Mr. Nielson received a B.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Oregon in 1996, and an M.S. in Statistics from Colorado State University in 2001. Ryan has been a research biometrician and project manager at WEST since 2001.
Mr. Nielson has worked for WEST on the design and analysis of ecological monitoring programs and wildlife population surveys. His experience in designing wildlife/fisheries surveys and long-term monitoring programs includes aerial surveys for moose on the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge and the Alaska Peninsula/Becharof National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska, aerial surveys for golden eagles in the western United States, aerial surveys for polar bears in the Chukchi Sea, long-term monitoring for Dusky Canada Geese and Black Oystercatchers in the Chugach National Forest, AK, and escapement monitoring for Chinook salmon and steelhead in the California Central Valley.
Ryan has become an expert in resource/habitat selection by animals. He has developed models for nest and den site selection, foraging habitat, seasonal home ranges, and migration corridors. Ryan has taught workshops and short courses on analysis of animal movement and habitat selection, including a week-long course for PhD students and researchers at CONICET in Mendoza, Argentina.
Ryan has training and experience in many areas of statistics including sampling design, linear and generalized linear models, mixed models, spatial statistics, bootstrap permutation methods, and distance sampling. Ryan’s current interests in statistics include trend detection, correcting for GPS bias in resource selection studies, Bayesian hierarchical modeling, bootstrapping, and computer simulation. His personal interests include flying, golf, disc golf, hiking and camping with his family.
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