THOMAS E. LACHER, JR.

Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843

979-255-6131; tlacher@tamu.edu

EDUCATION

University of Pittsburgh                   Biological Sciences                                          B.S.: 1972

University of Pittsburgh                   Ecology, Evolution and Systematics              Ph.D.: 1980,

APPOINTMENTS

July 2021 – present            Professor Emeritus, Texas A&M University

May 2011 – June 2021      Professor, Texas A&M University

Mar 2007 – Apr 2011        Professor and Department Head, Texas A&M University

Aug 2002-Mar 2007          Senior Vice-President, Conservation International.

Aug 1996 – Aug 2002       Professor and Caesar Kleberg Chair in Wildlife Ecology, Texas A&M University

Sep 1989 – Aug 1996        Director, Archbold Tropical Research Center, Clemson University

Sep 1981 – Sep 1989         Assistant/Associate Professor, Western Washington University

Mar 1979 – Mar 1981        Assistant Professor, Universidade de Brasilia

OTHER RELEVANT PROFESIONAL ACTIVITIES

2015-present. Associate Conservation Scientist, Re:wild, Austin, TX, 2015 – present.

Visiting Professor, Doctoral Program in Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais” Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brasil (2014).

Visiting Professor, Participant in the project “Morcegos em Fragmentos Florestais do Alto Rio Paraná, Sul do Brasil,” Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brasil (2013).

Co-chair of the Species Survival Commission/ Small Mammal Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), member since 2011, appointed co-chair 2012.

Member and representative for Texas A&M University on the IUCN Red List Partnership and the IUCN Red List Committee, Gland, Switzerland, (2010-2022).

Member of the IUCN Climate Change Specialist Group (2017 – present).

PI, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. “Applied Biodiversity Sciences Conservation Scholars Program: Integrating Energy Development and Policy with the Conservation of Resources and Communities.” $875,000 2014 – 2019.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Books

Savitsky, B.G. and T.E. Lacher, Jr. (eds.). 1998. GIS Methodologies for Developing Conservation Strategies: Tropical Forest Recovery and Wildlife Management in Costa Rica.  Columbia University Press, New York.

Kendall, R.J., T.E. Lacher, Jr., G.P. Cobb, and S.B. Cox (eds). 2010. Wildlife Toxicology: Emerging Contaminant and Biodiversity Issues. Taylor and Francis, Boca Raton, i-xviii + 321 pp.

Wilson, D.E., T.E. Lacher, Jr and R.A. Mittermeier (eds). 2016. Handbook of Mammals of the World. Vol. 6. Lagomorphs and Rodents 1. Lynx Editions, Barcelona, Spain, 987 pp.

Wilson, D.E., T.E. Lacher, Jr and R.A. Mittermeier (eds). (2017). Handbook of Mammals of the World. Vol. 7. Rodents II. Lynx Editions, Barcelona, Spain, 1,008 pp.

Lacher, T.E., Jr. and S. Pyare (Editors). 2018. Biodiversity, Vol 3, The Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene (D.A. DellaSala and M.I. Goldstein, Editors-in-Chief, Elsevier, Oxford, UK), 476 pp.

McCarl, B.A., A.W. Thayer, T.E. Lacher, Jr. and A.M. Vargas. 2020. Climate Change in Complex Ecosystems; Effects, Adaptations, and Policy Considerations of Agriculture and Ecosystems. MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Relevant Recent Papers

Schipper, J. J. Chanson, F. Chiozza, N. Cox, M. Hoffmann, V. Katariya, J. Lamoreux, A. Rodrigues, S.N. Stuart, H.J. Temple, J. Baillie, L. Boitani, T.E. Lacher, Jr., et al.. 2008. The status of the world’s land and marine mammals: diversity, threat, and knowledge. Science 322:225-230.

Castro-Arellano, I. and T.E. Lacher, Jr. 2009. Segregation by temporal niche in high and low richness rodent assemblages of subtropical Mexico. Journal of Tropical Ecology 25:593-603.

Lamoreux, J.F. and T.E. Lacher, Jr. 2010. Mammalian endemism, range size and conservation status in the southern temperate zones. Diversity and Distributions 16:922-931.

Hoffmann, M. et al. (Multiple authors from the Global Assessment Teams incl. T.E. Lacher, Jr.). 2010. The impact and shortfall of conservation on the status of the world’s vertebrates. Science 330:1503-1509.

Lacher, T.E., Jr., L. Boitani, and G.A.B. da Fonseca. 2012. The IUCN Global Assessments: Partnerships, collaboration and data sharing for biodiversity science and policy. Conservation Letters 5:327-333.

Lacher, Jr., T.E., W. Murphy, J. Rogan, A.T. Smith, and N. Upham. 2016. Evolution, phylogeny, ecology and conservation of the Clade Glires: Lagomorpha and Rodentia. Pp. 15-27, In: Handbook of Mammals of the World. Vol. 6. Lagomorphs and Rodents 1. D.E. Wilson, T.E. Lacher, Jr and R.A. Mittermeier (eds). Lynx Editions, Barcelona, Spain.

Lacher,T.E., Jr., R.P.Young, R. Kennerley, N.S. Roach, S. McCay, and S.T. Turvey. 2017. Conserving the biodiversity of the largest Order of Mammals: Priorities and actions for the Rodentia. Pp. 15 – 22, In: Handbook of Mammals of the World. Vol. 7. Rodents2. D.E. Wilson, T.E. Lacher, Jr and R.A. Mittermeier (eds). Lynx Editions, Barcelona, Spain.

Lacher, T.E., Jr. and N. Roach. 2017. The status of biodiversity in the Anthropocene: trends, threats, and actions. In: Lacher, T.E., Jr. and S. Pyare (Editors). Vol 3 (Biodiversity), of Vols 1 - 5 in the Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene (D.A. DellaSala and M.I. Goldstein, Editors-in-Chief). Elsevier, Oxford, UK.

Gomez-Ruiz, E.P. and T.E. Lacher, Jr. 2017. Modeling the potential geographic distribution of an endangered pollination corridor in Mexico and the United States. Diversity and Distributions 23:67-78. DOI: 10.1111/ddi.12499

Wood, M.A. R. Sheridan, R.A. Feagin and T.E. Lacher, Jr. 2017. Assessment of payments for ecosystem services to enhance forest protection in a biological corridor in Costa Rica. Land Use Policy 63:440-449.

Neam, K. and T.E. Lacher, Jr. 2018. Multi-scale effects of habitat structure and landscape context on a vertebrate with limited dispersal ability (the brown-throated sloth, Bradypus variegatus). Biotropica 50:684-693

Rogan, J.E. and T.E. Lacher, Jr. 2018. Impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation on terrestrial biodiversity. Pp. 1-18, In: Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences (S.A. Elias, Editor-in-Chief). Elsevier, Oxford, UK. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.10913-3

Lacher, T.E., Jr., A. Davidson, T. Fleming, E.P. Gomez-Ruiz, G. McCracken, N. Owen-Smith, C. Peres, and S. Vander Wall. 2019. The functional role of mammals in ecosystems. Journal of Mammalogy 100:942-964. DOI:10.1093/jmammal/gyy183.

Gomez-Ruiz, E.P. and T.E. Lacher, Jr. 2019. Climate change, range shifts, and the disruption of a pollinator-plant complex. Nature Scientific Reports 9:14048.

Mair, L, L.A. Bennun, T.M. Brooks, S.H.M. Butchart…T.E. Lacher, Jr., et al. 2021. A species metric for setting science-based targets. Nature Ecology and Evolution 5:836-844. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01432-0.

Kennerley, R.J., T.E. Lacher, Jr., M.A. Hudson, B. Long, S. McCay, N. Roach, S.T. Turvey and Young, R. 2021. Global patterns of extinction risk and conservation needs for Rodentia and Eulipotyphla. Diversity and Distributions 27:1792-1806. DOI: 10.1111/ddi.13368.

Lacher, Jr., T.E., D. Mallon, R. Kennerley, C. Relton, and R. Young. 2022. Tools and metrics for species prioritization for conservation planning and action: case studies for antelopes and small mammals. Diversity 14, 704.

RESEARCH EMPHASIS

I have worked on the ecology, behaviour, biogeography and conservation of vertebrates with an emphasis on mammals since 1972, with significant international experience as well. I have developed several large, integrated projects in conservation and tropical biology, one, a multi-year project on sustainable management in the buffer zone of the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve in Costa Rica and Panama. I conducted one of the first country-wide assessments of deforestation and land-use change in Costa Rica, cited above (Savitsky and Lacher, 1998), and related this to conservation prioritization in Costa Rica. I also founded the Tropical Ecology, Assessment and Monitoring Initiative at Conservation International in 2002. This project monitors trends in biodiversity at field stations throughout the tropics.