Dr. Jake Ferguson
Instructor, Center for Wildlife Studies
Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky
Ph.D. Biology, University of Florida
M.S. Ecological and Environmental Statistics, University of Montana
M.S. Physics, University of Massachusetts
Email: jakeferg@hawaii.edu
Jake’s research aims to assess the accuracy of predictions made by animal population models. Past assessments of model predictions have relied primarily on theory and simulation studies, not real data. Relying on simulations is problematic because population predictions are often made to inform real-world management and conservation strategies.
Jake takes past predictions from population viability analyses and compares them to current observations. Given the large number of choices that modelers must make when collecting data and constructing population models, his research yields empirically-based guidelines for making reliable predictions.
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Ferguson, J.M., T.A. Miura, & C.R. Miller. 2019 (accepted). A two‐stage experimental design for dilution assays. Biometrics link
Crain, B.J., R.L. Tremblay, L. Raymond, & J.M. Ferguson. 2019. Sheltered from the storm? Population viability analysis of a rare endemic under periodic catastrophe regimes. 2019. Population Ecology 61:74–92.
Cutting, K.A., J.M. Ferguson, M.L. Anderson, K. Cook, S.C. Davis, & R. Levine. 2018. Linking beaver dam affected flow dynamics to upstream passage of Arctic grayling. Ecology and Evolution 8:12905–12917.
Ferguson, J.M., J.B. Hopkins III, & B.H. Witteveen. Integrating abundance and diet data to improve inferences of food web dynamics. 2018. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 9:1581–1591.
Ferguson, J.M., Buzbas, Erkan Ozge. 2018. Inference from the stationary distribution of allele frequencies in a family of Wright–Fisher models with two levels of genetic variability. Theoretical Population Biology 122:78–87.
Heist, K.W., T.S. Bowden, J.M. Ferguson, N.A. Rathbun, E.C. Olson, D.C. Nolfi, R. Horton, J.C. Gosse, D.H. Johnson, M.T. Wells. 2018. Radar quantifies migrant concentration and Dawn reorientation at a Great Lakes shoreline. Movement Ecology 6:15.
Ferguson, J.M., B.E. Reichert, R.J. Fletcher Jr, & H.I. Jager. 2017 Detecting population–environmental interactions with mismatched time series data. Ecology 98:2813–2822.
Hopkins III, J.B, J.M. Ferguson, D.B. Tyers, & C.M. Kurle. 2017. Selecting the best stable isotope mixing model to estimate grizzly bear diets in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. PLoS One12,5,e0174903.
Vakanski, A., J.M. Ferguson, & S. Lee. 2017. Metrics for Performance Evaluation of Patient Exercises during Physical Therapy. American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. 5:1–15.
Ferguson, J.M., F. Carvalho, O. Murillo-García, M.L. Taper, & J.M Ponciano. 2016. An updated perspective on the role of environmental autocorrelation in animal populations. Theoretical ecology 9:129–148.