Maile Neel
Associate Professor
Email: [email protected]
Office Phone: 301-405-9780
Fax: 301-314-9290
Office Address: 2116 Plant Sciences Building, University of Maryland, College Park 20742
URL: http://alyxia.umd.edu
Teaching
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.
Recent Publications
Email: [email protected]
Office Phone: 301-405-9780
Fax: 301-314-9290
Office Address: 2116 Plant Sciences Building, University of Maryland, College Park 20742
URL: http://alyxia.umd.edu
Teaching
- PLSC 253/INAG 113 Woody Plant Materials I
- PLSC 254/INAG 114 Woody Plant Materials II
- Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences (MEES)
- Entomology
- BISI - BISI-Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, & Systematics (BEES)
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.
Recent Publications
- Kennedy, C. M., E. H. Campbell Grant, M. C. Neel, W. F. Fagan, and P. P. Marra. 2011. Landscape Matrix Mediates Occupancy Dynamics of Neotropical Avian Insectivores. Ecological Applications. 21(5): 1837-1850. [Article]
- Zeigler, S. L., M. C. Neel, L. Oliveira, B. E. Raboy, W. F. Fagan. 2011. Conspecific and Heterospecific Attraction in Assessments of Functional Connectivity. Biodiversity and Conservation. DOI 10.1007/s10531-011-0107-z [Article]
- Lloyd, M. W. R. K. Burnett Jr., K. A. M. Engelhardt, M. C. Neel. 2011. Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Vallisneria americana in the Chesapeake Bay: Implications for Restoration. Conservation Genetics. [Article]
- Pettengill, J. B. and M. C. Neel. 2011. Comprehensive Genetic and Morphological Analyses do not Support the Taxonomic Rank of Species for the Federally Listed Endangered Plant Agalinis acuta (Orobanchaceae). American Journal of Botany 98:859-871. [Article]
- Leidner, A. K. and M. C. Neel. 2011. How Do Species Become Extinct? Taxonomic and Geographic Patterns of Decline for Threatened and Endangered Species in the United States. Conservation Biology. [Article]
- Pettengill, J. B. and M. C. Neel. 2010. An Evaluation of Candidate Plant DNA Barcodes and Assignment Methods for Diagnosing Species in the Genus Agalinis (Orobanchaceae). American Journal of Botany 97:1391-1406. [Article]
- Kennedy, C. M., W. F. Fagan, P. P. Marra, and M. C. Neel. 2010. Landscape Matrix and Species Traits Mediate Responses of Neotropical Resident Birds to Forest Fragmentation in Jamaica. Ecological Monographs 80:651-669.[Article]
- Scott, J. M., D.D. Goble, A. Haines, J.A. Wiens, and M. C. Neel. 2010. Conservation-Reliant Species and the Future of Conservation. Conservation Letters 3:91-97. [Abstract]
- Laikre, L, F. W. Allendorf, L. C. Aroner, C. S. Baker, D. P. Gregovich, M. M. Hansen, J. A. Jackson, K. C. Kendall, K. McKelvey, M. C. Neel, I. Olivieri, N. Ryman, M. K. Schwartz, R. Short Bull**, J. B. Stetz, D. A.Tallmon, B. L. Taylor, C. D. Vojta, D. M. Waller, R. S. Waples. 2010. Neglect of Genetic Diversity in Implementation the Convention on Biological Diversity. Conservation Biology 24:86-88. [Article]
- Fox, H. E., P. Kareiva, B. Silliman, J. Hitt, D. Lytle, B. S. Halpern, C. V. Hawkes, J. Lawler, M. C. Neel, J. D. Olden, M. A. Schlaepfer, K. Smith, H. Tallis. 2009. Why Do We Fly? Ecologists' Sins of Emission. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 7:294-296
- Pettengill, J. B., R. K. Burnett, and M. C. Neel. 2009. Characterization of 21 Microsatellites Within Agalinis acuta (Orobanchaceae) and Cross-Species Amplification Among Closely Related Taxa. Molecular Ecology Resources 9:1375-1379.
- Burnett, R. K., M. Lloyd, and M. C. Neel. 2009. Development of Eleven Polymorphic Microsatellite Markers in a Macrophyte of Conservation Concern, Vallisneria americana Michaux (Hydrocharitaceae). Molecular Ecology Resources 9:1427-1429.
- 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
- 2000 Ph.D. Botany. University of California, Riverside
- 1994 M.A. Biology. University of California, Santa Barbara
- 1985 B.S. Environmental Biology and Conservation. Humboldt State University
