Assistant Unit Leader

United States Geological Survey

New Mexico Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit

Department of Fish, Wildlife, & Conservation Ecology

New Mexico State University

Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003-8003

575-646-7196 Office

carleton@nmsu.edu

Scott A. Carleton, PhD.

 
 
My professional training is in animal ecology, physiological ecology, and the application of biomarkers to basic and applied ecology/management. My research interests are focused in two areas. First, my research utilizes biomarkers such as trace elements, stable isotopes, and genetics to differentiate populations across the landscape, reconstruct animal life histories, link breeding and wintering populations of migratory animals, and determine resource/habitat selection. Second, my research investigates how habitat and resource selection drive demographic patterns (reproduction and survival) in animal populations. George Bartholemew, a famous comparative physiologist, wrote that “Every level of biological organization finds its mechanism at lower levels of biological organization and its significance at higher levels of biological organization” Studying animal populations often requires that we employ both levels of inquiry and I find that animal ecological research is often most informed when it combines both lower and higher levels of organization.

A male prairie-chicken displays on a lek in eastern New Mexico during the breeding season