Skip To Main Content
Cal Poly Pomona Experts Guide

BROWSE EXPERTS

by name, by topic, or by college/division

TRENDING TOPICS:

Rachel Blakey, Assistant Professor of Global Change Biology
Download Hi-Res Photo

Rachel V. Blakey

Assistant Professor of Global Change Biology, Biological Sciences
College of Science

Expertise:

Animal Ecology, Urban Mountain Lions, Bats, Landscape Ecology, Fire Ecology, Movement Ecology, Urban Ecology, Applied Conservation and Management, Carnivores, Disturbance Ecology, Agroecosystems

Ecologist Rachel Blakey researches how global change drivers, like fire, urbanization and agriculture, influence vertebrate animal behavior. She uses this knowledge to work with natural resource partners to improve the way we conserve and coexist with wildlife. She has worked on several global collaborations investigating the impact of fire, drought, and climate change on bat communities, as well as the impacts of human disturbance (particularly urbanization and human recreation) on mammals.

 

In Southern California, she has been investigating how mountain lions change their behavior in response to the dual pressures of fire and human disturbance, and collaborates with other faculty in the Biological Sciences (and her Masters students) to better understand the role of bats and bobcats as ecosystem service providers in urban agroecosystems.

 

Blakey is committed to science outreach and providing opportunities to interact with the natural world to underserved communities. She is a co-organizer of LA Bat Roost Monitoring, a program of the Natural History Museum of LA County that encourages community scientists to collect data on bat roosting activity in the county, adding to a long-term study of bat population trends in Los Angeles and nationwide. She has also developed the Cal Poly Pomona Fall Bat Week program, an annual event that empowers students to learn about bat ecology through experiential learning, research techniques and community outreach.

 

Recent Grants and Fellowships:

  • Co-investigator, Agricultural Research Institute Integrated Pest Management Grant Application (ARI-IPM), “Incorporating native vegetation into a landscape-scale Integrated Pest Management program in Ventura County,” $543,193 (2022)
  • Co-PI with Dr. Eeman At-Taras and Janel Ortiz, Cal Poly Pomona Special Projects for Improving the Classroom Experience (SPICE) Grant, “Anti-racist teaching in STEM & Increasing Diverse Representation in our Classrooms,” $25,000 (2023)
  • Cal Poly Pomona SPICE grant, “Empowering students in outreach and community science through campus bat boxes,” $8,979 (2023)
  • National Parks Foundation, “Wildfire resilience in urban carnivores,” $75,000 (2021)

Selected Publications:

  • With Z.L. Steel, J.E.D.. Miller, L.C. Ponisio, M.W. Tingley, K. Wilkin, K.M. Hoffman, and G. Jones, “A roadmap for pyrodiversity science,” Journal of Biogeography 51(2):280-293, 2024
  • With A.C. Doty and R. Crawford, “Bat roosting strategies and torpor expression in a wildfire-affected landscape during summer,” Fire Ecology 19(9): 39, 2023
  • Russo, A, Davies, E. Ordway, and T. Smith, “Feedback loops between 3D vegetation structure and ecological function of animals” Ecology Letters 26:1597-1613, 2023
  • With J.A. Sikich, D.T. Blumstein, and S.P.D. Riley, “Increase in risk-taking behavior by a large carnivore after wildfire,” Current Biology 32(21): 4762-4768, 2022
  • With J. Stoklosa and F.K.C. Hui, “An Overview of Modern Applications of Negative Binomial Modelling in Ecology,” Diversity 14(5): 320 (2022)
  • With B.C. McLaughlin, S.A. Skikne, E. Beller, E.S. Zavaleta, R.L. Olliff-Yang, N. Morueta-Holme, N.E. Heller, and B.J. Brown, “Conservation strategies to face the climate crisis: A synthesis of three decades of biodiversity management recommendations from science,” Biological Conservation 268: 109497 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109497.
  • With S.C. Loeb, “Bats and fire: a global review,” Fire Ecology, special issue: “Wildfire and Prescribed Fire Effects on Wildlife” (G. Jones, B. Hanberry, K. Greenberg, and A. White, eds.) 17:29 (2021)
  • E. Snedden, S.K. Makani, S.T. Schwartz, A. Gamble, B. Borremans, S.K. Helman, L. Espericueta, A. Valencia, A. Endo, M.E. Alfaro, and J.O. Lloyd-Smith, “SARS-CoV-2: Cross-scale insights from ecology and evolution,” Trends in Microbiology 29(7): 593:605 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2021.03.013.
  • With M. Piccioli Cappelli, D. Taylor, J. Flanders, T. Badeen, W.F. Frick, and H. Rebelo, “Limited refugia and high velocity range-shifts predicted for bat communities in drought-risk areas of the Northern Hemisphere,” Global Ecology and Conservation 28: e01608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01608 (2021)
  • With E.B. Webb, D.C. Kesler, R.B. Siegel, D. Corcoran, J.S. Cole, and J.M. Johnson, “Extent, configuration and diversity of burned and forested areas predict bat richness in a fire-maintained forest,” Landscape Ecology. 36: 1101-1115 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01204-y.
  • With B.S. Law, “Bats in Temperate Forests: Where are the Trends in Bat Populations?” In 50 Years of Bat Research: Foundations and New Frontiers (pp. 93-104) (B. Lim, B. Fenton, M. Brigham, S. Mistry, A. Kurta, E. Gillam, A. Russell, and J. Ortega; eds; Springer, Cham.; 2021)
  • With K. Uchida, J.R. Burger., D.S. Cooper, C.A. Niesner, and D.T. Blumstein, “Opinion: Urban Biodiversity and the Importance of Scale,” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 36(2), 123-131 (2020)

Interviews:

Education:

B.S., Zoology; B.S. Earth Science, Monarch University
B.S. (Honors I), University of Queensland
Ph.D., Ecology, University of New South Wales

Languages:

English, conversational French

Back to top