Our Focus

Aerial shot of a prairie strip next to corn

At the AWESM Lab, we believe that agriculture and conservation do not need to be competing interests and can coexist. We strive to find innovative ways to balance wildlife and ecosystem conservation with the needs of farmers and ranchers in a predominantly agricultural state. We study wildlife and habitat management from individual land parcels to entire landscapes, specifically in agriculturally dominated areas. Some focus points of our research include integrating wildlife conservation with agriculture systems using landscape ecology and precision conservation.

  • a small herd of pronghorn visible from above inside a helicopter
    Aerial captures are used to tag pronghorn with GPS units to track their movements across Nebraska
    AWESM Lab
  • a researcher attaches a backpack-style GPS tracker to a wild turkey
    Backpack-style GPS units are used to track wild turkey movements across Nebraska
    Nebraskaland/Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
 
Integrating Wildlife Conservation with Agricultural Systems Using Landscape Ecology 

We provide science-based evidence to improve wildlife and habitat management in agricultural landscapes. We use a whole-scale or landscape approach, which means that the entire landscape is considered. By thinking beyond the patch, we integrate wildlife spatial ecology and landscape structure to find the most effective conservation methods for wildlife while also providing benefits to landowners and producers.

  • a strip of native prairie grows in the middle of corn that is golden with tassels
    Prairie strips (CP-43) integrate sections of native prairie vegetation into or around row crop fields
    Omar de Kok-Mercado/Iowa State University
  • cattle wearing virtual fence collars graze in a field
    Virtual fencing helps ranchers integrate conservation practices like rotational grazing on their land
    Kaitlyn Dozler/AWESM Lab
 
Precision Conservation 

Precision conservation can create win-win solutions for farmers and landowners to maximize whole-field profitability while reducing the impacts on the environment (e.g., reduced soil erosion, water runoff). Precision conservation is a new method aimed at using spatial tools to: 

  • Identify opportunities on the landscape for conservation enrollment
  • Help land managers improve whole-field profitability by farming the best yielding acres while conserving the marginal, or low yielding, acres
Our inter-disciplinary research team strives to integrate agronomy, economics, human dimensions, precision agriculture, and spatial modeling to benefit wildlife and society at large. 

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