Aaron J. Wirsing

About

Aaron J. Wirsing is a professor at the University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, with research focusing on wildlife science. His academic background includes a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Bowdoin College, a Master of Science in Wildlife Resources from the University of Idaho, and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Simon Fraser University. His current sponsored projects include studies on snow leopard ecology in Kyrgyzstan, interactions between wolves and cougars in Washington, and the effects of anti-predator behavior on predator-prey dynamics. Wirsing's research contributions encompass understanding predator-prey interactions, ecological roles of large carnivores, and the behavioral responses of wildlife to predation risk. His work has been published in various scientific journals, addressing topics such as shark ecology, ungulate responses to predation, and the ecological importance of sea cows. He is involved in teaching courses related to wildlife biology and conservation and actively contributes to advancing ecological research through sponsored projects and scholarly publications.

Research topics

• Geography

Selected publications

• The context dependence of non‐consumptive predator effects

  Ecology Letters · 2020-09-29 · 167 citations

  review1st author

  Non-consumptive predator effects (NCEs) are now widely recognised for their capacity to shape ecosystem structure and function. Yet, forecasting the propagation of these predator-induced trait changes through particular communities remains a challenge. Accordingly, focusing on plasticity in prey anti-predator behaviours, we conceptualise the multi-stage process by which predators trigger direct and indirect NCEs, review and distil potential drivers of contingencies into three key categories (pro…

  PublisherDOI

• Fear of large carnivores amplifies human-caused mortality for mesopredators

  Science · 2023-05-18 · 56 citations

  articleSenior author

  The challenge that large carnivores face in coexisting with humans calls into question their ability to carry out critical ecosystem functions such as mesopredator suppression outside protected areas. In this study, we examined the movements and fates of mesopredators and large carnivores across rural landscapes characterized by substantial human influences. Mesopredators shifted their movements toward areas with twofold-greater human influence in regions occupied by large carnivores, indicating…

  PublisherDOI

• Are we telling the same story? Comparing inferences made from camera trap and telemetry data for wildlife monitoring

  Ecological Applications · 2022-09-15 · 38 citations

  article

  Estimating habitat and spatial associations for wildlife is common across ecological studies and it is well known that individual traits can drive population dynamics and vice versa. Thus, it is commonly assumed that individual- and population-level data should represent the same underlying processes, but few studies have directly compared contemporaneous data representing these different perspectives. We evaluated the circumstances under which data collected from Lagrangian (individual-level) a…

  PublisherDOI

• Interactive effects of wildfires, season and predator activity shape mule deer movements

  Journal of Animal Ecology · 2022-09-08 · 30 citations

  article

  Wildfires are increasing in size, frequency and severity due to climate change and fire suppression, but the direct and indirect effects on wildlife remain largely unresolved. Fire removes forest canopy, which can improve forage for ungulates but also reduce snow interception, leading to a deeper snowpack and potentially increased vulnerability to predation in winter. If ungulates exhibit predator-mediated foraging, burns should generally be selected for in summer to access high-quality forage a…

  PublisherDOI

• Rewilding the American West

  BioScience · 2022 · 25 citations

  After taking office, President Biden signed an executive order announcing his America the Beautiful plan to conserve 30% of US land and water by 2030. He challenged Americans to collaboratively “conserve, connect, and restore the lands, waters, and wildlife upon which we all depend” at a national scale (US Departments 2021, p. 9). Here, we take a major step in advancing President Biden's plan by envisioning a bold and science-based rewilding of publicly owned federal lands (hereafter, federal la…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Does Anti-predator Behavior Modify Indirect Effects of Top Predators?

  NSF · $796k · 2012–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Michael R. Heithaus

  Florida International University

  60 shared

• William J. Ripple

  Oregon State University

  47 shared

• Thomas M. Newsome

  University of Sydney

  47 shared

• Mike Letnic

  31 shared

• Robert L. Beschta

  Oregon State University

  31 shared

• Michael Nelson

  Oregon State University

  29 shared

• Christopher Wolf

  Oregon State University

  29 shared

• José Vicente López‐Bao

  Universidad de Oviedo

  28 shared

Labs

• Wirsing LabPI

Similar researchers at University of Washington

• Dan Brownh-65
• Joshua Lawlerh-64
• Jonathan Bakkerh-47