Gerald ‘Jerry’ Niemi has been a full professor in the Department of Biology since 1993. He is also Director of the Center for Water and the Environment at the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI), a part of the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He has actively worked with graduate students and also holds appointments in the Conservation Biology and Chemical Toxicology graduate programs at the University of Minnesota. In the department he periodically teaches Ornithology, Conservation Biology, and Special Topics classes.

Research:

Besides administrative duties at NRRI, Jerry has maintained an active research program focusing on natural resource development issues, environmental indicators of disturbance and ecological condition, and issues affecting biological diversity of the Great Lakes region. Four of his current projects are focused on 1) the biodiversity of Minnesota’s forest bird communities (www.nrri.umn.edu/mnbirds), 2) environmental indicators of the US Great Lakes coastal region (glei.nrri.umn.edu), 3) prediction of bird species occurrence in the western Great Lakes region (www.uwgb.edu/birds/greatlakes), and 4) the ecology of the Canada lynx.

Recent Publications:

See www.nrri.umn.edu/cwe/staff/gniemipubs.htm

Teaches:

• BIOL 5865 Conservation Biology
• BIOL 4763 Ornithology

Current Graduate Student Projects:

• Chris Burdett Tentative title: Comparison of predation rates of artificial nests in fragmented and contiguous forested habitats - completion 2004
• Anna Peterson Tentative title: Using a Rapid Quality Assessment Method to assess wetlands of the Great Lakes basin: focusing on avian distribution - completion 2004

Completed Master of Science Theses - University of Minnesota

• David Grandmaison 2003, Local and Landscape Influence on Nest Predation in Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands.

• Lisa Belmonte 2002, Foraging habitat selection and hunting behavior of boreal owls.
• Christie Miller 2002, Landscape characteristics affecting forest bird communities of urbanized Lake Superior reaches
• Anne Lacy 2001, Predicting bird species distributions in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin forests.
• Brady Mattsson 2001, Relationship between multi-scale habitat features and breeding biology of ground nesting birds.
• Jean Mengelkoch 2000, Diet of the nestling tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) as related to insect diversity and abundance.

Recent UROP student projects:

• "Comparison of Migrating Raptor Numbers Between Hawk Ridge and Lake Superior Shoreline" by Carrie Matson
• "Urbanization of Forest Systems and its Effect on Territory Selection of Oven Birds" by Linsey Pistner