Profile Details

Create Project

★★★★★

☆☆☆☆☆

USD 50 /hr

★★★★★

☆☆☆☆☆

Hire Dr. Ruscena W.

United States

USD 50 /hr

Science Writer Specializing in Ecology, Statistics, and Conservation

Profile Summary

I am a freelance science writer specializing in both public-facing and technical content, translating complex scientific topics into clear, engaging communication. I regularly publish articles on biodiversity, climate change, and sustainability for a variety of media outlets. I also edit and review scientific manuscripts, grant proposals, and theses for a marine ecology lab, and serve as an editor for the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Previously, I managed the production of a science magazine at an environmental nonprofit, and produced peer-reviewed articles. I have a PhD in Ecology and a Certification in Science Communication.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ★ Environmental Statistics
• ★ Applied Ecology
• ★ Conservation Biology
• ☆ Biostatistics
• ☆ Zoology
• ☆ Wildlife Management
• ☆ Mammalian Biology
• ☆ Primatology
• ☆ Organic Farming
• ☆ Beekeeping/Apiculture
• ☆ Forestry
• ☆ Aquaculture
• ☆ Environmental Science
• ☆ Deforestation
• ☆ Ecology
• ☆ Ecosystem Management
• ☆ Ecological Restoration
• ☆ Marine Conservation
• ☆ Aquatic Ecology
• ☆ Biodiversity
• ☆ Landscape Ecology
• ☆ Agroecology
• ☆ Excel
• ☆ R

Services

• Writing
• Research
• Data & AI

Writing Technical Writing

Research Fact Checking, Gray Literature Search, Scientific and Technical Research, Systematic Literature Review, Secondary Data Collection

Data & AI Predictive Modeling, Statistical Analysis, Image Analysis, Data Visualization, Data Mining, Data Cleaning, Data Processing, Data Insights

Work Experience

Freelance Science Writer and Editor

University of New Hampshire

November 2024 - Present

Writer

Triple Pundit

October 2022 - Present

Ecologist

Everglades Foundation

August 2016 - September 2022

Scientific Researcher

University of Arizona

January 2011 - July 2016

Education

PhD, Ecology

Penn State University

August 2005 - September 2010

Bachelor’s in Biological sciences

University of California Berkeley

August 1998 - August 2002

Certifications

• Science Communication

  University of California San Diego

  December 2023 - Present

Publications

JOURNAL ARTICLE

(2025). Conservation Opportunities Across the World's Anthromes (vol 20, pg 745, 2014) . DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS.

(2022). Multilayer Feedforward Artificial Neural Network Model to Forecast Florida Bay Salinity with Climate Change . WATER.

(2021). Watershed Response to Legacy Phosphorus and Best Management Practices in an Impacted Agricultural Watershed in Florida, U.S.A . LAND.

(2020). Assessing the Hydrologic Response of Key Restoration Components to Everglades Ecosystem. JOURNAL OF WATER RESOURCES PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT.

(2020). Economic valuation of the ecological response to hydrologic restoration in the Greater Everglades ecosystem . ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS.

(2020). Public preferences for ecological indicators used in Everglades restoration . PLOS ONE.

(2020). Public preferences for ecological indicators used in Everglades restoration (vol 15, e0234051, 2020) . PLOS ONE.

(2019). A multi-indicator spatial similarity approach for evaluating ecological restoration scenarios . LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY.

(2019). Ecosystem service flows from a migratory species: Spatial subsidies of the northern pintail . AMBIO.

(2019). Multi-country Willingness to Pay for Transborder Migratory Species Conservation: A Case Study of Northern Pintails . ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS.

(2018). A general modeling framework for describing spatially structured population dynamics . ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION.

(2018). A guide to calculating habitat-quality metrics to inform conservation of highly mobile species . NATURAL RESOURCE MODELING.

(2018). Defining and classifying migratory habitats as sources and sinks: The migratory pathway approach . JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY.

(2018). Estimating the per-capita contribution of habitats and pathways in a migratory network: a modelling approach . ECOGRAPHY.

(2018). Quantifying ecosystem service flows at multiple scales across the range of a long-distance migratory species . ECOSYSTEM SERVICES.

(2018). Quantitative tools for implementing the new definition of significant portion of the range in the US Endangered Species Act . CONSERVATION BIOLOGY.

(2018). Recreation economics to inform migratory species conservation: Case study of the northern pintail . JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT.

(2018). Willingness to Pay for Conservation of Transborder Migratory Species: A Case Study of the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat in the United States and Mexico . ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT.

(2017). A trans-national monarch butterfly population model and implications for regional conservation priorities . ECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY.

(2017). Conservation relevance of bat caves for biodiversity and ecosystem services . BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION.

(2017). Density estimates of monarch butterflies overwintering in central Mexico . PEERJ.

(2017). Monarch butterfly population decline in North America: identifying the threatening processes . ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE.

(2017). Operationalizing the telecoupling framework for migratory species using the spatial subsidies approach to examine ecosystem services provided by Mexican free-tailed bats . ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY.

(2017). Restoring monarch butterfly habitat in the Midwestern US: 'all hands on deck' . ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS.

(2016). A management-oriented framework for selecting metrics used to assess habitat- and path-specific quality in spatially structured populations . ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS.

(2016). Quasi-extinction risk and population targets for the Eastern, migratory population of monarch butterflies (<i>Danaus</i> <i>plexippus</i>) . SCIENTIFIC REPORTS.

(2016). Scaling up the diversity-resilience relationship with traitdatabases and remote sensing data: the recovery ofproductivity after wildfire . GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY.

(2015). Optimizing conservation strategies for Mexican free-tailed bats: a population viability and ecosystem services approach . BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION.

(2015). The face of conservation responding to a dynamically changing world . INTEGRATIVE ZOOLOGY.

(2014). Conservation opportunities across the world's anthromes . DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS.

(2014). Market Forces and Technological Substitutes Cause Fluctuations in the Value of Bat Pest-Control Services for Cotton . PLOS ONE.

(2014). National Valuation of Monarch Butterflies Indicates an Untapped Potential for Incentive-Based Conservation . CONSERVATION LETTERS.

(2013). Moving across the border: modeling migratory bat populations . ECOSPHERE.

(2011). Birth seasonality and offspring production in threatened neotropical primates related to climate . GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY.

(2010). Modeling the impacts of hunting on the population dynamics of red howler monkeys (<i>Alouatta seniculus</i>) . ECOLOGICAL MODELLING.

(2010). Tropical warming and the dynamics of endangered primates . BIOLOGY LETTERS.

(2006). Sexual selection in Larks:: The importance of white spots in the tail of Dupont's Lark. JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY.