Member Profile
Daniel McGarvey
About Me
The primary focus of my research is the quantification of ecosystem services within freshwater environments. My particular background is in fish and river ecology. I am therefore initially working on novel methods to estimate current abundances of freshwater fishes, and to predict future abundances under a variety of potential land use and climate change scenarios. In the longer term, I will be studying how spatial scale influences our perception of ecosystem services, and how it should be accounted for when forecasting those services. I will also be challenging my colleagues to consider and incorporate macroecological tools in their own research. Macroecology attempts to explain ecological phenomena with a “top-down,” inductive approach by starting with robust empirical patterns. For example, predicting species richness is an inherently complex, uncertain exercise when such predictions attempt to account for all of the biological and ecological variation that co-existing species exhibit. A more simple, yet powerful approach is to recognize that species richness is a nearly constant function of the total available habitat. This macroecological pattern (the “species-area relationship") has been documented in a wide variety of habitats, for multiple types of organisms, and at multiple spatial scales. It is therefore a highly efficient and remarkably accurate means of predicting species richness. To utilize the macroecological approach in EPA research on ecosystem services, I will test whether similarly robust patterns in energy availability and energy consumption exist among freshwater fish assemblages throughout the U.S. This strategy is promising because all fish species have similar metabolic requirements, when considered on a per-weight basis. Ultimately, the results of this research will compliment the more detailed modeling activities within EPA, by facilitating rapid turnaround on large-scale predictions.
Recent Contributions
| Title | Category | Type | Posted At |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tap into the law review literature - better yet, submit an article! | Library | Article | 08/31/09 |
| Scale dependence in the species-discharge relationship for fishes of the southeastern USA | Library | Article | 08/31/09 |
| Longitudinal zonation of Pacific Northwest (U.S.A.) fish assemblages and the species-discharge relationship | Library | Article | 08/31/09 |
| Merging precaution with sound science under the Endangered Species Act | Library | Article | 08/31/09 |
| Making sense of scientists and “sound science”: truth and consequences for endangered species in the Klamath Basin and beyond | Library | Article | 08/31/09 |
