Publications
Academic
Watson, M., & Kerr, J. (2025) Global dataset for realized thermal and aridity niche limits for terrestrial vertebrates. Scientific Data 12(1): 1829 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-06130-1
Kerr, J., Gordon, S., Chen, I-C., Ednie, G., Foden W., Newbold, T., Reynolds, A., Suiggit, A., Treblanche, J., & Watson, M. (2025) Effects of microclimate variation on insect persistence under global change. Nature Reviews Biodiversity 1: 532–542. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44358-025-00067-4
Watson, M., & Kerr, J. (2025) Climate-Driven Body Size Changes in Birds and Mammals Reveal Environmental Tolerance Limits. Global Change Biology 31:e70241. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70241
D’Addario, A., Postma, H., LeBrun, P., Meeker, M., Mackenzie, C., Watson, M., Landsman, S., Schiller, L., Cooke, S., (2025). Assessing United Nations conservation-oriented days, years and decades through the lens of a change model. Environmental Conservation 52: 79-88. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892925000074
Doucette, S., Potvin, D., Slade, J., Watson, M., MacDougall-Shackleton, E. (2025). Assortative mating at the innate immune locus TLR3 in song sparrows: opposites do not attract. Animal Behavior 224(123188) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123188
Slade, J., Watson, M., and MacDougall-Shackleton, E. (2019). “Balancing” balancing selection? Assortative mating at the major histocompatibility complex despite molecular signatures of balancing selection. Ecology and Evolution 9(5): 146–5157 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5087
Slade, J., Watson, M., and MacDougall-Shackleton, E.A. (2017). Birdsong signals individual diversity at the major histocompatibility complex. Biology Letters 13(11): 20170430 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0430
Slade. J., Watson. M., Kelly, T., Gloor, G., Bernards, M., and MacDougall-Shackleton, E. (2016). Chemical composition of preen oil encodes information on MHC similarity in breeding songbirds. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 283(1842) https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.1966
Kelly, T., MacGillivray, H., Sarquis-Adamson, Y., Watson, M., Hobson, K., and MacDougall-Shackleton, E. (2016). Seasonal migration distance varies with natal dispersal and predicts parasitic infection in song sparrows. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 70: 1857-1866 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-016-2191-2
Watson, M., Wilson, D., and Mennill, D. (2016). Anthropogenic light is associated with increased vocal activity by nocturnally migrating birds. The Condor 118(2): 338-344 https://doi.org/10.1650/CONDOR-15-136.1
Media Coverage and Non-Refereed
Watson, M., and Kerr, J. (2025) rTPI: Methods for Calculating Thermal and Aridity Position Index. R package version 0.1.0. https://github.com/MacroEcoMatt/rTPI
Watson, M. (2024). Protecting 30 by 30: The Need for Indigenous Protected Lands. The Institute for Science, Society, and Policy (https://www.uottawa.ca/research-innovation/news-all/protecting-30-30-need-indigenous-protected-lands)
Kerr, J., Crandall, K., D’Addario, A., Ednie, G., Koppel, O., Sirois-Delisle, C., and Watson, M. (2021). Science and research: students will define Canada’s future. The Hill Times (https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2021/11/25/science-and-research-students-will-define-canadas-future/269881/)
Watson, M. (2016). Anthropogenic light impacts nocturnal migration. British Ornithologists Union (http://www.bou.org.uk/watson-anthropogenic-light-migration/)
2016: CBC News (Windsor) https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/windsor-migrating-birds-nighttime-1.3584384