William Ripple

Research Interests:

Wolf, ungulate, aspen ecology; trophic cascades; mesopredators; plant/animal interactions; ecology of fear; wildlife habitat analysis; landscape ecology; biodiversity; historical ecology; conservation biology; riparian ecology.

Current/Recent Programs:

The Leopold Project - The goal of Leopold Project is to continue the work Aldo Leopold started on topics that intersect forestry and wildlife science and ecosystems especially predators, ungulates, and forests.

The Aspen Project - An interactive web page designed to examine the decline of Quaking Aspen throughout the western United States. This site has had 13,000 hits since 1998.

The Lewis and Clark Project - Wildlife along the Lewis & Clark Trail studying human wildlife associations as a study in historical ecology.

The Wolves in Nature Project - The purpose here is to investigate the role of a top predator, the gray wolf (Canis Lupus), in structuring ecological communities.
Species Range Contractions - The purpose of this study is to compare historic and current ranges of both carnivores and ungulates, identify large-scale patterns in species ranges and determine the degree of human influence on species range changes.