Tom dilts

Tom Dilts

Research Scientist, Landscape Ecology/Spatial Analyst

Summary

I'm a research landscape ecologist with skills in Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, habitat modeling, habitat connectivity modeling, landscape genetics, and a member of the Great Basin Landscape Ecology Lab led by Dr. Peter Weisberg. I also work collaboratively with other faculty members in NRES on a variety of projects. Interests include:

  • Understanding landscape change using remote sensing, field measurements, and historical information such as General Land Office survey notes
  • Understanding habitat connectivity using genetic data or movement data combined with habitat variables using landscape genetics optimization approaches
  • Modeling current and future species distributions using novel climatic, topographic, and vegetation variables such as climatic water deficit and height above river
  • Working with emerging technologies such as LiDAR, UAVs, and hyperspectral imagery
  • Developing GIS scripts to automate repetitive and/or complex tasks

Publications

Fact Sheets

Journals

Impacts of climate change and renewable energy development on habitat of an endemic squirrel Xerospermophilus mohavensis in the Mojave Desert, USA.

2016

Biological Conservation, 200, 112-121

Inman, R., Esque, T., Nussear, K., Matocq, M., Leitner, P., Weisberg, P., Dilts, T.

Multi-scale connectivity and graph theory highlight critical areas for conservation under climate change.

2016

Ecological Applications, 26, 1223-1237

Dilts, T., Weisberg, P., Leitner, P., Matocq, M., Inman, R., Nussear, K., Esque, T.

Fire modulates climate change response of simulated aspen distribution across topoclimatic gradients in a semi-arid montane landscape.

2015

Landscape Ecology, 30(6), 1055 - 1073.

Yang, J., Weisberg, P. J., Shinneman, D. J., Dilts, T., Earnst, S. L., Scheller, R. M. (2015).

Functionally relevant climate variables for arid lands: using climatic water deficit modeling to predict distribution of desert shrub vegetation.

2015

Journal of Biogeography, 42(10), 1986 - 1997.

Dilts, T., Weisberg, P. J., Dencker, C. M., Chambers, J. C.

Predicting wildfire occurrence distribution with spatial point process models and its uncertainty assessment: a case study in the Lake Tahoe Basin, USA.

2015

International Journal of Wildland Fire, 24, 380 - 390.

Yang, J., Weisberg, P. J., Dilts, T., Loudermilk, L., Scheller, R., Stanton, A., Skinner, C.

Guild-specific responses of avian species richness to LiDAR-derived habitat heterogeneity.

2014

Acta Oecologica 59: 72-83.

Weisberg, P.J., Dilts, T.E., Becker, M.E., Ammon, E.M., Young, J.S., Newton, W.E., Wong-Kone, D.C.

Longitudinal- and transverse- scale environmental influences on riparian vegetation across multiple levels of ecological organization.

2011

Landscape Ecology, 26(3): 381-395.

Yang, J., T.E. Dilts, L.A. Condon, P.L. Turner, Weisberg, P.J.

The Landscape Similarity Toolbox: new tools for optimizing the location of control sites in experimental studies.

2010

Ecography

Dilts, T., Yang, J., Weisberg, P. J.

<p> Large-scale manipulative experiments are critically important for linking ecological theory with land management at a relevant spatial scale. Statistically powerful inferential approaches such...

A weights-of-evidence model for mapping the probability of fire occurrence in Lincoln County, Nevada.

2009

Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 99(4), 712-727.

Dilts, T., Sibold, J. S., Biondi, F.

Lay or Popular Publications

Mapping riparian vegetation with LiDAR data: Predicting plant community distribution using height above river and flood height.

2010

Redlands, California: ArcUser

Dilts, T., Yang, J., Weisberg, P. J.