Richard Pearson is a scientist at the American Museum of Natural History, where he is associated with both the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation and the Department of Herpetology. Richard completed his Ph.D. at the University of Oxford in 2004 and joined the AMNH in 2005. Richard’s research seeks to explain the distribution of species at large spatial scales, from landscape to continental, and to understand the processes by which distributions change over time. His research falls largely within the field of biogeography, and he is interested in questions that are central to the study of evolution and conservation. Key questions addressed include:

• How do species’ distributions respond to climate change?
• Can we accelerate the discovery of unknown species?
• Is there a dominant geographic mode of speciation?

While Richard’s research is principally question-driven, he also develops and tests novel tools of analysis, including models for estimating species’ ecological niches and geographic distributions. These models make use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and data from a variety of sources, including natural history museum collections, recent field surveys, and remote sensing. Since Richard’s interests are primarily in understanding general ecological and evolutionary principles, his research is not confined to a particular type of organism, habitat or region. To date, he has studied amphibians, reptiles, birds, plants, and primates in Europe, South Africa, and Madagascar.

Richard organizes and teaches a course on species distribution modeling at the museum’s Southwestern Research Station (click here to visit the course website) and has developed an online guide to the topic (click here to visit the online guide). Richard also organizes a discussion group for researchers and students in the New York region who are interested in distribution modeling (click here for more information). Richard is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Biogeography. To contact Richard, email: pearson@amnh.org.

Representative Publications

Pearson, R.G. and Raxworthy, C.J. The evolution of local endemism in Madagascar: watershed vs. climatic gradient hypotheses evaluated by null biogeographic models. Evolution, in press.

Raxworthy, C.J., Pearson, R.G., Zimkus, B., Reddy, S.B, Deo, A., Nussbaum, R.A. and Ingram, C. 2008. Continental speciation in Madagascar: contrasting biogeographic patterns of divergence in the Uroplatus leaf-tailed geckos species radiation. Journal of Zoology, 275, 423-440. [web link]

Keith, D., Akçakaya, R., Thuiller, W., Midgley, G., Pearson, R.G., Phillips, S.J., Regan, H, Araújo, M.B., Rebelo, A.G. 2008. Predicting extinction risks under climate change: coupling stochastic population models with dynamic bioclimatic habitat models. Biology Letters, 4, 560-563. [web link]

L. Hannah., Araujo, M.B., Midgley, G., Andelman, S., Martinez-Meyer, E., Pearson, R.G., Williams, P., Lovejoy, T.E. 2008. Terrestrial Biodiversity. Pp. 189-216 in R.A. Mittermeier et al. (eds.) A Climate for Life. CEMEX Conservation Book Series, ILCP, Arlington, VA.

Raxworthy, C.J., Pearson, R.G., Rabibisoa, N., Rakotondrazafy, A.M., Ramanamanjato, J., Raselimanana, A.P., Wu, S., Nussbaum, R.A., and Stone, D. 2008. Extinction vulnerability of tropical montane endemism from warming and upslope displacement: a preliminary appraisal for the highest massif in Madagascar. Global Change Biology, 14, 1-18. [web link]

Heikkinen, R.K., Luoto, M., Virkkala, R., Pearson, R.G. and Körber, J-H. 2007. Biotic interactions improve prediction of boreal bird distributions at macro-scales. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 16, 754-763. [web link]

Raxworthy, C.J., Ingram, C., Rabibisoa, N. and Pearson, R.G. 2007. Applications of ecological niche modelling for species delimitation: a review and empirical evaluation using Day Geckos (Phelsuma) from Madagascar. Systematic Biology, 56, 907-923. [web link]

Pearson, R.G. 2007. Science, religion, and climate change: a marriage of convenience? Science, E-letter (July 12 2007) [web link]

Hannah, L., Midgley, G., Andelman, S., Araujo, M.B., Hughes, G., Martinez-Meyer, E., Pearson, R.G., Williams, P. 2007. Protected area needs in a changing climate. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 5, 131-138. [web link]

Pearson, R.G., Raxworthy, C.J., Nakamura, M. & Peterson, A.T. 2007. Predicting species’ distributions from small numbers of occurrence records: a test case using cryptic geckos in Madagascar. Journal of Biogeography, 34, 102-117. [web link] [Supplementary software for p-value computation]

Pearson, R.G., Thuiller, W., Araújo, M.B., Brotons, L., Martinez-Meyer, E., McClean, C., Miles, L., Segurado, P., Dawson, T.P., Lees, D. 2006. Model-based uncertainty in species’ range prediction. Journal of Biogeography, 33, 1704-1711. [web link]

Pearson, R.G. 2006. Climate change and the migration capacity of species. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 21(3), 111-113. [web link]

Araújo, M.B., Thuiller, W., Pearson, R.G. 2006. Climate warming and the decline of amphibians and reptiles in Europe. Journal of Biogeography, 33, 1712-1728. [web link]

Del Barrio, G., Harrison, P.A., Berry, P.M., Butt, N., Sanjuan, M., Pearson, R.G. & Dawson, T.P. 2006. Integrating multiple modelling approaches to predict the potential impacts of climate change on species’ distributions in contrasting regions: comparison and implications for policy. Environmental Science and Policy, 9, 129-147. [web link]

Pearson, R.G. 2005. A strongly held, but wrong conviction. Science 309, 1814. (brief letter regarding the teaching of evolution in schools) [web link]

Liu, C., Berry P.M., Dawson T. P. Pearson, R.G. 2005. Selecting thresholds of occurrence in the prediction of species distributions. Ecography, 28, 385-393. [PDF]

Pearson, R.G. & Dawson, T.P. 2005. Long-distance plant dispersal and habitat fragmentation: identifying conservation targets for spatial landscape planning under climate change. Biological Conservation, 123, 389-401. [web link]

Araújo, M.B., Pearson, R.G., Thuiller, W., Erhard, M. 2005. Validation of species-climate impact models under climate change. Global Change Biology, 11(9), 1504-1513. [web link]

Araújo, M.B., Pearson, R.G. 2005. Equilibrium of species’ distributions with climate. Ecography, 28, 693-695. [PDF]

Williams, P.H., Hannah, L., Andelman, S.J, Midgley, G.F., Araújo, M.B., Hughes, G., Manne, L.L., Martinez-Meyer, E., Pearson, R.G. 2005. Planning for climate change: identifying minimum-dispersal corridors for the Cape Proteaceae. Conservation Biology, 19(4), 1063-1074. [PDF]

Pearson, R.G. and Dawson, T.P. 2004. Bioclimate envelope models: what they detect and what they hide – response to Hampe (2004). Global Ecology and Biogeography, 13, 471-473. [web link]

Thuiller, W., Araújo, M.B., Pearson, R.G., Whittaker, R.J., Brotons, L., Lavorel, S. 2004. Extinction risk from climate change: the need to account for predictive uncertainty. Nature, 430, 33 (doi: 10.1038/Nature02716). [PDF]

Pearson, R.G., Dawson T.P., Liu, C. 2004. Modelling species distributions in Britain: a hierarchical integration of climate and land-cover data. Ecography, 27, 285-298. [PDF]

Pearson, R.G. and Dawson, T.P. 2003. Predicting the impacts of climate change on the distribution of species: are bioclimate envelope models useful? Global Ecology and Biogeography, 12, 361-371. [web link]

Berry, P. M., Dawson, T.P., Harrison, P.A. and Pearson, R.G. 2002. Modelling potential impacts of climate change on the bioclimatic envelope of species in Britain and Ireland. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 11(6), 453-462. [web link]

Pearson, R.G., Dawson, T.P., Berry, P.M. and Harrison, P.A. 2002. SPECIES: a Spatial Evaluation of Climate Impact on the Envelope of Species. Ecological Modelling, 154 (3), 289-300. [web link]