Working Groups

NAPC hosts several working groups, each focused on a specific area. Working groups provide forums for discussion, methodological advances, research synergies, protocol development and more. Join a group today to share your expertise and interests!

Climate

The climate working group is focused on understanding how climate and climate change are affecting pika populations and how to best collect and analyze climate data. This includes microclimate data collected with temperature sensors and GIS and remotely-sensed data.

Contact: Dr. Erik Beever (ebeever10 AT gmail.com)

Distribution & Habitat

This group is working to understand key habitat components for pikas, and their spatial scales. The group would like to better quantify how pikas use the landscape and how to improve modeling efforts. Goals include summarizing habitat types where pikas have been found, contributing protocols for delineating patches, and providing recommendations for how best to measure pika habitat.

Contact: Mackenzie Jeffress (mrjeffress AT ndow.org)

Education & Public Engagement

This group connects existing pika citizen/community science initiatives and supports the development of new outreach programs. It is also exploring options for standardizing data collection between volunteer projects, creating a shared central repository for volunteer-generated data, and developing protocols for evaluating the effects of participation on volunteers. Furthermore, the group is working to support researchers in integrating education, public engagement, and outreach activities as integral parts of future funding proposals.

Contact: Johanna Varner (jvarner AT coloradomesa.edu)

Field Methods

The field methods group is working on compiling and standardizing protocols, many of which overlap with other working groups. These protocols include occupancy surveys, trapping/handling, data logger deployment, behavioral observations and more.

Contact: Max Plichta (maxplichta AT gmail.com)

Health & Physiology

This working group is interested in understanding the effects of physiological stress, disease ecology, and population health on persistence of pikas in the Intermountain West. In particular, this group hopes to inform conservation efforts through greater documentation of how physiology, diet, and disease relates to pika survival, and through easily implemented field metrics of population health that can be routinely sampled over the long-term. In addition, this group recognizes the need for standardization of physiological and disease field collection as well as protocols for trapping and necropsies.

Contact: Dr. Nifer Wilkening (jennifer_wilkening AT fws.gov)

Population Genetics & Population Genomics

This working group focuses on topics related to the genetics/genomics of the two North American pika spp. (American and Collared) including phylogeography, conservation/population genetics, and sampling methodologies/protocol standardization at both fine-scale and range-wide levels. Group goals for these two species include the generation of genomic resources/data, a comprehensive review of the genetic literature, standardization of collection protocols, and creation of genetic kits for agencies and citizen science efforts. We are also interested in weighing in on transplant projects if/when proposed, and addressing how genetics information can help pika conservation.

Contact: Dr. Mike Russello (michael.russello AT ubc.ca)

Research & Review

The research and review group is tasked with keeping track of various research projects and being available for pika information requests. To this end, the group was interested in creating a database of pika studies, past and current.

Contact: Dr. Chris Ray (cray AT colorado.edu)