and cultural diversity. Evolutionary Ecology 5: 517-527.

Moore, Joslin L., Lisa Manne, Thomas Brooks, Neil D. Burgess, Robert Davies, Carsten Rahbek, Paul Williams, and Andrew Balmford, 2002. The distribution of biological and cultural diversity in Africa. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B 269 (1501): 1645-1653.

Manne, Lisa L., and Stuart L. Pimm, 2001. Beyond the eight forms of rarity, which are threatened and which may be next? Animal Conservation 4:221-229.

Bininda-Emonds, O., D. Vazquez, and L. Manne, 2000. The Calculus of Biodiversity: Integrating Phylogeny and Conservation. TREE 15(3): 92-94.

Wetterer JK, Wetterer AL, Rumbaitis-del Rio C, Chang C, Vega G, Manne LL, Aukema J, Karubian J, Sloan A, Desai M, 2000. Diel shifts in treehopper-tending by ants and wasps in Costa Rica (Hymenoptera). Sociobiology 36 (1): 123-131.

Manne, Lisa L., Thomas M. Brooks, Stuart L. Pimm, 1999. Relative risk of extinction of passerine birds on continents and islands. Nature 399: 258-261.

Manne, Lisa L., Stuart L. Pimm, Jared M. Diamond, Timothy M. Reed, 1998. The form of the curves: a direct evaluation of MacArthur & Wilson's classic theory. Journal of Animal Ecology 67: 784-794.

Curnutt, J., A. Mayer, T. Brooks, L. Manne, O. Bass, D. Fleming, M. Nott, S. Pimm, 1998. Population dynamics of the endangered Cape Sable seaside-sparrow. Animal Conservation 1: 1-10.

Nott, P., O. Bass, D. Fleming, S. Killeffer, N. Fraley, L. Manne, J. Curnutt, T. Brooks, R. Powell, S. Pimm, 1998. Water levels, rapid vegetational changes, and the endangered Cape Sable seaside-sparrow. Animal Conservation 1: 11-22.

Manne, Lisa L., and Stuart L. Pimm, 1996. Engineered Food Webs. Current Biology 6: 29-31.

Gray, L. J., and L. L. Manne. 1993. Hypersingular integrals at a corner. Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements 11:327-334.

In the fall semester, I often teach Bio statistics (Bio 272), and/or the Masters statistics course, Bio 702.

In spring semester, I often teach Conservation biology (Bio 321, Bio 727), and sometimes Community Ecology (Bio 702).

In January intersession, I try and teach Introduction to Tropical Ecology (Bio 217), a travel course.  Who *wouldn't* want to go to the Caribbean in January?