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Richard Schuster
PeerJ Editor, Author & Reviewer
1,645 Points

Contributions by role

Author 405
Preprint Author 35
Reviewer 105
Editor 1,100

Contributions by subject area

Biodiversity
Biogeography
Conservation Biology
Ecology
Environmental Sciences
Biosphere Interactions
Natural Resource Management
Spatial and Geographic Information Science
Computational Science
Data Mining and Machine Learning
Marine Biology
Veterinary Medicine
Zoology
Animal Behavior
Statistics
Population Biology
Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science
Freshwater Biology
Ecosystem Science
Plant Science
Climate Change Biology

Richard Schuster

PeerJ Editor, Author & Reviewer

Summary

I am the Director of Spatial Planning and Innovation at the Nature Conservancy of Canada and an Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University, studying the ecological impacts of human activities and develop novel techniques to prioritize conservation areas and strategies. I have a theoretical and applied background in quantitative ecology and statistics and spatial big data analysis. I develop novel analytical tools for researchers and other practitioners to explore and use in conservation planning and management.

Biodiversity Biogeography Conservation Biology Data Science Ecology Ecosystem Science Environmental Sciences Spatial & Geographic Information Science Statistics

Editing Sections

Biodiversity and Conservation

Editing Journals

PeerJ - the Journal of Life & Environmental Sciences

Past or current institution affiliations

Carleton University
University of British Columbia
University of Northern British Columbia

Work details

Director of Spatial Planning and Innovation

Nature Conservancy of Canada
April 2021
Conservation Planning and Policy

Adjunct Research Professor

Carleton University
May 2021
Biology
Our current project is on modernizing the Nature Conservancy of Canada's (NCC) conservation prioritization methods. The primary focus of this work is to help NCC optimally allocate sparse conservation funds, pinpointing actions such as land acquisition and management that can provide the maximum biodiversity benefits within limited budgets. We propose to implement two sets of tools into the platform we will develop: Systematic Reserve Acquisition Prioritization tools and Tools aimed at optimizing stewardship decisions.

PhD student

University of British Columbia
May 2010 - July 2014
For my PhD I investigated systematic conservation planning in human-dominated landscapes and developed novel techniques to maximize efficiency in biodiversity conservation via carbon sequestration and land management. This work provided guidelines to successfully fund conservation investments and highlighted their potential benefits and shortfalls.

Post-doctoral researcher (10h/week)

University of British Columbia
July 2014 - June 2015
Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences
Web application development for the Marxan conservation planning software Application and extension of PhD thesis methods to regional and local government levels

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

The Nature Trust of British Columbia
June 2015 - March 2016
Cross-boundary Planning for Resilience and Restoration of Endangered Oak Savannah and Coastal Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystems Tax shifting as an option for funding conservation initiatives Species distribution model performance using multiple modelling techniques and variable types Relative Ecological Assessment Tool updates for TNTBC

Liber Ero Postdoctoral Fellow

Carleton University
November 2016 - December 2019
department of biology
Project: Combining full annual cycle population models and conservation optimization to address population declines of migratory birds in Canada. Primary mentor institutions: Carleton University (Dr. Joseph Bennett), Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Dr. Amanda Rodewald), Environment Canada (Dr. Scott Wilson), Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (Dr. Peter Marra), Boreal Songbird Initiative (Dr. Jeff Wells)

Identities

@RicSchuster

Websites

  • Google Scholar
  • Personal Website

PeerJ Contributions

  • Articles 3
  • Preprints 1
  • Edited 10
  • Reviewed 2
May 27, 2020
Exact integer linear programming solvers outperform simulated annealing for solving conservation planning problems
Richard Schuster, Jeffrey O. Hanson, Matthew Strimas-Mackey, Joseph R. Bennett
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9258 PubMed 32518737
August 13, 2015
Effects of disputes and easement violations on the cost-effectiveness of land conservation
Richard Schuster, Peter Arcese
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1185 PubMed 26413430
October 24, 2013
Using multi-scale distribution and movement effects along a montane highway to identify optimal crossing locations for a large-bodied mammal community
Richard Schuster, Heinrich Römer, Ryan R. Germain
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.189 PubMed 24244912
May 4, 2015 - Version: 1
Efficient routes to land conservation given risk of covenant failure
Richard Schuster, Peter Arcese
https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1033v1

Academic Editor on

January 27, 2022
Leopard and spotted hyena densities in the Lake Mburo National Park, southwestern Uganda
Aleksander Braczkowski, Ralph Schenk, Dinal Samarasinghe, Duan Biggs, Allie Richardson, Nicholas Swanson, Merlin Swanson, Arjun Dheer, Julien Fattebert
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12307 PubMed 35127275
November 23, 2021
Survival rates of adult and juvenile gyrfalcons in Iceland: estimates and drivers
Frédéric Barraquand, Ólafur K. Nielsen
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12404 PubMed 34900413
September 14, 2021
High-resolution prediction of American red squirrel in Interior Alaska: a role model for conservation using open access data, machine learning, GIS and LIDAR
Richard B. Robold, Falk Huettmann
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11830 PubMed 34611502
June 30, 2021
Whole blood fatty acid concentrations in the San Cristóbal Galápagos tortoise (Chelonoidis chathamensis)
Khushboo Dass, Gregory A. Lewbart, Juan Pablo Muñoz-Pérez, Maryuri I. Yépez, Andrea Loyola, Emile Chen, Diego Páez-Rosas
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11582 PubMed 34249492
May 3, 2021
Ecosystem services show variable responses to future climate conditions in the Colombian páramos
Mauricio Diazgranados, Carolina Tovar, Thomas R. Etherington, Paula A. Rodríguez-Zorro, Carolina Castellanos-Castro, Manuel Galvis Rueda, Suzette G.A. Flantua
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11370 PubMed 33987031
April 20, 2021
An integrated model of seasonal changes in stock composition and abundance with an application to Chinook salmon
Cameron Freshwater, Sean C. Anderson, Terry D. Beacham, Wilf Luedke, Catarina Wor, Jackie King
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11163 PubMed 33976968
April 16, 2021
Predicting migration routes for three species of migratory bats using species distribution models
Jamin G. Wieringa, Bryan C. Carstens, H Lisle Gibbs
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11177 PubMed 33959415
March 9, 2021
Fall supplemental feeding increases population growth rate of an endangered caribou herd
Douglas C. Heard, Kathryn L. Zimmerman
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10708 PubMed 33854825
January 11, 2021
New distributional records of the Samana least gecko (Sphaerodactylus samanensis, Cochran, 1932) with comments on its morphological variation and conservation status
Germán Chávez, Miguel A. Landestoy T, Gail S. Ross, Joaquín A. Ugarte-Núñez
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10404 PubMed 33510965
January 5, 2021
Grazer density and songbird counts in a restored conservation area
Lilla Lovász, Fränzi Korner-Nievergelt, Valentin Amrhein
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10657 PubMed 33505805

Signed reviews submitted for articles published in PeerJ Note that some articles may not have the review itself made public unless authors have made them open as well.

September 30, 2020
Identification of areas of very high biodiversity value to achieve the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 key commitments
Iulia V. Miu, Laurentiu Rozylowicz, Viorel D. Popescu, Paulina Anastasiu
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10067 PubMed 33062449
February 15, 2017
Opportunities drive the global distribution of protected areas
Germán Baldi, Marcos Texeira, Osvaldo A. Martin, H. Ricardo Grau, Esteban G. Jobbágy
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2989 PubMed 28229022