Katriona Shea



Research Interests:
	My primary research interest is in the use of ecological theory, particularly life history-based models, in population management. I address issues in conservation, harvesting, and the control of invasive species. An in-depth ecological understanding is essential for successful management, and this research focus allows me to ask important ecological questions for species of special concern. For example, I address the ecological factors that make certain species successful invaders of specific communities, at the same time as examining the ways in which we can manipulate these factors to achieve management goals. My research focuses on population management in a variety of ways, including quantitative theoretical studies of real systems, purely theoretical studies that inform practical approaches, and empirical work.

Education:
	B.A. (Hons.) in Physics at New College, Oxford, UK (1990). Ph.D. in Theoretical Population Ecology at Imperial College, University of London, UK (1994). Postdoctoral Researcher on the factors affecting host-parasitoid population dynamics and stability at UC Santa Barbara (1994-96). Postdoctoral Fellow, Cooperative Research Centre for Weed Management, CSIRO, Australia, modeling the ecology and integrated management of invasive weeds (1996-99). Invited School Visitor at the Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra (1997-98). Postdoctoral Researcher UC Santa Cruz, working on conservation strategies for endangered salmonids (1999-2000).


Selected Publications:
	Shea, K. (2007) How the Wood Moves. Science 315: 1231-1232. Skarpaas, O. and Shea, K. (2007) Dispersal patterns, dispersal mechanisms and invasion wave speeds for Carduus thistles. American Naturalist 170(3): 421-430. Skarpaas, O., Auhl, R. and Shea, K. (2006) Environmental variability and the initiation of dispersal: turbulence strongly increases seed release. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 273 (1587): 751-756. Shea, K., Kelly, D., Sheppard, A. W. and Woodburn, T. L. (2005) Context-dependent biological control of an invasive thistle. Ecology 86: 3174-3181. Shea, K and Chesson, P. (2002) Community ecology theory as a framework for biological invasions. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 17(4): 170-176. Full publication list Please feel free to email me if you would like a copy of any of these papers.

I am in the Department of Biology but am also a faculty member of the IDGP in Ecology. For more information about the Ecology Program see http://ecology.psu.edu/program/program.htm The Shea Lab Invasive thistles People
Interested in joining my lab? Letter to prospective graduate students Undergraduate research opportunities Freshmen: there are research opportunities in my lab through the WISER and MURE programs Classes Class: Ecological and Environmental Problem Solving Professional links Collaborators Computing I am a partner in the HPC, particularly involved with the Lion-XE LINUX computing cluster High Performance Computing Group (HPC) in the Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET)
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	Katriona Shea Associate Professor Theoretical Applied Ecology
	Office: 415A Mueller Lab
	Phone: +1 814-865-7910
	Email: k-shea@psu.edu
	Lab: 415 Mueller Lab Phone: +1 814 865-7912 Department web page