Professor & Associate Director for ResearchUniversity of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Appalachian Laboratory
301 Braddock Road
Frostburg, Maryland 21532
Email: mfitzpatrick@umces.edu
Phone: 301-689-7131
Visit Matt's Research Website
Research Disciplines: Research Interests:
landscape ecology, species distribution modeling, spatial modeling, biodiversity, habitat suitability, invasive species, climate change impact assessment, biogeography, habitat connectivity, macroecology, conservation assessment
View Matt's CVBiographical Sketch
I am a quantitative global change ecologist interested in how climate drives ecological patterns and processes, with an emphasis on understanding the distribution of species, patterns of biodiversity, and range expansion of native and introduced organisms. I have worked in both terrestrial and aquatic systems and across scales of biological organization from genes within genomes to species assemblages across the globe.
Education
Education
Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee (2008)
M.S., Environmental Science, University of Montana (2003)
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University (1997)
Appointments
Associate Director for Research, UMCES-Appalachian Laboratory (2021-present)
Assistant, Associate, Full Professor, UMCES-Appalachian Laboratory (2009-present)
Host Director, Chesapeake Watershed CESU (2021-present)
Distinguished Visiting Researcher, CSIRO Land & Water (2017-2018)
Research Associate, Harvard University (2009-2010)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Forest & University of Rhode Island (2008-2009)
Ongoing and Recent CESU Projects
- Conduct geospatial analyses to assess habitat connectivity throughout the length of C&O Canal NHP. National Park Service
- Modeling coastal vulnerability for tidal reaches of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. National Park Service
Other Research
- Evolutionary responses to climate change at range limits: adaptation, migration, and population size at the core, margin, and trailing edge.
- Managing forests for sustainable harvest and wildlife habitat using earth observations and modeling of forest structure and landscape connectivity.
- Combining genomics, remote sensing, and geospatial modeling to understand adaptation to growing season length in balsam poplar.
- Incorporating biotic interactions into models of species assemblages under climate change: A comparison of single-species and community-level approaches.
- Assessment of climate change impacts on key terrestrial ecosystems and species in the Arabian Gulf countries.
- Field-testing accelerometers to study landscape phenomics: A citizen-scientist pilot study.
- Population genomics of bats killed by wind turbines in the central Appalachians.
- Assessing potential migration pathways and changes in effective population size of hoary bat populations in the central Appalachians.
- Sampling to Support an Isotopic and Genetic Assessment of Red Bats in Maryland.
- A biologically-optimized environmental classification of Maryland streams: Assessing impacts of stream burial and responses to climate change.
- How representative are wind-turbine killed red bats of the broader population in Maryland? An Isotopic and genetic assessment.
- Review of climate change impacts on key terrestrial ecosystems and species in the Arabian Gulf countries.
- Improving forecasts of species responses to climatic change: Hierarchical Bayesian analysis of tree distributions across space and time.
- Modeling the spread of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid using Graph-Theory-Based Network Analysis.
- Climate change, seed dispersal mutualisms and the future of biodiversity in Western Australia.
- An assessment of landscape connectivity for grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.