Landscape fragmentation and urban ecology
As the world is becoming increasingly urbanized, natural habitats are being displaced with large buildings and concrete structures. Consequently, restoration practitioners and conservation biologists have implemented comprehensive management programs to preserve and protect the remaining biodiversity in metropolitan regions. Habitat fragmentation and conservation management both impose significant changes to natural communities; however, our understanding of how these two disturbances influence biodiversity is still limited. One main research avenue I undertake examines how fragmentation and conservation management affect arthropods, wildlife, and their associated functioning in terrestrial ecosystems. Previous findings show conservation management can dramatically alter the composition of ground-active arthropods, with degraded sites being numerically dominated by invasive isopods and reference sites having fewer invasive isopods. Here, invasive plants appear to be the main driver for arthropod community changes, which are also correlated with increased landscape fragmentation. Ongoing research efforts study the impacts of fragmentation on the meta-ecosystem dynamics of ungulate movement and arthropod communities.
Representative publications
Bertellotti, F., N. Sommer, O.J. Schmitz, and M.A. McCary. 2023. Impacts of habitat connectivity on grassland arthropod metacommunity structure: a field-based experimental test of theory. Ecology and Evolution 13:e10686.
K. Ferraro, O.J. Schmitz, and M.A. McCary. 2022. Effects of ungulate density and sociality on landscape heterogeneity: a mechanistic modeling approach. Ecography 2022: e06039.
McCary, M.A., E. Minor, and D.H. Wise. 2018. Covariation between local and landscape factors influences the structure of ground-active arthropod communities in fragmented metropolitan woodlands. Landscape Ecology 33: 225-239.
McCary, M.A., J.C. Martinez, L. Umek, L. Heneghan, and D.H. Wise. 2015. Effects of woodland restoration and management on the community of surface-active arthropods in the metropolitan Chicago region. Biological Conservation 190: 154-166.
K. Ferraro, O.J. Schmitz, and M.A. McCary. 2022. Effects of ungulate density and sociality on landscape heterogeneity: a mechanistic modeling approach. Ecography 2022: e06039.
McCary, M.A., E. Minor, and D.H. Wise. 2018. Covariation between local and landscape factors influences the structure of ground-active arthropod communities in fragmented metropolitan woodlands. Landscape Ecology 33: 225-239.
McCary, M.A., J.C. Martinez, L. Umek, L. Heneghan, and D.H. Wise. 2015. Effects of woodland restoration and management on the community of surface-active arthropods in the metropolitan Chicago region. Biological Conservation 190: 154-166.