Tom Mason

Postdoctoral Researcher

Autobiography: I am a post-doctoral researcher now based at Durham University, having previously worked in the STI-CS group as a post-doc for 1.5 years. Prior to this I was a post-doc at Laval University in Canada. I carried out my PhD in conservation ecology at Durham University.

Research interests: I am a conservation ecologist interested in how wild animal populations respond to changes in their environment, resulting both from natural processes and human activities. Environmental change can affect animal populations in complex and unexpected ways, from disturbing the behaviour of individuals to altering the demography of populations. I collect and analyse long-term data in order to identify the drivers of such change. I use this information to identify conservation actions that can benefit animal populations, while allowing coexistence with humans. While at Stirling, I worked on a Carnegie Trust funded project investigating the socio-ecological dynamics of conservation conflict between goose conservation and farming on the Scottish island of Islay. I am still working on several interesting outputs from this work with Prof Bunnefeld and others at STI-CS!

Publications

Mason, T. H. E., Pollard, C.R.J., Chimalakonda, D., Guerrero, A.M., Kerr-Smith, C., Milheiras, S.A.G., Roberts, M., Rodrigue, P. and Bunnefeld, N. Wicked conflict: using wicked problem thinking for holistic management of conservation conflict. In review

Mason, T. H. E., Keane, A., Redpath, S.M., & Bunnefeld, N. (2017) The changing environment of conservation conflict: geese and farming in Scotland. Journal of Applied Ecology

Zhao, Q.*, Mason T.H.E.*, Azeria, E.T., Le Blanc, M.L., Lemaître, J., Barnier, F., Bichet, O., & Fortin, D. (2017) Robust predictive performance of indicator species despite different co-occurrence patterns of birds in natural and managed boreal forests. Forest Ecology and Management 397, 108-116 *equal contribution

Mason, T. H. E., & Fortin, D. (2017) Functional responses in animal movement explain spatial heterogeneity in animal-habitat relationships. Journal of Animal Ecology 86, 960–971

Mason, T. H. E., Brivio F., Stephens, P.A., Apollonio, M., & Grignolio, S. (2017) The behavioral trade-off between thermoregulation and foraging in a heat-sensitive species. Behavioral Ecology 28, 908–918

Mason, T. H. E., Apollonio, M., Chirichella, R., Willis, S.G., & Stephens, P.A. (2014) Environmental change and long-term body mass declines in an alpine mammal. Frontiers in Zoology 11:69

Mason, T. H. E., Stephens, P.A., Apollonio, M., & Willis S.G. (2014) Predicting potential responses to future climate in an alpine ungulate: interspecific interactions exceed climate effects. Global Change Biology 20:3872–3882

Mason, T. H. E., Stephens, P.A., Willis, S.G., Chirichella, R., Apollonio, M., Richards, S.A. (2012) Intraseasonal variation in reproductive effort: young males finish last. The American Naturalist 180:823-830

Mason, T. H. E., Chirichella, R., Richards, S.A., Stephens, P.A., Willis, S.G., Apollonio, M. (2011) Contrasting life histories in neighbouring populations of a large mammal. PLoS ONE 6:e28002

Personal website: http://www.tommason.weebly.com