Ashley Larsen’s research interests center on the ecology of managed systems. Her research combines insights from ecology with causal inference and GIS tools to better understand how to produce the necessary food and fiber for a growing population while maintaining healthy ecological and human communities. Her current projects focus on the landscape determinants of ecosystem services and disservices, particularly related to agricultural pests and pesticides, the biodiversity impacts of agricultural intensification, and the ecological drivers and impacts of land use transitions. She held a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in Environmental Science, Policy & Management at UC Berkeley before joining the Bren School in 2016.
Opportunities exist to develop conservation reserve networks in the western US that account for landscape connectivity and that benefit both private landowners and biodiversity conservation efforts through land trades and acquisitions.