Luke Eberhart-Hertel

Biography

I am a conservation biologist with a special interest in the interplay between social behavior and population dynamics. I want to understand how demographic vital rates are are shaped by extrinsic social and ecological environments and by intrinsic phylogenetic constraints. To accomplish this, my work focuses largely on studying sex-specific variation in mating strategies, parental care, reproductive success, survival, and movement in wild avian populations. My main study system is the shorebirds (suborder Charadrii), whose diverse life histories and extreme tractability in the field make them ideal organisms to exemplify fundamental principles of ecology and evolutionary biology. Furthermore, as many shorebird populations worldwide are in decline and threatened, an important applied aspect of my research is to understand vital rate variation in light of population viability and conservation. Through my experiences as a field ornithologist, I understand the limitations of avian survey methods and the issue of imperfect detection. Therefore, a core component of my research is modelling population dynamics with mark-recapture methods. I strive to make my analytical work as transparent as possible using tools that facilitate collaboration and reproducibility.