We’re excited to announce Maëlis Kervellec as the winner of the 2024 Robert May Prize, celebrating the best article in the journal by an author at the start of their career.

Winner: Maëlis Kervellec

Research: ‘Bringing circuit theory into spatial occupancy models to assess landscape connectivity‘

About the research

One of the wonders of ecological research is seeing clever innovations that bridge theoretical concepts with real-world conservation challenges. Kervellec and colleagues have done exactly that by bringing circuit theory into spatial occupancy models! With a robust and well-designed Bayesian model, their paper beautifully demonstrates how animals don’t always take perfect paths when moving through landscapes – sometimes they wander, finding multiple routes between habitats. By modelling this natural randomness that is usually quite difficult to track, the authors give us a practical and realistic view of how otters use rivers as highways and how lynx struggle to cross actual highways. The beauty of this work also lies in its accessibility – other researchers can now estimate landscape connectivity directly from simple detection data, with all the code ready to use. This paper transforms how we think about animal movement in fragmented landscapes, offering practical tools both powerful and easy to implement; that is what many of us and conservation managers alike have been waiting for.

About the author

I grew up in a family of organic farmers, where discussions about agronomy, plant-soil interactions, varietal selection, etc. were common, so ecology has always been part of my life. This led me to study biology and mathematics at the Marine Biological Research Station in Roscoff, France, where I was immersed in research. During a one-year exchange at the University of Montreal, I developed an interest in population dynamics and conservation, particularly how we study wild populations using statistical models. I then pursued a master’s degree in biology, ecology, and evolution at the University of Montpellier, completing internships on lynx, roe deer and chamois co-occurrence in the Jura Mountains and brown bear connectivity in the Pyrenees. These experiences led me to do a PhD at the CEFE, in collaboration with the OFB, continuing this research.

We asked Maëlis some questions about her research and career:

Can you provide a few sentences that summarise the research in your paper and how it advances the field?

Wildlife populations are often difficult to monitor because they are elusive, wide-ranging, and occur at low densities. Hierarchical models help to address these challenges by accounting for imperfect detection, making them a standard tool in ecology. However, many of these models don’t account for spatial autocorrelation, the fact that nearby areas are more likely to be occupied. When they do, they often rely on straight-line (i.e. Euclidean) distances, which may not reflect true connectivity in fragmented landscapes. In this paper, we demonstrate how commute-time distance from circuit theory can better capture landscape structure, improving models of population recolonisation. Our approach allows us to estimate landscape resistance directly from detection data, and to propagate uncertainty into occupancy predictions, providing a more realistic view of population dynamics in structured landscapes.

Have you continued this research and if so, where are you at now with it? 

Yes, this paper is part of my PhD project on integrating landscape connectivity into hierarchical models. I’ve also extended this framework to open population spatial capture-recapture (OPSCR) models by incorporating least-cost path distances to assess how landscape structure affects individual movements across years. These methods not only improve our understanding of connectivity but also allow us to explore within-population variability (such as differences between sexes) and also allow us to propagate the uncertainty into the predicted maps providing powerful tools to support conservation strategies. 

What did you enjoy most about conducting this research? 

I really enjoyed working closely with the French Biodiversity Agency and using their long-term monitoring data on large carnivores in France. It was rewarding to develop methods to help to make the most of these valuable data and contribute to national conservation efforts. 

Were there any funny experiences our surprising discoveries from this research? 

There wasn’t a particularly funny moment, but we did face significant challenges getting the model to converge. At one point, it seemed like it might not work at all. It was frustrating, but in the process, I learned a lot about troubleshooting complex models and the trial-and-error nature of research.

Please could you briefly explain what winning the award means to you?

Winning the Robert May Prize is a huge honour and a real encouragement at this early stage of my research career. It means a lot to see that the work I’ve done during my PhD is recognised by the ecological community. I’m especially proud that this research, which was carried out in close collaboration with conservation practitioners, can contribute to both advancing ecological methods and supporting biodiversity conservation.

Find the winning article: ‘Bringing circuit theory into spatial occupancy models to assess landscape connectivity‘, as well as the shortlisted papers for the 2024 Robert May Prize in this Virtual Issue.