Research
I am a post-doctoral researcher based at the Swiss Ornithological Institute, where I am investigating the impacts of environmental change on the flows of aerial migratory species across the globe. For more information, please check out the GloBAM project's website. I also continue to work on a variety of other research projects; see below for a summary of my ongoing work.
Research projects
1. Climate change ecology
One of my main research areas is the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems, which I started studying during my PhD at Durham University. I am interested in understanding the impacts of both long-term trends in climate and short-term variations in weather, in order to predict how species may respond in the future. My work has revealed that interactions with other species can influence species' distributions more strongly than climate, and could constrain how species respond to future climate change (Mason et al. 2014a). My work has also shown that long-term trends in climate can drive substantial declines in the body mass of wild animals (as much as 25% between 1980 and 2010), which could poses a threat to their ability to survive and reproduce in the future (Mason et al. 2014b). I am currently developing a climate-impact indicator for monitoring the impacts of climate change on the population size of wild species.
Papers
- Mason et al. 2014a. Predicting potential responses to future climate in an alpine ungulate: interspecific interactions exceed climate effects. Global Change Biology
- Mason et al. 2014b. Environmental change and long-term body mass declines in an alpine mammal. Frontiers in Zoology
2. Conservation conflicts
I am interested in conflicts over biodiversity conservation, and in particular how understanding their underlying dynamics in socio-ecological processes (e.g., human-wildlife interactions) can help us to manage them more effectively. I got started with this research during a post-doc at the University of Stirling, which was focused on conflict caused by growing populations of geese grazing on farmland in Scotland. We found that both habitat modification and climate change have contributed to the growth and spread of goose populations, fueling this conflict (Mason et al. 2018a), and are currently working on ways to account for these uncertain and dynamic processes to inform the management of these conflicts (manuscript in prep.). We have recently written an opinion piece highlighting the need to better account for the complexity of conservation conflicts to manage them more effectively (Mason et al. 2018b).
Papers
- Littlewood et al. (2019). The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages. Ecology and Evolution
- Cusack et al. 2019. Time series analysis reveals synchrony and asynchrony between conflict management effort and increasing large grazing bird populations in northern Europe. Conservation Letters
- Mason et al. 2018a. The changing environment of conservation conflict: geese and farming in Scotland. Journal of Applied Ecology
- Mason et al. 2018b. Wicked conflict: using wicked problem thinking for holistic management of conservation conflict. Conservation Letters
3. Movement ecology
I started working on movement ecology during a post-doc at Laval University in Canada, where I analysed woodland caribou GPS data to evaluate how animal movement decisions lead to patterns of spatial heterogeneity in habitat selection (Mason et al. 2017a). I am also interested in how the seasonal migrations of mountain ungulates such as chamois and ibex are influenced by environmental change. Our recent work suggests that these species could be forced to use sparser higher-altitude areas due to the twin threats of climate change and livestock disturbance (Mason et al. 2017b; Mason et al. 2014a).
Papers
- Mason & Fortin 2017a. Functional responses in animal movement explain spatial heterogeneity in animal-habitat relationships. Journal of Animal Ecology
- Mason et al. 2017b. The behavioral trade-off between thermoregulation and foraging in a heat-sensitive species. Behavioral Ecology
- Mason et al. 2014a. Predicting potential responses to future climate in an alpine ungulate: interspecific interactions exceed climate effects. Global Change Biology
4. Life histories
I also have an interest in the drivers of variation in life histories, having explored inter-specific variation in the reproductive strategies of male Alpine chamois during my PhD. Making use of large datasets of hunting records from the Italian Alps, we were able to infer reproductive effort from the rate at which males lost weight during the breeding season. We found that animals adapt their lifetime reproductive strategies to suit their environments, with males in neighbouring but environmentally different areas adopting contrasting strategies (terminal investment vs. reproductive restraint) (Mason et al. 2011). We also found that reproductive strategies within breeding seasons varied among animals, with younger males breeding later in the season, when competition is less fierce (Mason et al. 2012).
Papers
- Mason et al. 2011. Contrasting life histories in neighbouring populations of a large mammal. PLoS ONE
- Mason et al. 2012. Intraseasonal variation in reproductive effort: young males finish last. The American Naturalist
Reviewing
I review papers for a variety of journals, including the Journal of Applied Ecology, Global Change Biology, Animal Behaviour, Nature Communications, Biology Letters, Ecography and PLoS ONE
Presentations
I regularly present my research at international conferences, including meetings of the British Ecological Society and International Society for Behavioral Ecology, and departmental seminars, including the University of Stirling and the University of Sassari, Italy.
In the news
My research has been reported by a range of media, including:
All images © 2019 Tom Mason