About Brad's Work
Brad Timm is a postdoctoral research ecologist in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His research interests are focused on gaining an improved understanding of species-environment relationships and movement ecology of wildlife species in order to devise more effective conservation and management strategies for these organisms. For his doctoral research, Brad investigated the ecology and conservation of the Eastern spadefoot toad (Scaphiopus h. holbrookii), a species listed as 'Threatened' in Massachusetts, at Cape Cod National Seashore. Specifically, he assessed breeding habitat preferences of the Eastern spadefoot toad using results from extensive larval trapping surveys and assessed the post-breeding movement ecology of adults (including distances emigrated from breeding wetlands, upland habitat preferences, and nocturnal activity patterns) using radio-telemetry techniques. Results from this research will provide the U.S. National Park Service at Cape Cod National Seashore with the information necessary to effectively manage for the long-term persistence of populations of this regionally rare species at the Park. Prior to his doctoral work, Brad earned his master’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst examining the emigration timing and orientation of juvenile pond-breeding amphibians in western Massachusetts, and as an undergraduate at the University of Rhode Island worked on a number of research projects, the majority of which focused on the ecology of pond-breeding amphibians.
