Matthew Chatfield

Expertise

🐸 Amphibians, 🕸Ecology, 🏔 Environmental sciences, ∆ Evolution, 🏞 Land and natural resource use, 🦠 Pathogens, 🐢 Reptiles, 💧Water quality, 🐾 Wildlife

Chatfield is a conservation biologist and herpetologist whose works to reduce human impact on wildlife.  His research focuses on the population ecology of endangered wood turtle populations and the impacts of introduced pathogens on amphibians. The majority of his recent work takes place in Maine, filling critical knowledge gaps to manage and conserve threatened species. Visit Chatfield’s biography to learn more.

A bubble chart demonstrating a 50% research 50% teaching appointment split.
Chatfield balances time between teaching (50%) courses about conservation biology, and research (50%) about how endangered species respond to environmental change.

Appointment details

Chatfield’s work is supported by:

  • School of Biology and Ecology at the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture
  • Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station

Experiment Station contributions

  • Current project: Population-Level Ecology and Conservation of Maine’s Herpetofauna. McIntire-Stennis Project Number ME042301.

    I study two groups of vertebrates that are especially hard hit by the global extinction crisis: turtles and amphibians. Specifically, I aim to understand the causes of population decline, especially those related to habitat loss and degradation, disease, and the illegal wildlife trade.