A Grand Challenge. A 21st century grand challenge for natural resource conservation is how to connect data to successful action. This critical link between research (data) and management/policy decisions (action) is widely examined.
Martha Mather, PhD
Assistant Unit Leader - Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Martha leads a creative and productive program of integrated research, education, and outreach-extension-service that addresses basic aquatic ecology questions in order to solve applied conservation problems. Specifically, Martha is interested in problems related to the following:(a) Basic ecological processes that structure freshwater (river, reservoir, lake) and estuarine fish communities; (b) Patterns, mechanisms, consequences of fish movements; (c) Role of heterogeneity in ecological structure and function across scales (including the role of dams); (d) Integrated, interdisciplinary, bio-social approaches to sustainability; (e) Translating basic science to effective natural resource conservation and fisheries decision-making; (f) Human and climate impacts on aquatic ecosystems; (g) New paradigms for linking spatial and temporal scales; (h) Science communication that integrates traditional outreach and innovative approaches; and (i) Transformative approaches to resource conservation and environmental sustainability.
As a Ph.D student, Martha taught lab sections in zoology, ecology, and behavior. As a new Ph.D, Martha was completely responsible for two field ecology classes at Ohio State University’s Stone Lab on Lake Erie and at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Station. At University of Massachusetts, Amherst, she was solely responsible for one graduate course in fish ecology and one graduate course in experimental design using examples from the literature. At UMASS, she also cotaught two other graduate seminars, one on natural resource conflicts and one on anadromous fish. Martha has guest lectured at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, and other universities on philosophy of science, aquatic community structure, invaders in freshwater systems, restoration of the Atlantic salmon to the Connecticut River, natural resource conflicts, the role of biophysical science in natural resource conflicts, dam removal, ecological restoration in coastal systems, and relationships between the built and natural environment. At Kansas State University, she team-teaches a course called "Professional Skills" required of all incoming graduate students. She also team-teaches a graduate seminar entitled "River Regimes."
Martha was trained in fish ecology at Ohio State University where she obtained her Ph.D. Her job experience in the Unit program includes the Massachusetts and Kansas Units.
Professional Experience
Assistant Unit Leader, Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, 2010-
Assistant Unit Leader, Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, 1991-2010
Education and Certifications
Ph D Ohio State University 1990
MS Ohio State University 1985
BS Denison University 1978
Science and Products
The gap between experts, farmers and non-farmers on perceived environmental vulnerability and the influence of values and beliefs
A Grand Challenge. A 21st century grand challenge for natural resource conservation is how to connect data to successful action. This critical link between research (data) and management/policy decisions (action) is widely examined.
Adaptive problem maps (APM): Connecting data dots to build increasingly informed and defensible environmental conservation decisions
A review of empirical evidence that examines the effectiveness of harvest regulation evaluations in freshwater systems: A systematic, standardized collaborative approach
Can identifying discrete behavioral groups with individual-based acoustic telemetry advance the understanding of fish distribution patterns?
Local environment and individuals’ beliefs: The dynamics shaping public support for sustainability policy in an agricultural landscape
Merging scientific silos: Integrating specialized approaches for thinking about and using spatial data that can provide new directions for persistent fisheries problems
Does type, quantity, and location of habitat matter for fish diversity in a Great Plains riverscape?
Modeling larval American Shad recruitment in a large river
Confluences function as ecological hotspots: Geomorphic and regional drivers can help identify patterns of fish distribution within a seascape
Understanding the central Great Plains as a coupled climatic-hydrological-human system: Lessons learned in operationalizing interdisciplinary collaboration
Evaluating environmental change and behavioral decision-making for sustainability policy using an agent-based model: A case study for the Smoky Hill River Watershed, Kansas
Evaluation of a field protocol for internally-tagging fish predators using difficult-to-tag ictalurid catfish as examples
Multiple metrics provide context for the distribution of a highly mobile fish predator, the blue catfish
Science and Products
The gap between experts, farmers and non-farmers on perceived environmental vulnerability and the influence of values and beliefs
A Grand Challenge. A 21st century grand challenge for natural resource conservation is how to connect data to successful action. This critical link between research (data) and management/policy decisions (action) is widely examined.
A Grand Challenge. A 21st century grand challenge for natural resource conservation is how to connect data to successful action. This critical link between research (data) and management/policy decisions (action) is widely examined.