Spatially Explicit Population Viability Analysis

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Demographic processes that govern dynamics of animal populations often vary spatially, but few population viability analyses account explicitly for that variation.  To address this issue, we developed a spatially explicit population viability analysis that leverages recent developments in hierarchical modeling, spatial models, and Bayesian analyses to estimate demography and viability at relatively fine spatial scales using data from locations distributed sparsely throughout a large focal area.  We applied the model to demographic data collected across the geographic range of the Sonoran desert tortoise (Gopherus morafkai) in Arizona. The results of this study were published in Herpetological Conservation and Biology (PDF) and Ecological Applications (PDF).