About Me

My name is Dr. Zachary Steele and I'm a Post Doctoral Scholar in the Aquatic Ecology Lab within the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University (OSU). I am a member of Dr. Stuart Ludsin's lab group working on an initiative to develop a data-sharing architecture to foster ecosystem-based fisheries management approaches in The Great Lakes Basin. As part of this initiative, I'll be conducting semi-structured interviews with data-sharing experts, as well as personnel from different agencies and organizations critical to The Great Lakes Basin to develop the optimal data-sharing architecture. In addition, I'll be leading meetings with developers and tri-commission members to ensure that we develop and launch this data-sharing architecture according to our anticipated timeline.

For more information about this initiative and the research conducted as part of the Aquatic Ecology Lab at OSU, please check out the following website:

https://ael.osu.edu/

Before starting my work at OSU, I was a post-doctoral associate in the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department at the University of Florida (UF). I was a member of Dr. Marcus Lashley's UF Game Lab working on the wild turkey research initiative. This initiative is dedicated to learning more about the behavior, ecology, public perception, and physiology of the wild turkey to improve management and conservation efforts. For my part of the team, I developed survey instruments to gather more information about hunter behaviors and hunter perceptions of fall and spring turkey hunts. In addition, I also taught several courses at UF and co-led the development of extension and outreach tools for the UF Game Lab, such as the Wild Turkey Manager courses (see links below).

For more information about the UF Game Lab and the wild turkey initiative, please check out the following resources:

http://nrupodcast.extension.msstate.edu/wild-turkey-science

https://www.instagram.com/drdisturbance

https://www.instagram.com/ufgamelab

https://ifas-wild-turkey.catalog.instructure.com/courses/wild-turkey-training-advanced-habitat

https://ifas-wild-turkey.catalog.instructure.com/courses/wild-turkey-manager-biology-history-heritage

The UF Game Lab at a fundraising banquet that I co-organized to support the wild turkey research initiative.

Before beginning my Post-doc position, I earned my PhD in Ecological Sciences at Old Dominion University (ODU) studying a novel approach to estimating animal water intake and metabolism by conducting field and lab-based research with model species such as the Rocky Mountain mule deer. This novel research is based upon the relatively predictable relationship of the three stable isotopes of oxygen (16O, 17O, and 18O) that creates unique "signatures" in the water that animals rely upon. I was a member of the Animal Ecophysiology Lab in the department of Biological Sciences at ODU under Dr. John Whiteman.

https://sites.google.com/site/whitemanecology/home?authuser=0

Current Animal Ecophysiology Lab member Zachary David (right) and I (center) while conducting research on the giant panda in China, along with our colleague Stephanie Wong (left).

Before starting my PhD at ODU, I completed my MSc at the University of Florida (UF) where I studied Florida residents’ understanding of the ecological, economic, and human welfare risks associated with non-native and invasive species, and their support for management interventions (prevention, eradication, and containment). This research involved distributing questionnaires to Florida residents to examine how their support for management interventions varied depending on the physical appearance, negative impacts, and invasive range associated with different examples of invasive animals in Florida. While at UF, I was a member of the Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management Lab in the department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation under my advisor Dr. Elizabeth Pienaar, who is now at the University of Georgia.

https://sites.google.com/view/pienaarlab

With some of the Pienaar Lab members. [from left to right: Dr. Ben North, Diane Episcopio-Sturgeon, myself, and Andrew Glass]

Before graduate school, I completed my BS at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa. While at USF I worked for various zoological facilities in the state of Florida including ZooTampa at Lowry Park, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Disney's Animal Kingdom, and Disney's SeaBase at Epcot. After graduating from USF, I studied behavioral stereotypies in giant pandas in Ya'an, Sichuan, China and then researched threatened and endangered birds with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Working with dolphins at Epcot