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Brad McRae

Senior Landscape Ecologist

Brief Biography

Brad McRae is a senior landscape ecologist for The Nature Conservancy’s North America Region. He provides science support for large landscape-scale conservation projects, and conducts research on climate change adaptation, wildlife corridors, restoration planning, and conservation genetics. Brad pioneered the use of circuit theory to model connectivity and gene flow across fragmented landscapes, garnering coverage in media outlets like Wired Magazine and Conservation Magazine. He leads development of Circuitscape and Linkage Mapper, two software packages that help conservation planners around the world design wildlife corridors and healthy landscapes.

Brad received his Ph.D. from Northern Arizona University and his M.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and holds an affiliate assistant professor position at the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. He studied mountain lion populations for his Ph.D. before doing postdoc stints at the US EPA in Corvallis, Oregon, and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara. Brad lives in Seattle with his wife, where they enjoy hiking, skiing, canoeing, and biking.

Brad McRae

Senior Landscape Ecologist

2013

Nuñez, T., J.J. Lawler, B.H. McRae, D.J. Pierce, M.R. Krosby, D.M. Kavanagh, P.H. Singleton, and J.J. Tewksbury. 2013. Connectivity planning to facilitate species movements in response to climate change. Conservation Biology 27: 407–416.

2012

McRae, B.H., S.A Hall, P. Beier, and D.M. Theobald. 2012. Where to restore ecological connectivity? Detecting barriers and quantifying restoration benefits. PLoS ONE 7(12): e52604. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052604.

Schloss, C.A., J.J. Lawler, E.R. Larson, H.L. Papendick, M.J. Case, D.M. Evans, J.H. DeLap, J.G.R. Langdon, S.A. Hall, and B.H. McRae. 2012. Systematic conservation planning in the face of climate change: bet-hedging on the Columbia Plateau. PLoS ONE 6(12): e28788. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028788.

2011

Beier, P, WD Spencer, R Baldwin, and B McRae. 2011. Towards best practices for developing regional connectivity maps. Conservation Biology 25:879-892.

Carroll, C., B.H. McRae, and A. Brookes. 2011. Use of linkage mapping and centrality analysis across habitat gradients to conserve connectivity of gray wolf populations in western North America. Conservation Biology 26(1): 1523-1739.

Software: McRae, B.H. and D.M. Kavanagh. 2011. Linkage Mapper Connectivity Analysis Toolbox, 2011.

2010

Spear, S.F., N. Balkenhol, M.-J. Fortin, B.H. McRae and K. Scribner. 2010. Use of resistance surfaces for landscape genetic studies: Considerations of parameterization and analysis. Molecular Ecology 19(17): 3576-3591.

2008

McRae, B.H., B.G. Dickson, T.H. Keitt, and V.B. Shah. 2008. Using circuit theory to model connectivity in ecology, evolution, and conservation. Ecology 10: 2712-2724.

McRae, B.H., N.H. Schumaker, R.B. McKane, R.T. Busing, A.M. Solomon, and C.A. Burdick. 2008. A multi-model framework for simulating wildlife population response to land-use and climate change. Ecological Modelling 19:77-91.

2007

McRae, B.H. and P. Beier. 2007. Circuit theory predicts gene flow in plant and animal populations. PNAS 104:19885-19890.

2006

McRae, B.H. 2006. Isolation by Resistance. Evolution 60:1551-1561.

2005

McRae, B.H., P. Beier, L.Y. Huynh, L.E. DeWald, and P. Keim. 2005. Habitat barriers limit gene flow and illuminate historical events in a wide ranging carnivore, the American puma. Molecular Ecology 14:1965-1977.

Read Brad McRae's Full Biography

Read Brad McRae's Full Biography

Read Brad McRae's Full Biography