Thomas D. Sisk

Contributor and Principal Investigator, CP-LUHNA
Author of Canyons, cultures, and environmental change: an introduction to the land-use history of the Colorado Plateau; Toward a land-use history of North America: a context for understanding environmental change; and Geographic information systems (GIS)

Northern Arizona University
Center for Environmental Sciences and Education
PO Box 5694
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
Phone: (520) 523-7183
Fax: (520) 523-7423

e-mail: Thomas.Sisk@nau.edu

Current Position:

Assistant Professor, Ecology

 

Education:

Ph.D., Stanford University, 1992
Biological Sciences, Specialization in Ecology/Conservation Biology

 

B.A., The Colorado College, 1983
Biology

 

Research and Teaching Interests:

My work focuses on three interrelated goals: to better understand how nature works; to interest and engage others in the challenges and societal relevance of the environmental sciences; and to help provide viable solutions to real-world problems facing land and resource managers.

 

Many conservation issues involve multiple species and multiple driving forces, manifest at landscape scales. Current controversies over land and resource management in the West illustrate this point well, with the effects of timber harvest, grazing, and water development constituting a few obvious and complex examples. My efforts to address these issues incorporate research in ecology, teaching and educational efforts aimed at students and the public, and collaborations with conservation organizations, resource management agencies, and landowners.

 

Selected Publications

Sisk, T.D., editor. 1998. Perspectives on the land use history of North America: A context for understanding our changing environment. U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, Biological Science Report. USGS/BRD/BSR-1998-0003. 104 pp.

 

Imhoff, M.L and T.D. Sisk. 1997. Remotely sensed indicators of habitat heterogeneity: Use of synthetic aperture radar in mapping vegetation structure and bird habitat. Remote Sensing of the Environment 60:217-227.

 

Sisk, T.D., N. Haddad, and P.R. Ehrlich. 1997. Bird assemblages in patchy woodlands: modeling the effects of edge and matrix habitats. Ecological Applications 7:1170-1180.

 

Sisk, T.D. and J. Zook. 1996. La influencia de la composición del paisaje en la distribución de Catharus ustulatus en migración por Costa Rica (Influence of landscape composition on the distribution of Swainson's thrush, Catharus ustulatus, migrating through Costa Rica). Vida Silvestre Neotropical 5:120-125.

 

Méndez, C., T.D. Sisk, and N. Haddad. 1995. Beyond birds: multitaxonomic monitoring provides broad measure of tropical biodiversity. Pp. 451-456 in J.A. Bissonette and P.R. Krausman (eds.) Integrating people and wildlife for a sustainable future. The Wildlife Society, Bethesda, MD, USA.

 

Sparrow, H.R., T.D. Sisk, P.R. Ehrlich, and D.D. Murphy. 1994. Techniques and guidelines for monitoring neotropical butterflies. Conservation Biology 8:800-809.

 

Sisk, T.D., A.E. Launer, K.R. Switky, and P.R. Ehrlich. 1994. Evaluating extinctions threats: the distribution of global biodiversity and the expansion of the human enterprise. BioScience 44:592-604. Reprinted, 1996, pp. 53-68 in F. Samson and F. Knopf (eds.) Readings in Ecosystem Management. Springer-Verlag, New York, USA.

 

Sisk, T.D. and C.R. Margules. 1992. Habitat edges and restoration: methods for quantifying edge effects and predicting the results of restoration efforts. Pp. 57-69 in D.A. Saunders, R.J. Hobbs, and P.R. Ehrlich (eds.) Nature conservation III: the restoration of degraded ecosystems. Surrey Beatty & Sons, Sydney, Australia.