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📊 new preprint! 📊
"Mapping small-scale ephemeral surface water to inform transfrontier conservation planning in southern Africa"
Swift, M.E.*, A. Songhurst, G. McCulloch, P. Beytell, R. Naidoo
[ read more ] [ preprint link ] [ interactive StoryMap ]

Research goals

  • I explore the relationships between animal movement, climate change, and human activity using remote sensing, GPS telemetry, computer simulation, bioacoustics, and Bayesian statistics.
  • ​I apply these computational tools in areas with high human-wildlife conflict, balancing the needs of people, wildlife, and livestock for One Health aims.

Guiding questions

  • How will climate change-driven aridification shift the balance of needs for large mammals? 
  • How will increasing human activity (fencing, urbanization, agriculture) affect the conservation and persistence of wild populations and communities? 
  • How will these changes influence animal behavior and the incidence of human-wildlife conflict?

research projects

Elephants and veterinary fences

As part of the Beyond Fences Initiative, this project uses advanced computer modeling, drawing on existing datasets from radio-collared animals, to investigate how elephants and other mammals currently move about southern Africa's KAZA TFCA. 
​
Click here to learn more.

Water for elephants

African elephants depend on seasonal pools of water for drinking, cooling off, and accessing good food. These small, rain-fed water resources are critically vulnerable to climate change, but current maps almost entirely omit them. Let's change that.

Click here to learn more.


​Publications

If you don't have access to any of these journals, please don't hesitate to email me for a PDF copy.
​ORCID: ​0000-0001-7913-1879

IN Review

  1. Swift, M.E.*, A. Songhurst, G. McCulloch, P. Beytell, R. Naidoo. "Mapping small-scale ephemeral surface water to inform transfrontier conservation planning in southern Africa." Submitted to: Ecosphere, May 2026. bioRxiv DOI: 10.64898/2026.04.03.715600 
    [ interactive StoryMap ] [ data ]

2024

  1. Journé, V., M. Bogdzeiwicz, ... M. Swift ..., J.S.Clark. "The Relationship Between Maturation Size and Maximum Tree Size From Tropical to Boreal Climates." Ecology Letters 27: e14500. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14500

2023

  1. Qiu, T., Aravena, M., ... M. Swift ..., J.S.Clark. "Masting is uncommon in trees that depend on mutualist dispersers in the context of global climate and fertility gradients." Nature Plants 9(7): 1044-1056. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01446-5

2022

  1. Schaffer-Smith, D.S., M. Swift, A. Killea, A. Brennan, R. Naidoo, J.J. Swenson. "Tracking a blue wave of ephemeral water across arid southern Africa." Environmental Research Letters 17 114063​. 2022. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac98d9
    [hydroshare database]
  2. Collins, C., S. Elmendorf, J.G. Smith, L. Shoemaker, M. Szojka, M. Swift, and K. Suding. "Global change re-structures alpine plant communities though interacting abiotic and biotic effects." Ecology Letters  25(8) 1813-1826. 2022. DOI: 10.1111/ele.14060
  3. Journé, V., R. Andrus, ... M. Swift ..., J.S. Clark.  Globally, tree fecundity exceeds productivity gradients. Ecol Lett 25(6). 2022. DOI: 10.1111/ele.14012
  4. Qiu, T., R. Andrus, ... M. Swift ..., J.S. Clark.  Limits to reproduction and seed size-number trade-offs that shape forest dominance and future recovery. Nat Comms 13, 2381 (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30037-9
  5. ​Sharma, S., R. Andrus, ... M. Swift ..., J.S. Clark.  North American tree migration paced by climate in the West, lagging in the East. PNAS 119(3) e2116691118. 2022. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2116691118


​2021

  1. ​Clark, J.S., R. Andrus, ... M. Swift ..., R. Zlotin. Continent-wide tree fecundity driven by indirect climate effects. Nat Comms 12, 1242. 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20836-3
  2. Qiu, T., M-C. Aravena, ... M. Swift ..., J.S. Clark.  Is there tree senescence? The fecundity evidence. PNAS 118(34) e2106130118. 2021. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2106130118


​2020

  1. Clark, J. S., C. L. Scher, and M. Swift. "The emergent interactions that govern biodiversity change." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117(29) 17074-17083. 2020. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2003852117