Leah Yandow is an M.S. student at University of Wyoming in the Wyoming Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit.  Leah is working with Dr. Anna Chalfoun and Dr. Dan Doak and among many interests she is now focusing on how climate change is affecting ecosystems, particularly alpine communities.  For her thesis, she is investigating which habitat and climate attributes influence pika abundance to shed some light on how pikas may respond to climate change particularly in the Central Rocky Mountains.  She is using remotely sensed climate datasets and testing whether they can be good predictors for models at this scale.  

Leah grew up in Vermont and received her B.S. in biology at St. Lawrence University.  Her semester abroad in Kenya motivated her desire to pursue ecology. She then moved west and worked on several different wildlife projects.  Some of the highlights: tracking fisher in the Sierras, monitoring nest survival of tufted puffins, and trapping hoppers in Colorado.  She then made her way to Wyoming and worked as a technician for UW Coop students Janess and Aly, on their master’s work in the Tetons.  She also worked in the Kauffman lab at UW on a project looking at plant phenology and ungulate productivity before starting her own thesis research.

Download Leah's CV

Selected presentations

Yandow, L.H., A.D. Chalfoun, D.F. Doak, “Delineating limiting habitat features as potential climate proxies for the American pika (Ochotona princeps).” Wyoming Chapter of the Wildlife Society Annual Conference, Jackson, WY. December 8, 2011. (Oral presentation)

Yandow, L.H., A.D. Chalfoun, D.F. Doak, “What are the critical habitat and climate elements for the American pika (Ochotona princeps) in the face of climate change.” The Wildlife Society 18^th Annual Conference, Waikoloa, Hawaii. November 8, 2011. (Poster presentation)

 Yandow, L.H., A.D. Chalfoun, D.F. Doak, “Critical habitat and climate elements of the American pika (Ochotona princeps):  A case of potential habitat loss with climate change.” Wyoming Chapter of the Wildlife Society Annual Conference, Lander, WY. November 18, 2010. (Oral presentation)

Yandow, L.H., A.D. Chalfoun, D.F. Doak, “What are the critical habitat and climate elements for the American pika (Ochotona princeps) in the face of climate change?” The Wildlife Society 17th Annual Conference, Snowbird, UT.  October 5, 2010. (Poster presentation)

Yandow, L.H., A.D. Chalfoun, D.F. Doak, “Delineating critical habitat and climate elements for American pikas (Ochotona princeps) in the face of climate change.”  North American Pika Conference, March 26, 2010. (Poster presentation)

Scholarships and Grants Awarded 

Projects

Pika Status in Wyoming Project