Information for prospective graduate students
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STOP PRESS: Currently, I have funding to support one new
graduate student in my lab group, beginning in fall 2006 (potentially starting
field work in late May). The funded work
would involve studying the effects of salt marsh restoration on birds in New
England, and an incoming student would be expected to extend the current
project to develop an independent piece of research. Candidates must have prior mist-netting
experience, and would benefit from prior experience with nest-searching, bird
identification, and vegetation sampling.
The successful candidate must be able swim, be willing to paddle a canoe
or kayak, and enjoy long days of muddy, wet field work in the marsh. Strong quantitative skills, the ability to
manage and analyze large data sets, and experience managing a small field crew
are also desirable. If you are interested please send me a note outlining your
relevant experience and possible ideas about how you might develop your thesis
research.
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In general, I am
most interested in working with graduate students who want to develop projects
that combine the study of basic and applied ecological questions. Students who want to join our lab group need
to be self motivated and willing to develop independent projects and I usually
expect students to develop their own projects (though with guidance from myself
and others), rather than simply taking on a project that I have planned. Prior field experience working with birds is
desirable, as is any prior research experience.
Most funding is
through teaching assistantships (TAs), although the number of students that can
be supported on TAs is very limited.
Funding is also sometimes available through research assistantships
(RAs), but these funds are usually associated with grants and are most often
used to support students who are already in the lab. All students are therefore strongly
encouraged to write their own grant proposals and fellowship applications in
order to support their research.
Possible sources for fellowships funding are NSF
graduate research fellowships and EPA
STAR fellowships (some other opportunities are listed here).
I am open to students working in any area of conservation biology or avian ecology that I feel qualified to give advice on, but I expect my research over the next few years to focus in the following areas:
(1) Understanding the mechanisms behind area-sensitive distribution patterns in birds. Many species of birds, in a variety of habitat types, have lower occurrence rates, densities, and breeding success, in small habitat patches compared to large patches. Our group has begun studying this phenomenon in saltmarsh birds and we are attempting to determine whether there are general patterns for the phenomenon. Ultimately, our goals is to determine whether, and how, small patches can contribute more to meeting large-scale conservation goals.
(2) Assessing the conservation value of agricultural lands. Since my dissertation research on the birds that use California rice fields, I have been interested in the role that agricultural lands can play in conservation planning. My current interests focus on trying to develop general approaches to quantifying the value of agricultural land and assessing how these (and other) heavily modified habitats can be incorporated into the conservation planning process. At present, my interests center primarily on the value of rice lands to waterbirds, but the approaches I am taking could be applied broadly to other farming systems.
(3) Using models to better guide conservation management. Recently, I have become involved in several projects that combine modeling and empirical research to guide conservation actions. Currently these projects include: (i) modeling introduced and endangered populations to predict future population trajectories and compare management scenarios, and (ii) developing new methods for conveying the results of modeling exercises to managers working on the ground. Much of this work is being done in collaboration with people who have much better math skills than I do!
(4) Evaluating and designing monitoring programs. Again, though a combination of modeling and empirical work, I have been working on projects to design better monitoring programs. Examples of on-going work include field studies designed to improve better population estimates and monitoring protocols for saltmarsh breeding birds and the use of simulation models to compare the impact of observer errors on the efficiency of different monitoring programs.
If you feel that you would like to conduct your graduate work in our research group, please send me a note explaining (in as much detail as you can) what you think you would like to work on, why you think our lab would be good place for you to study, and what research experience you have.