Brandon Edwards, Ph.D.

Ecological Statistician

Designing, analyzing, and sharing research results.

Brandon joined IWWR as the Ecological Statistician in 2025, and has a diverse background spanning computer science, software engineering, mathematics, statistics, and ecology. For his Ph.D. dissertation, Brandon developed a workflow to estimate detection probabilities for 338 species of North American land birds, he also developed a Bayesian hierarchical model to improve estimates of data-sparse species and applied these detectability estimates via variance propagation techniques toward the North American Breeding Bird Survey.

Brandon is accredited through the Statistical Society of Canada as an Associate Statistician (A.Stat), and will be continuing to work toward his Professional Statistician accreditation through his upcoming statistical support work with IWWR.

Education:

Ph.D., Biology, Carleton University
B.Sc., Mathematical Sciences (Statistics Stream), University of Guelph

Publications:

Edwards, B.P.M., J. Bennett, and A.C. Smith. 2025. Systematic estimates and predictions of detection probabilities of North American landbirds, with applications toward the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Dissertation, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Hanson, J.O., R. Schuster, M. Strimas-Mackey, N. Morrell, B.P.M. Edwards, P. Arcese, J.R. Bennett, and H.P. Possingham. 2025. Systematic conservation with the prioritizr R package. Conservation Biology 39:e14376.

Smith, A.C., V.I. Aponte, A.D. Binley, A.R. Cox, L. Daly, C. Donkersteeg, B.P.M. Edwards, W. English, M.-A.R. Hudson, K.M. Jefferys, B.G. Robinson, and C. Roy. 2024. Patterns and drivers of population trends on individual Breeding Bird Survey routes using spatially explicit models and route-level covariates. Avian Conservation and Ecology 19:23.

Bennett, J.R., B.P.M. Edwards, J.N. Bergman, A.D. Binley, R.T. Bruxton, D.E.L. Hanna, J.O. Hanson, E.J. Hudgins, S. Karimi, C.V. Raymond, C.D. Robichaud, and T. Rytwinski. 2024. How ignoring detection probability hurts biodiversity conservation. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 22:e2782.

Smith, A.C., A.D. Binley, L. Daley, B.P.M. Edwards, D. Ethier, B.P.M. Edwards, D. Ethier, B. Frei, D. Iles, T.D. Meehan, N.L. Michel, and P.A. Smith. 2024. Spatially explicit Bayesian hierarchical models improve estimates of avian population status and trends. Ornithological Applications 126:duad056.

Edwards, B.P.M., A.C. Smith, T.D.S. Docherty, M.A. Gahbauer, C.R. Gillespie, A.R. Grinde, T. Harmer, D.T. Iles, S.M. Matsuoka, N.L. Michel, A. Murray, G.J. Niemi, J. Pasher, D.C. Pavlacky Jr., B.G. Robinson, T.B. Ryder, P. Sólymos, D. Stralberg, and E.J. Zlonis. 2023. Point count offsets for estimating population sizes of North American landbirds. IBIS 165:482-503.

Binley, A.D., B.P.M. Edwards, G. Dansereau, E.C. Knight and I. Momeni-Dehaghi. 2023. Minimizing data waste: Conservation in the Big Data Era. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 104:e02056.

Braga, P.H.P., K. Hébert, E.J. Hudgins, E.R. Scott, B.P.M. Edwards, L.L. Sánchez Reyes, M.J. Grainger, V. Foroughirad, F. Hillemann, A.D. Binley, C.B. Brookson, K.M. Gaynor, S.S. Sabet, A. Güncan, H. Weierbach, D.G.E. Gomes, and R. Crystal-Ornelas. 2023. Not just for programmers: How GitHub can accelerate collaborative and reproducible research in ecology and evolution. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 14:1364-1380.

Soroye, P., B.P.M. Edwards, R.T. Buxton, J.P. Ethier, A. Frempong-Manso, H.E. Keefe, A. Berberi, M. Roach-Krajewski, A.D. Binley, J.G. Vincent, H.-Y. Lin, S.J. Cooke, and J.R. Bennett. 2022. The risks and rewards of community science for threatened species monitoring. Conservation Science and Practice 4:e12788.

Edwards, B.P.M., A.D. Binley, W.B. English, E.J. Hudgins, and S.S. Snow. 2022. A highly anomalous red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) song. Canadian Field Naturalist 136:1-4.

Edwards, B.P.M., A.P. Watson, and C.G. Earley. 2022. The University of Guelph’s Arboretum Winter Bird Count, 1980 –2022. Ontario Birds 40:43-56.

Edwards, B.P.M. and M. Bouman. 2022. A possible Canvasback X Ruddy Duck hybrid. Ontario Birds 40:23-27.

Edwards, B.P.M. and A.C. Smith. 2021. bbsBayes: An R package for hierarchical Bayesian modelling of Breeding Bird Survey data. Journal of Open Research Software 9:19.

Cooke, S.J., P. Soroye, J.L. Brooks, J. Clarke, A.L. Jeanson, A. Berberi, M.L. Piczak, C.H. Reid, J.E. Desforges, J.D. Guay, A.K. Drake, A.M. Jardine, J.P. Ethier, H.E. Keefe, A.M. Medd, B.P.M. Edwards, C. Reeve, A. Perkovic, A. Frempong-Manso, L. LaRochelle, S. Patterson, M. Roach-Krajewski, A. Howarth, B. Bard, E.J. Harmsen, J. Robichaud, S. Serré, C.J. Bihun, R.T. Buxton, V.M. Nguyen, L.C. Woodall, W.J. Sutherland, and J.R. Bennett. 2021. Ten considerations for conservation policy makers for the post-COVID-19 transition. Environmental Reviews 29:111-118.

Smith, A.C. and B.P.M. Edwards. 2021. North American Breeding Bird Survey status and trend estimates to inform a wide range of conservation needs, using a flexible Bayesian hierarchical generalized additive model. Ornithological Applications 123:duaa065.

Gillis, D. and B.P.M. Edwards. 2019. The utility of joinpoint regression for estimating population parameters given changes in population structure. Heliyon 5:e02515.

Rose, D., B.P.M. Edwards, R. Kett, M. Yodzis, J. Angevaare, and D. Gillis. 2017. Exploring anthropogenic activities and management decisions using a novel environmental agent based model. 2017 IEEE Canada International Humanitarian Conference:85-89.

Edwards, B.P.M. and D. Gillis. 2015. Comparing deviance information criterion typologies in a spatial Poisson mixture model setting. Honours thesis, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.