Maile Neel

The general objective of my research is to understand patterns of biological diversity as well as the relationships between these patterns and the ecological and evolutionary processes that have created them. I am committed to applying this understanding to developing effective conservation approaches and to predict effects of changing patterns and processes.

Each conservation situation represents a unique combination of species or community biology and extrinsic threats. A single research approach is not sufficient for all situations. Working on a wide variety of conservation issues has given me the opportunity to apply and integrate techniques from traditionally disparate fields including systematics, population genetics, autecology, synecology, landscape ecology, and restoration ecology. I use these techniques to quantify diversity patterns and examine the implications of these patterns for conservation at a wide range of scales.

Beyond addressing questions related to specific conservation situations I am interested in testing basic assumptions on which much of conservation biology is based. Because it is typically not possible to collect all desirable data on a particular problem in timeframes necessary to contribute to management decisions, practitioners rely on general principles derived from basic assumptions from ecology, population genetics and population biology theory. Verifying the validity of such assumptions is critical to identifying where general principles apply and where acquiring new scientific information is necessary for sound decision-making. It also assesses risks of making decisions without complete information.

/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

• Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Grand, J., J. Buonaccorsi, S. A. Cushma
  Pettengill, J. B., M. C. Neel. 2008. Phylogenetic Patterns and Conservation in the Genus Agalinis (Orobanchaceae). BMC Evolutionary Biology 8:264.
• Cummings, M. P., M. C. Neel, and K. L. Shaw. 2008. A Genealogical Approach to Quantifying Lineage Divergence. Evolution. 62:2411-22.
• Neel, M. C. 2008. Patch Connectivity and Genetic Diversity Conservation in the Federally Endangered and Narrowly Endemic Plant Species Astragalus albens (Fabaceae). Biological Conservation 141:938-955.
• Cushman, S. A., K. McGarigal, and M. C. Neel. 2008. Parsimony in Landscape Metrics: Strength, Universality, and Consistency. Ecological Indicators 8:691-703.
• , C. R. Griffin, and M. C. Neel. 2004. A Multi-Scale Landscape Approach to Predicting Bird and Moth Rarity Hotspots in a Threatened Pitch Pine-Scrub Oak Community. Conservation Biology 18:1063-1077.
• Grand, J. M. P. Cummings, A. G. Rebelo, T. H. Ricketts, and M. C. Neel. 2007. Biased Data Reduce Efficiency and Effectiveness of Conservation Reserve Networks. Ecology Letters 10: 364-374.
• Ferrari, J. T., T. R. Lookingbill, and M. C. Neel. 2007. Two Measures of Landscape-Graph Connectivity: Assessment Across Gradients in Area and Configuration. Landscape Ecology 22:1315-1323
• Neel, M. C., K. McGarigal, and S. Cushman. 2004. Behavior of Class-Level Landscape Metrics Across Gradients of Class Aggregation and Area. Landscape Ecology 19: 435-455.
• Neel, M. C. and M. P. Cummings. 2004. Section-Level Relationships of North American Agalinis (Orobanchaceae) based on DNA Sequence Analysis of Three Chloroplast Gene Regions. BMC Evolutionary Biology 4:15.
• Neel, M. C. and M. P. Cummings. 2003. Genetic consequences of ecological reserve design guidelines: an empirical investigation. Conservation Genetics 4:427-439.
• Neel, M. C. and N. C. Ellstrand. 2003. Conservation of genetic diversity in the endangered plant Eriogonum ovalifolium var. vineum. Conservation Genetics 4:337-352.
• Neel, M. C. 2003. Genetic Diversity in Nature Reserves. Pages 149-151. In: McGraw Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology. McGraw-Hill Companies. New York, NY.
• Neel, M. C., and M. P. Cummings. 2003. Effectiveness of conservation targets in capturing genetic diversity. Conservation Biology 17:219-229.
• Neel, M. C. 2002. Conservation implications of the reproductive ecology of Agalinis acuta (Scrophulariaceae). American Journal of Botany 89:972-980.
• Neel M. C., J. Ross-Ibarra, and N. C. Ellstrand. 2001. Implications of mating patterns for conservation of the endangered plant Eriogonum ovalifolium var. vineum (Polygonaceae). American Journal of Botany 88:1214-1222
• Neel, M. C., and N. C. Ellstrand. 2001. Patterns of allozyme diversity in the threatened Erigeron parishii (Asteraceae). American Journal of Botany 88:810-818.
• Neel, M. C., J. Clegg, and N. C. Ellstrand. 1996. Isozyme variation in Echinocereus engelmannii var. munzii. Conservation Biology 10:622-631.

"2001-2003 David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship, The Nature Conservancy."