Nancy E. McIntyre

Research Interests

My research program is centrally grounded in landscape ecology, a field that examines how patterns of heterogeneity in the physical environment affect ecological processes. My interests focus on how human activities affect the abundance, distribution, and extinction risk of animals by altering the spatial distribution of resources in heterogeneous and dynamic landscapes.

Of all the human activities that affect animals, landscape change stemming from land conversion (primarily for agriculture and urbanization) is the most intensive and cosmopolitan and is the overarching theme that links the research projects being conducted in my lab. I have worked on various aspects of land conversion for over 25 years, being interested in where animals occur, particularly after their habitats change. My main research activities examine how land conversion disrupts landscape connectivity, which affects animal movement and, thus, habitat selection. 

With both applied and basic research projects going on in my lab that dovetail with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education and museum science, our activities mesh research with teaching and outreach.

Recent Publications (Past Five Years)

• de la Sancha, N.U., S.A. Boyle, and N.E. McIntyre. 2021. Using graph theory on the highly fragmented Atlantic Forest of eastern Paraguay to identify structural connectivity.Scientific Reports 11:16129.
• de la Sancha, N.U., S.A. Boyle, N.E. McIntyre, D.M. Brooks, A. Yanosky, E. Cuellar Soto, F. Mereles, M. Camino, and R.D. Stevens. 2021. The disappearing Dry Chaco, one of the last dry forest systems on Earth. Landscape Ecology.
• Heintzman, L.J., and N.E. McIntyre. 2021. Assessment of playa wetland network connectivity for amphibians of the south-central Great Plains (USA) using Euclidean, least-cost path, and landscape resistance modelling. Landscape Ecology 36:1117-1135.
• Husband, D.M., and N.E. McIntyre. 2021. Urban areas create refugia for odonates in a semi-arid region. Insects 12:431.
• Heintzman, L.J., E.S. Auerbach, D.H. Kilborn, S.M. Starr, K.R. Mulligan, L.S. Barbato, and N.E. McIntyre. 2020. Identifying areas of wetland and wind turbine overlap in the south-central Great Plains of North America. Landscape Ecology 35:1995-2011.
• Longing, S.D., E.M. Peterson, C.T. Jewett, B.M. Rendon, S.A. Discua, K.J. Wooten, S. Subbiah, P.N. Smith, and N.E. McIntyre. 2020. Exposure of foraging wild bees to neonicotinoids in the U.S. Southern High Plains. Environmental Entomology 49:528-535.
• Starr, S.M., and N.E. McIntyre. 2020. Land-cover changes and influences on playa wetland inundation on the Southern High Plains. Journal of Arid Environments 175:104096.
• Starr, S.M., and N.E. McIntyre. 2020. Effects of water temperature under projected climate change on the development and survival of the Familiar Bluet Damselfly (Enallagma civile). Environmental Entomology 49:230-237. 

  · Featured in Entomology Today, 10 January 2020

• Auerbach, E.S., W.P. Johnson, J.R. Smith, and N.E. McIntyre. 2019. Wildlife refuges support high bee diversity on the Southern Great Plains. Environmental Entomology 49:968-976.
• Gary, D., K. Mougey, N.E. McIntyre, and K. Griffis-Kyle. 2019. Identification of hotspots of at-risk terrestrial vertebrate species in the south-central Great Plains of North America. Journal for Nature Conservation 50:125684.
• Heintzman, L.J., and N.E. McIntyre. 2019. Quantifying the effects of projected urban growth on connectivity among wetlands in the Great Plains (USA). Landscape and Urban Planning 186:1-12.
• Johnson, C.A., and N.E. McIntyre. 2019. Effects of cropland encroachment on prairie pothole wetlands: Numbers, density, size, shape, and structural connectivity. Landscape Ecology 34:827-841.
• McIntyre, N.E., G. Liu, J. Gorzo, C.K. Wright, G.R. Guntenspergen, and F. Schwartz. 2019. Simulating the effects of climate variability on waterbodies and wetland-dependent birds in the Prairie Pothole Region. Ecosphere 10(4):e02711.
• McIntyre, N.E., S.D. Collins, L.J. Heintzman, S.M. Starr, and N. van Gestel. 2018. The challenge of assaying landscape connectivity in a changing world: A 27-year case study in the southern Great Plains (USA) playa network. Ecological Indicators 91:607-616. 
• Collins, S.D., J.C. Abbott, and N.E. McIntyre. 2017. Quantifying the degree of bias from using county-scale data in species distribution modeling: Can increasing sample size or using county-averaged environmental data reduce distributional overprediction? Ecology and Evolution 7(15):6012-6022.
• Collins, S.D., and N.E. McIntyre. 2017. Extreme loss of diversity of riverine dragonflies in the northeastern U.S. is predicted in the face of climate change. Bulletin of American Odonatology 12(2):7-19.
• Drake, J.C., K.L. Griffis-Kyle, and N.E. McIntyre. 2017. Graph theory as an invasive species management tool: case study in the Sonoran Desert. Landscape Ecology 32(8):1739-1752.
• Drake, J.C., K. Griffis-Kyle, and N.E. McIntyre. 2017. Using nested connectivity models to resolve management conflicts of isolated water networks in the Sonoran Desert. Ecosphere 8(1):e01652.
• Heintzman, L.J., S.M. Starr, K.R. Mulligan, L.R. Barbato, and N.E. McIntyre. 2017. Using satellite imagery to examine the relationship between surface-water dynamics of the salt lakes of western Texas and Ogallala Aquifer depletion. Wetlands 37:1055-1065.
• Liu, G., F.W. Schwartz, C.K. Wright, and N.E. McIntyre. 2016. Characterizing the climate-driven collapses and expansions of wetland habitats with a fully integrated surface-subsurface hydrologic model. Wetlands 36 (Suppl 2):287.
• McIntyre, N.E., J.C. Drake, and K.L. Griffis-Kyle. 2016. A connectivity and wildlife management conflict in isolated desert waters. Journal of Wildlife Management 80:655-666.
• Ray, J.D., N.E. McIntyre, M.C. Wallace, A.P. Teaschner, and M.G. Schoenhals. 2016. Factors influencing Burrowing Owl productivity in prairie dog colonies in the Southern High Plains of Texas. Journal of Raptor Research 50:185-193. 
• Starr, S.M., L.J. Heintzman, K.R. Mulligan, L.S. Barbato, and N.E. McIntyre. 2016. Using remotely sensed imagery to document how land use drives turbidity of playa waters in Texas. Remote Sensing 8:192.

Complete list of publications.