World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
A. Townsend Peterson

A. Townsend Peterson

Award Badge
Ecology and Evolution
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
128
Citations
98781
World Ranking
71
National Ranking
26

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United States Leader Award
  • 2017 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Overview

A. Townsend Peterson is affiliated with the University of Kansas in the United States. Their research primarily spans the fields of Environmental Science and Medicine, with significant contributions to ecological modeling and public health.

Their main areas of study include:

  • Species Distribution and Climate Change
  • Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
  • Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
  • Plant and Animal Studies
  • Vector-borne Infectious Diseases
  • Viral Infections and Vectors
  • Mosquito-borne Diseases and Control

Peterson has published extensively, with a focus on ecological modeling, ecology, and nature and landscape conservation. Key subfields include public health, environmental and occupational health, and genetics.

Their frequent publication venues are:

  • PLoS ONE
  • The Journal of Urology
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
  • PeerJ
  • Biodiversity and Conservation

Among their recent papers are:

  • "A standard protocol for reporting species distribution models," 2020, Ecography
  • "ntbox: An r package with graphical user interface for modelling and evaluating multidimensional ecological niches," 2020, Methods in Ecology and Evolution
  • "Relationships between population densities and niche-centroid distances in North American birds," 2020, Ecology Letters
  • "Replacing "parachute science" with "global science" in ecology and conservation biology," 2021, Conservation Science and Practice
  • "Likely Geographic Distributional Shifts among Medically Important Tick Species and Tick-Associated Diseases under Climate Change in North America: A Review," 2021, Insects

Frequent collaborators of Peterson include:

  • Marlon E. Cobos
  • Luis Osorio-Olvera
  • Abdelghafar Alkishe
  • Daniel Romero-Álvarez
  • Jorge Soberón

Peterson has also contributed to book publications, notably the 2024 work titled One Hundred and Fifty Years of Change on the Great Plains, published by University of Kansas Libraries eBooks.

In recognition of their scientific contributions, Peterson was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2017.

Best Publications

  • Novel methods improve prediction of species' distributions from occurrence data

    Jane Elith;Catherine H. Graham;Robert P. Anderson;Miroslav Dudík

  • Extinction risk from climate change

    Chris D. Thomas;Alison Cameron;Rhys E. Green;Rhys E. Green;Michel Bakkenes

  • Predicting species distributions from small numbers of occurrence records: A test case using cryptic geckos in Madagascar

    Richard G. Pearson;Christopher J. Raxworthy;Miguel Nakamura;A. Townsend Peterson

  • INTERPRETATION OF MODELS OF FUNDAMENTAL ECOLOGICAL NICHES AND SPECIES' DISTRIBUTIONAL AREAS

    Jorge Soberón;A. Townsend Peterson

  • Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions (MPB-49)

    A. Townsend Peterson;Jorge Soberón;Richard G. Pearson;Robert P. Anderson

  • The crucial role of the accessible area in ecological niche modeling and species distribution modeling

    Narayani Barve;Vijay Barve;Alberto Jiménez-Valverde;Andrés Lira-Noriega

  • Rethinking receiver operating characteristic analysis applications in ecological niche modeling

    A. Townsend Peterson;Monica Papeş;Jorge Soberón

  • Conservatism of Ecological Niches in Evolutionary Time

    A. T. Peterson;J. Soberón;V. Sánchez-Cordero

  • Evaluating predictive models of species’ distributions: criteria for selecting optimal models

    Robert P Anderson;Daniel Lew;A.Townsend Peterson

  • Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions

    AT Peterson;J Soberon;RG Pearson;RP Anderson

  • Predicting the geography of species' invasions via ecological niche modeling

    A. Townsend Peterson

  • New developments in museum-based informatics and applications in biodiversity analysis

    Catherine H. Graham;Catherine H. Graham;Simon Ferrier;Falk Huettman;Craig Moritz

  • Effects of sample size on accuracy of species distribution models

    David R.B Stockwell;A.Townsend Peterson

  • Evidence of climatic niche shift during biological invasion

    Olivier Broennimann;Urs A. Treier;Urs A. Treier;Heinz Müller-Schärer;W. Thuiller

  • Uses and misuses of bioclimatic envelope modeling

    Miguel B. Araújo;Miguel B. Araújo;Miguel B. Araújo;A. Townsend Peterson

  • Future projections for Mexican faunas under global climate change scenarios

    A. Townsend Peterson;Miguel A. Ortega-Huerta;Jeremy Bartley;Victor Sánchez-Cordero

  • Transferability and model evaluation in ecological niche modeling: a comparison of GARP and Maxent

    A. Townsend Peterson;Monica Papeş;Muir Eaton

  • Ecological niche conservatism: a time-structured review of evidence

    A. Townsend Peterson

  • Predicting species invasions using ecological niche modeling: New approaches from bioinformatics attack a pressing problem

    A. Townsend Peterson;David A. Vieglais

  • Use of niche models in invasive species risk assessments.

    A. Jiménez-Valverde;A. Jiménez-Valverde;A. T. Peterson;J. Soberón;J. M. Overton

Frequent Co-Authors

Adolfo G. Navarro-Sigüenza
Adolfo G. Navarro-Sigüenza National Autonomous University of Mexico
Enrique Martínez-Meyer
Enrique Martínez-Meyer National Autonomous University of Mexico
Jorge Soberón
Jorge Soberón University of Kansas
Abdallah M. Samy
Abdallah M. Samy Ain Shams University
Robert P. Anderson
Robert P. Anderson City College of New York
Miguel B. Araújo
Miguel B. Araújo University of Évora
Richard G. Pearson
Richard G. Pearson University College London
Víctor Sánchez-Cordero
Víctor Sánchez-Cordero National Autonomous University of Mexico
Robert G. Moyle
Robert G. Moyle University of Kansas
Francesco d'Errico
Francesco d'Errico University of Bergen

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