Lisa McCauley

Lisa serves as the spatial scientist lead on projects in The Nature Conservancy in Arizona (TNC Arizona). She uses science-based tools, spatial and statistical analyses, and spatial data collection to advance TNC's conservation strategies and demonstrate their impact. Lisa has been with TNC since 2015 and has led multiple studies evaluating the co-benefits of large-scale forest restoration, including carbon and drought mortality under climate change. She works with multiple conservation programs to collect and analyze spatial data and leads the science team on mapping and quantifying our 2030 goals and progress.

Lisa has a PhD in Conservation Biology with experience in spatial and statistical analyses, landscape ecology, GIS, climate modeling and landscape modeling. Her past projects include studying the effects of agriculture on isolated wetlands loss and hydrology, the effect of urbanization on cypress wetlands, and the effects of climate change on grassland bird distributions.

Peeler, J.L., L.A. McCauley, K.L. Metlen, T. Woolley, K.T. Davis, M.D. Robles, R.D. Haugo, K.L. Riley, P.E. Higuera, J.E. Fargione, R.N. Addington, S. Bassett, K. Blankenship, M.J. Case, T.B. Chapman, E. Smith, R. Swaty, N. Welch. 2023. Identifying opportunity hot spots for reducing the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss in western US conifer forests. Environ. Res. Lett. 18, 094040. 

Davis, K.T., M.D. Robles, K. Kemp, P.E. Higuera, T. Chapman, K.L. Metlen, J.L. Peeler, K.C. Rodman, T. Woolley, R.N. Addington, B.J. Buma, C.A. Cansler, M.J. Case, B.M. Collins, J.D. Coop, S.Z. Dobrowski, N.S. Gill, C. Haffey, L.B. Harris, B.J. Harvey, R.D. Haugo, M.D. Hurteau, D. Kulakowski, C.E. Littlefield, L.A. McCauley, … Campbell, J. L. 2023. Reduced fire severity offers near-term buffer to climate-driven declines in conifer resilience across the western United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(11), e2208120120.  

L.A. McCauley, J.B. Bradford, M.D. Robles, R.K. Shriver, T.J. Woolley, C.A. Andrews. 2022. Landscape-scale forest restoration decreases drought mortality under climate change in Southwest US ponderosa forest. Forest Ecology and Management 509 (2022):120088 

Bradford, J.B., R.K. Shriver, M.D. Robles, L.A. McCauley, T.J. Woolley, C.A. Andrews, M. Crimmins, D.M. Bell. 2022. Tree mortality response to drought-density interactions suggests opportunities to enhance drought resistance. Journal of Applied Ecology 59:549-559  

Bradford, J.B., C.A. Andrews, M.D. Robles, L.A. McCauley, T.J. Woolley, R.M. Marshall. 2020. Landscape-scale restoration minimizes tree growth vulnerability to 21st century drought in a dry forest. Ecological Applications 31(2):e2238 

McCauley, L.A., M.D. Robles. T. Woolley, R.M. Marshall, A. Kretchun, D.F. Gori. 2019. Large‐scale forest restoration stabilizes carbon under climate change in Southwest United States. Ecological Applications 29(8):e01979  

Zuckerberg, B., C.A. Ribic, L.A. McCauley. 2018. Effects of temperature and precipitation on grassland bird nesting success as mediated by patch size. Conservation Biology 32(4):872-882 

McCauley, L.A., B. Zuckerberg, C.A. Ribic. 2017. The future demographic niche of a declining grassland bird fails to shift poleward in response to climate change. Landscape Ecology 32(4):807-821  

McCauley, L.A., M.J. Anteau, and M. Post van der Burg. 2016. Consolidation drainage and climate change may reduce Piping Plover habitat in the Great Plains. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 7(1): 4-12. 

Post van der Burg, M., M.J. Anteau, L.A. McCauley, and M.T. Wiltermuth. 2016. A Bayesian approach for temporally scaling climate for modeling ecological systems. Ecology and Evolution 6(9):2978 – 2987  

McCauley, L.A., M.J. Anteau, M. Post van der Burg, and M.T. Wiltermuth. 2015. Land use and wetland drainage affect water-levels and dynamics of remaining wetlands. Ecosphere 6(6): 92 

McCauley, L.A. and M.J. Anteau. 2014. Delineating wetland catchments and connectedness with high-resolution elevation data. Wetlands 34: (6) 1123-1132  

McCauley L.A., D.G. Jenkins, and P.F. Quintana-Ascencio. 2013. Land use changes cause delayed reproductive failure in a long-lived wetland tree. Journal of Applied Ecology 50: 25-33. 

McCauley, L.A., D.G. Jenkins, and P.F. Quintana-Ascencio. 2013. Cypress (Taxodium distichum) wetland loss and degradation in an increasingly urbanized landscape. Wetlands 33:117-127  

Glardon C.G., L.J. Walters, P.F. Quintana-Ascencio, L.A. McCauley, W.T. Stam and J.L. Olsen. 2008. Predicting risks of invasion of macroalgae in the genus Caulerpa in Florida. Biological Invasions 10: 1147-1157 

Jenkins, D.G. and L.A. McCauley. 2006. GIS, SINKS, FILL, and Disappearing Small Wetlands: A Case Study of Unintended Consequences in Algorithmic Development. Proceedings of the 2006 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing  

McCauley, L.A. and D.G. Jenkins. 2005. GIS-based estimates of former and current depressional wetlands in an agricultural landscape. Ecological Applications 15:1199-1208