College of Forestry
Betts, Matthew
Associate Professor
Office Location:
216 Richardson Hall
Phone:
541-737-3841
Fax:
541-737-1393
Email Address:
Faculty Websites:
Specialty:
Forest Wildlife Landscape Ecology
Educational Background:
- B.A., 1992, Queen’s University
- B.Sc., 1999, University of New Brunswick
- M.S., 1995, University of Waterloo
- Ph.D., 2005, University of New Brunswick
- Post-Doctoral Fellow, 2006, Dartmouth College
Courses:
- Landscape Ecology
- Ecosystem Informatics
Research Interests:
(1) Influences of landscape structure on demography of animal populations, (2) Animal movement (particularly dispersal), (3) Population viability modeling, (4) Ecological thresholds, (5) Trophic cascades in forest ecosystems, (6) Species distribution modeling, (7) Socio-political mechanisms to affect sustainable forestry (8) Measuring landscape change.
Research Support:
- Betts, M.G. and Robinson, W.D. 2011-2013. Independent effects of tropical forest fragmentation and habitat loss on hummingbird movement and pollination dynamics. National Science Foundation (NSF – DEB [Population and Community Ecology]). Amount $500,628.
- Marra, P.P., Ryder, T.B., Betts, M.G., Sillett, T.S., Nott, M.P., Saracco, J.F., Fischer, R.A. 2011-2015. Using a hierarchical approach to model regional source-sink dynamics for neotropical-nearctic songbirds to inform management practices on Department of Defense installations. Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency: Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SDERP). Amount: $2,305,187.
- Betts, M.G., Wilson, D., Rivers, J., Fitzgerald, S., Maguire, D., Rose, R., Johnson, J. “Quantifying trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and timber production in intensively managed forests”. 2009-2011. Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI; United States Department of Agriculture): $497,677.
- Wong, W.K., Betts, M.G., Jones, J. “Novel machine learning models for predicting species distributions in response to climate change”. 2009-2011. National Science Foundation (NSF):$609,505.
- Betts, M.G. and G.J. Forbes “Population viability analysis of northern flying squirrel”. 2005-2008. Parks Canada Ecological Integrity Fund. $150,000, N.B. Wildlife Trust Fund: $11,500, Fundy Model Forest: $5,000.
- Betts, M.G., J. Loo, and R. Wissink. “A molecular genetic approach to determining dispersal in migrant songbirds”. 2005-2008. Parks Canada Ecological Integrity Fund: $100,000.
- Betts, M.G. and J. Hagar. “Thresholds in hardwood-associated songbirds in relation to stand structure, patch size and landscape cover”. 2006-2007. Fish and Wildlife Habitat in Managed Forests Research Fund: $17,234.
- Roloff, G., M.G. Betts, and L. Irwin. “Influence of intensive forest management on biodiversity in Pacific Northwest commercial forests”. 2007-2009. Fish and Wildlife Habitat in Managed Forests Research Fund: $112,000.
Current/Recent Programs:
Selected Publications:
- Betts, M.G., Hagar, J., Rivers, J. Alexander, J. McGarigal, K. and McComb, B.C. 2010. Thresholds in songbird occurrence in relation to early seral broadleaf forest. Ecological Applications 20: 2116–2130.
- Goetz , S.J., Steinberg, D., Betts, M.G., Holmes, R.T., Doran, P.J. Dubayah, R. and Hofton, M. 2010. Lidar remote sensing variables predict breeding habitat of a Neotropical migrant bird. Ecology 96: 1569–1576.
- Rota, C., Fletcher, R., Dorazio, R. and Betts, M.G. 2009. Occupancy estimation and the closure assumption. Journal of Applied Ecology 46: 1173 – 1181.
- Hadley, A.S. and Betts, M.G. 2009. Tropical deforestation alters hummingbird movement patterns. Biology Letters. 5:207-210.
- Betts, M.G., Ganio, L., Huso, M., Som, N., Bowman, J., Huettman, F. and Wintle, B. 2009. Comment on ‘‘Methods to account for spatial autocorrelation in the analysis of species distributional data: a review’’. Ecography, 32: 374-378.
- Betts, M.G., Hadley, A.S., Rodenhouse, N.L. and Nocera, J.J. 2008. Social information trumps vegetation structure in breeding site selection by a migrant songbird. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London-Ser. B.
- Betts, M.G., Rodenhouse, N.L., Sillett, T.S. Doran, P.D. & Holmes, R.T. 2008. Dynamic occupancy models reveal within-breeding season movement up a habitat quality gradient by a migrant songbird. Ecography.
- Betts, M.G., Forbes, G.J. and Diamond, A.W. 2007. Thresholds in songbird occurrence in relation to landscape structure. Conservation Biology 21: 1046-1058.
- Betts, M.G., G.J. Forbes, A.W. Diamond, and P.D. Taylor. 2006. Independent effects of fragmentation on forest songbirds: an organism-based approach. Ecological Applications 16: 1076–1089.
- Betts, M.G., A.W. Diamond, G.J. Forbes, M.-A. Villard, and J. Gunn. 2006. The importance of spatial autocorrelation, extent and resolution in predicting forest bird occurrence. Ecological Modelling 191: 197–224.
- Warren, T., M.G. Betts, A.W. Diamond, and G.J. Forbes. 2005. The influence of local habitat and landscape composition on cavity-nesting birds in a forested mosaic. Forest Ecology and Management 214: 331–343.