Research Interests:
- Global Warming & Biodiversity Conservation – The billions of tons of carbon dioxide we’re dumping into the atmosphere every year may be undoing millions of years of evolution in a geological blink of time. The last time CO2 levels were as high as they are today was about twenty-three million years ago. Our current best estimate is that more than a million species —16% of species on earth — are vulnerable to extinction from climate change this century.
- Conservation Biogeography – Environmental changes are driving shifts in the geographic distribution of species. What management actions can we take to save disappearing wildlife?
Peer-Reviewed Papers:
- Aburto-Oropeza O., A.F. Johnson, M. Agha, [and 90 others, including Stewart J.A.E.]. (2018) Harnessing cross-border resources to confront climate change. In Press at Environmental Science and Policy.
- Stewart J.A.E., Wright D.H., & Heckman K. (2017) Apparent climate-mediated loss and fragmentation of core habitat of the American pika in the northern Sierra Nevada, California, USA. PLOS ONE, 12, e0181834.
- Westphal M.F., Stewart J.A.E., Tennant E.N., Butterfield H.S., & Sinervo B. (2016) Contemporary drought and future effects of climate change on the endangered blunt-nosed leopard lizard, Gambelia sila. PLOS ONE, 11, e0154838.
- Stewart J.A.E., Perrine J.D., Nichols L.B., Thorne J.H., Millar C.I., Goehring K.E., Massing C.P., & Wright D.H. (2015) Revisiting the past to foretell the future: summer temperature and habitat area predict pika extirpations in California. Journal of Biogeography, 42, 880–890.
- Appendix S3: Animation of projected future fate of pika at 67 sites in California, USA.
- Interactive version of Appendix S3. Move the slider to adjust summer temperature.
- Stewart J.A.E. & Wright D.H. (2012) Assessing persistence of the American pika at historic localities in California’s northern Sierra Nevada. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 36, 759–764.
Technical Reports:
- Stewart J.A.E., Anderson S., Nguyen C., & Wright D.H. (2017) High-elevation species and natural communities in the northern Sierra Nevada, final report: State Wildlife Grant F14AF00632. California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Sacramento, CA.
- Sinervo B, et al. (2017) Climate change and collapsing thermal niches of Mexican endemic reptiles. UC Office of the President: UC-Mexico Initiative.
- Stewart J.A.E., Thorne J.H., Gogol-Prokurat M., & Osborn S.D. (2016) A climate change vulnerability assessment for twenty California mammal taxa. Information Center for the Environment, University of California, Davis, CA.
- Thorne J.H., Boynton R.M., Holguin A.J., Stewart J.A.E., & Bjorkman J. (2016) A climate change vulnerability assessment for California’s terrestrial vegetation. California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Sacramento, CA.
- Wright D.H., Furnas B.J., Anderson S., Stewart J.A.E., Nguyen C., & Callas R. (2015) Ecoregional biodiversity monitoring for change over large spatial scales, final report: State Wildlife Grant F12AF00829. California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Sacramento, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E. (2013) Distribution and abundance of pikas in the greater Yosemite ecoregion: final report. George Melendez Wright Climate Change Fellowship Program, Hancock, MI.
Our research on the American pika was recently featured on the National Geographic Channel.
Selected Press Coverage:
- North of Lake Tahoe, the pika has gone locally extinct, Diana Madson, Yale Climate Connections. 26 January 2018.
- Rabbit Relatives Reel from Climate Change, Christopher Intagliata, Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. 2 September 2017.
- Years of Living Dangerously, Season 2, Episode 6. National Geographic Channel. 30 November 2016.
- Vanishing wildlife on a warming planet. Stewart J.A.E. Special for USA Today. September 2016.
- Drought helps predict how climate change might affect an endangered species. Tim Stephens, UCSC Newscenter. 4 May 2016.
- Climate change pushes pikas from traditional sites in the Sierra. Edward Ortiz, Sacramento Bee. 14 February 2015.
- MoveShake video profiling ASC’s Greg Treinish, and featuring yours truly. Alexandria Bombach, Red Reel. 2013.
- Counting Climate-Challenged Pikas. Quest. QKED. 28 September 2012.
Invited Seminars:
- Stewart J.A.E. (2018) Invited Seminar. Conserving wildlife in a changing world. Sierra Science Lecture Series, Sierra College, Grass Valley, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E. (2016) Invited Seminar. Methods for assessing vulnerability of species to climate change. National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon, South Korea.
- Stewart J.A.E. (2014) Invited Seminar. On the distribution and abundance of pikas in Yosemite. Yosemite Forum, Yosemite Valley, CA.
Selected Presentations:
- Stewart J.A.E. & D.H. Wright. (2017) Invited Presentation. Geographically representative surveys of whitebark pine occurrence and stand characteristics in the northern Sierra with implications for vulnerability to climate change. Field-based Studies on Whitebark Pine in California – A Data Sharing Session, Parsons Lodge, Yosemite National Park, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E. & H.S. Butterfield. (2017) Invited Presentation. Habitat restoration opportunities for endangered species of the San Joaquin Desert. San Joaquin Desert Strategic Fallowing Workshop, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E. (2016) Invited Presentation. Descent to the underworld: climate change opens gap in distribution of American pika in the Sierra Nevada, USA. Mathias Symposium, Bodega Bay, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E. (2016) On the vulnerability of biodiversity to climate change. Science on Tap, a monthly lecture organized by UCSC Women in Science and Engineering, Santa Cruz, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E., B. Sinervo, M.F. Westphal, H.S. Butterfield, & E. Tennant. (2015) Interaction of exotic grasses and climate drives contraction of blunt-nosed leopard lizard range at the northern range margin. Thirteenth Annual Species Interaction Workshop, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E., M. Gogol-Prokurat, J.H. Thorne, E. Tennant, B. Sinervo, M.F. Westphal, H.S. Butterfield, & D.H. Wright. (2015) Assessing climate change vulnerability of California species. California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Science Symposium, Davis, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E., B. Sinervo, M.F. Westphal, & H.S. Butterfield. (2015) Temporal and spatial relationships between vegetation productivity and type and the endangered blunt-nosed leopard lizard. California Native Plant Society Conservation Conference, San Jose, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E. (2013) Interactions between climate, vegetation, prey, and the federally endangered blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia sila). Eleventh Annual Species Interaction Workshop, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E., R.D. Cooper, M. Westphal, S. Butterfield, & B. Sinervo. (2013) The potential impacts of climate change on local extinction of blunt-nosed leopard lizards. Blunt-Nosed Leopard Lizard Workshop, California State University Bakersfield, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E. (2013) Using historic revisit data to model climate change impacts on pikas. Annual Conference the Western Section of The Wildlife Society, Sacramento, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E. (2013) Pikas in Yosemite: patterns of occurence at two spatial scales. George Wright Society Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural Sites, Denver, CO.
- Stewart J.A.E. (2012) Moving beyond resurveys of historic pika record locations: using relict feces to test the hypothesis of climate-mediated range retreat in California, Ecological Society of American Meeting, Portland, OR.
- Stewart J.A.E., J.D. Perrine, D.H. Wright, & C.P. Massing. (2012) Resurvey of historical pika locations in California: analysis and critique, North American Congress for Conservation Biology, Oakland, CA.
- Stewart J.A.E., & D.H. Wright. (2011) Persistence and apparent extirpation of American pika (Ochotona princeps) at historical California localities. Annual Conference the Western Section of The Wildlife Society, Riverside, CA. *Received award for best student presentation.
- Stewart J.A.E., & D.H. Wright. (2010) Investigating the status of American pika (Ochotona princeps) at historical northern Sierra sites. Annual Bay Area Conservation Biology Symposium, San Francisco State University, CA.
