Erica F. Stuber | X-SCALE ECOLOGY
Assistant Unit Leader - USGS UT Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Assistant Professor - Utah State University Department of Wildland Resources & Ecology Center
PEOPLE
Dr. Erica Stuber
Spatial Ecologist
Current Lab Members
Dr. Alex Baecher
Postdoctoral Fellow
Alex Baecher is a postdoctoral researcher supported by the USGS Climate Adaptation Science Center, where he investigates climate-driven range shifts in bird species across the Southwestern United States. As a quantitative ecologist, Alex's research spans population and community ecology, macroecology, and conservation science. Although his roots lie in herpetofauna and freshwater fishes of the southeastern U.S., his broader interests include the ecological and evolutionary processes shaping biodiversity distribution at regional and global scales. Alex earned his B.S. in Biology from the University of Arkansas, his M.S. in Biology from Eastern Kentucky University, and his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Florida. He recently held a joint postdoctoral position with the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, where he developed spatiotemporal models to forecast the spread of West Nile virus.
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Dr. Binod Borah
Postdoctoral Fellow
Binod Borah is a postdoctoral fellow studying the spatial scales at which climate and land-use changes most affect the distributions of North American birds. He earned his Ph.D. From Utah State University, where he studied how animal movement shapes seed dispersal patterns. He holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master's degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation.
Jack Rasmussen
PhD Candidate
I’m from a small midwestern town where I grew up fishing, hunting, skiing, and doing everything I could to be outdoors. I obtained my first degree in economics in 2016 and worked as an analyst for a retailer, quitting in 2018 and completing a BS in Biology in spring 2020. During my second degree I worked on southern flying squirrel home ranges, and lake level predictability utilizing dendrochronology. Prior to joining the lab, I was working at a nature preserve where we focused on habitat restoration and raptor migration. My science interests are rooted in my upbringing as an outdoorsman; animal movement, space usage, habitat restoration, and human factors influencing animal movement. I can usually be found either skiing or flyfishing depending on the season. After graduate school I hope to continue researching animal movement and human impacts on wildlife. The project I am currently working on is looking at how mule incorporate Utah WRI (Watershed restoration Initiative) treatments into their home ranges.
Mallory Sandoval-Lambert
PhD Candidate
I grew up at the foot of the Wasatch mountains in Utah where I discovered my passion for wildlife and the outdoors. I received a bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in spanish from the University of Utah in 2013. I received her Master’s degree at the University of Wyoming, where I studied mule deer and pronghorn movement behavior in response to oil and natural gas development. I am currently a PhD candidate at Utah State University. Outside of wildlife, I love dogs, climbing rocks, kayaking, being with friends and family, and traveling to Latin American countries.
Amber Swicegood
PhD Candidate
I spent my childhood in North Carolina, playing in the creeks and the woods and developing a passion for wildlife and the natural world. I hold a B.S. in Natural Resources/Wildlife Ecology from Oregon State University and a M.S. from Montana State University where I studied habitat use and nesting success of a grassland bird in agricultural landscapes. I worked as a field biologist for several years across diverse North American landscapes, which provided me with a profound and comprehensive understanding of a wide variety of wildlife species and the ecosystems and communities that they inhabit. Prior to starting this position, I worked as a wildlife biologist for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in western Montana. My dissertation work will focus on understanding scale-of-effect in ecology, or the scales at which environmental factors and human disturbances influence wildlife distributions and species interactions, using eBird data. I am interested in developing novel quantitative methods that leverage large datasets to better understand wildlife populations at broad spatial scales beyond those typically captured by traditional field studies. In my free time I enjoy hiking, trail running, skiing, wildlife photography, reading, and backpacking in remote country.
