Elise Zipkin

Research Ecologist

Short Biography

Ph.D., University of Maryland
Biology, 2012

M.S., Cornell University
Natural Resources, 2008

B.S., University of Michigan
Mathematics; Resource Ecology, 2003

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Quantitative Ecologist – USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD (January 2008-present) Develop and analyze hierarchical statistical models. 

Graduate Research Assistant – Cornell Computational Agriculture Initiative, Ithaca, NY (Summer 2006) Applied data mining techniques to Northeast Regional Climate Center data to assess spatial and temporal patterns in weather.  

Graduate Research Assistant – Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (2005) Developed and analyzed mathematical models on population control through harvest: examined the effects of including density dependent growth on a demographically structured population.

Summer Student Fellowship – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA (Summer 2003) Researched the optical properties (including phytoplankton abundance) of Martha’s Vineyard coastal waters through discrete sampling and evaluated algorithms to compare in situ observations to remotely sensed data.

Sea Lamprey Program Fellowship – Great Lakes Fishery Commission, Ann Arbor, MI (2002-2003) Built and analyzed a stage structured population model to examine potential sea lamprey production in impounded Great Lakes tributaries.

Entomology Laboratory Assistant – Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ (Spring & Summer 2001) Assisted in the collection and analysis of data for research on bark beetles, Elm leaf beetles, and honeybees.  Compiled and edited papers on West African pest management for a book.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Bayesian Population Analysis using BUGS (TA) – USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (November 2010) Short course in GLMs, state space models, capture-recapture models, estimating survival and recruitment, integrated populations models, metapopulation analysis using hierarchical models.

Intro to Bayesian Statistics for Ecologists (TA) – Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (April 2009), USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (November 2009) Short course in Bayesian stats and WinBUGS covering basic theory and applications including linear (mixed) models and generalized linear (mixed) models.

Intro to R for Fisheries Scientists – American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting (August 2008) Developed and taught a short course in R covering interactive calculations, importing/exporting data, built-in and user-defined functions, graphing, and statistical analyses (linear regression, t-test, randomization, anova, basic nonlinear optimization).

Conservation Biology (TA) – Cornell University (Fall 2007) Advanced undergraduate and graduate level course in principles and quantitative techniques of modern conservation and management.

Environmental Conservation (TA) – Cornell University (Spring 2006 & 2007) Introductory survey class on environmental topics.

Applied Population Ecology (TA) – Cornell University (Fall 2005 & 2006) Advanced undergraduate course covering basic population models. 

HONORS & AWARDS
Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Research Award, University of Maryland (2012)
Outstanding Student Research Award, Ecological Society of America (2010)
The Wildlife Society Biometrics Working Group Conference Travel Grant (2010)
American Fisheries Society Student Writing Contest Winner (2007)
Outstanding Graduate TA, Cornell University College of Ag and Life Sciences (2007)
Society of Mathematical Biology Landahl Conference Travel Grant (2006)
Outstanding Achievement in Mathematics Award, University of Michigan  (2003)
James B. Angell Scholar, University of Michigan (2000)

Publications

Zipkin E.F., Leirness J.B., Kinlan B.P., O’Connell A.F., and Silverman E.D. In press. Fitting statistical distributions to sea duck count data: implications for survey design and abundance estimation. Statistical Methodology. *Invited paper for a special issue on statistical methods in ecology.

Sauer, J.R., Blank, P.J., Zipkin, E.F., Fallon, J.E. and Fallon, F.W. In press. Using multi-species occupancy models in structured decision making on managed lands. Journal of Wildlife Management.

Yackulic, C., Chandler, R., Zipkin, E.F., Royle, J.A., Nichols, J.D, Grant, E.H.C. and Veran. In press. Presence-only modeling using Maxent: when can we trust the inferences? Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

Zipkin, E.F., Grant, E.H.C. and Fagan, W.F. 2012. Evaluating the predictive abilities of community occupancy models using AUC while accounting for imperfect detection. Ecological Applications.22: 1962-1972.

Zipkin, E.F., Ries, L., Reeves, R., Regetz, J. and Oberhauser, K. 2012. Tracking climate impacts on the migratory monarch butterfly. Global Change Biology. 18: 3039-3049.

Ruiz-Gutiérrez, V.and Zipkin, E.F. 2011. Detection biases yield misleading patterns of species persistance and colonization in fragmented landscapes. Ecosphere. 2: art61. [doi:10.1890/ES10-00207.1]

Martin, J., O'Connell, A.F., Kendall, W.L., Runge, M.C., Simons, T.R., Waldstein, A.H., Schulte, S.A., Converse, S.J., Smith, G.W., Pinion, T., Rikard, M. and Zipkin, E.F. 2010. Optimal control of native predators. Biological Conservation. 143: 1751-175.

Zipkin, E.F., Gardner, B., Gilbert, A.T., O'Connell, A.F., Royle, J.A. and Silverman, E.D. 2010. Distribution patterns of wintering sea ducks in relation to the North Atlantic Oscillation and local environmental characteristics. Oecologia. 163: 893-902.

Zipkin, E.F., Royle, J.A., Dawson, D.K. and Bates, S. 2010. Multi-species occurence models to evaluate the effects of conservation and management actions. Biological Conservation. 143: 479-484.

DeWan, A.A. and Zipkin, E.F. 2010. An integrated sampling and analysis approach for improved biodiversity monitoring. Environmental Management. 45: 1223-1230.

Ruiz-Gutiérrez, V., Zipkin, E.F. and Dhont, A.A. 2010. Occupancy dynamics in a tropical bird community: unexpectedly high forest use by birds classified as non-forest species. Journal of Applied Ecology. 47: 621-630.

Zipkin, E.F., Jennelle, C.S. and Cooch, E.G. 2010. A primer on the application of Markov chains to the study of wildlife disease dynamics. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 1: 192-198.

Zipkin, E.F., Kraft, C.E., Cooch, E.G., and Sullivan, P.J. 2009. When can efforts to control nuisance and invasive species backfire? Ecological Applications. 19: 1585-1595.

Zipkin, E.F., DeWan, A. and Royle, J.A. 2009. Impacts of forest fragmentation on species richness: a hierarchical approach to community modeling. Journal of Applied Ecology. 46: 815-822.

Zipkin, E.F., Sullivan, P.J., Cooch, E.G., Kraft, C.E., Shuter, B.J. and Weidel, B.C. 2008. Overcompensatory response of a smallmouth bass population to harvest: release from competition? Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. 65: 2279-2292.

Zipkin, E.F. 2007. Balancing the scales: dam removal and sea lamprey control in Great Lakes tributaries. Fisheries 32: 608. *AFS student essay winner.

Zipkin, E.F. and Silverman, E.D. 2003. Using a habitat based model to predict the effects of dam removal on sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus populations in Great Lakes tributaries. Michigan Academician 35: 243-262.

My Science Topics

Areas of Interest:

Population and community dynamics
Control of nuisance and invasive species
Estimating species occurrence and detection

Active Projects:

Developing hierarchical community models to estimate species occurrences in heterogeneous landscapes. Website with references and software code for implementing multi-species models: http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/pubanalysis/communitymodeling

Characterizing spatial and temporal distributions of wintering sea ducks on the US and Canadian Atlantic coast: population trends and relation to habitat

Determining the consequences of invasive species control measures

Estimating the occurrence and distributions of amphibian species and assemblages in relation to wetland characteristics

Developing statistical guidelines for sampling marine avian populations for wind energy development