OEB Seminar Series: Wenjing Xu

Wenjing Xu 
Assistant Professor
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Hindered hooves and hidden boundaries: barrier ecology in social-ecological systems

Abstract: Boundaries structure landscapes, but not all boundaries are alike. My research develops theory and methods to detect, measure, and interpret different types of boundaries including the physical (e.g. fences and roads), the administrative (e.g. protected area borders), and the perceived (e.g. human tolerance to wildlife), and asks how they jointly structure ecological processes and human-wildlife coexistence in social-ecological systems.

Mapping where boundaries are is the first step towards assessing their impacts. Using remote sensing and AI-driven pipelines, we mapped fences at the sub-continental scale and revealed the widespread presence of vegetation contrasts along protected area boundaries, pointing to significant omissions in current biodiversity monitoring frameworks. I then demonstrate how linear barriers shape wildlife movement across scales: from altering movement behavior at each barrier encounter, which can scale up to affect space use efficiency and survival, and ultimately accumulating to suppress mammalian displacements at the global scale through shaping landscape configuration. Finally, I argue that barriers cannot be fully understood outside their social contexts. Boundaries encode land tenure, cultural contexts, and governance arrangements. Through case studies spanning Maasai Mara and the Tibetan Plateau, I show how understanding why barriers exist and who controls them is essential for designing landscapes that are both ecologically connected and socially just.

Host: OEB Postdoctoral Fellows