Dr. Evan Tanner is currently an assistant professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry, Resource Management (2009) and a Master of Science degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science (2012) from the University of Tennessee. His M.S. research focused on population ecology of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) on reclaimed surface coal mines in western Kentucky. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Natural Resource Ecology and Management from Oklahoma State University in 2015. His Ph.D. research focused on understanding how extreme weather events and future climate change influence population dynamics of northern bobwhite and scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) along the periphery of their distributions. From 2016-2019, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow for Oklahoma State University and was funded through grants received from the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Agriculture. There, his research focused on modeling spatio-temporal dynamics of thermal conditions in human influenced landscapes and how these dynamics impact ecological patterns and processes across multiple scales. Furthermore, he assessed how human policies associated with the Conservation Reserve Program directly influenced populations of the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) throughout the species’ distribution. Evan joined the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in 2020 and has research interests related to thermal ecology, avian ecology, socio-ecological systems, and ecological niche modeling. His personal interests include birding, fishing, scuba diving, small game hunting, and hiking.
Temperature is a foundational abiotic condition that structures ecological patterns and processes globally. Thermal conditions can be shaped by spatio-temporal characteristics inherent in a landscape such as topedaphic features, vegetation structure/composition, and management history. This latter influence, that of management history, has largely been understudied and recent work has begun to highlight the critical role that vegetation management plays in structuring thermal landscapes of rangelands. The Southern Great Plains is predicted to be one of the most impacted ecosystems with regards to increasing thermal conditions relative to climate change. Yet, undergraduate students may view temperature as something that is not inherently manageable at a local scale, even if they view temperature as an important driver of rangeland dynamics. My project focused on integrating thermal ecology concepts into a patch-burning framework to provide applied examples and activities on how management can influence thermal options for organisms in a dynamic system. I implemented this system into a 2000 level undergraduate rangeland and wildlife ecology class and assessed pre- and post-activity viewpoints on the importance of climate science toward rangeland and wildlife management. Students were tasked with conducting their own thermal ecology research within a patch-burn system in a mesquite woodland/grassland matrix.
