research opportunities in the Elphick lab
PAID
POSITIONS
FIELD
RESEARCH ASSISTANTS (3-4 positions available) for on-going studies of saltmarsh
bird ecology in
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If
you are a work study student, or are interested in gaining research experience
for credit (or even fun), then we could use help with any of the projects
listed below during the academic year.
Students who are interested in developing a project of their own as a
part of the research they do in the lab (e.g., for an undergraduate thesis, or
through the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program) are especially
encouraged.
If
you are interested in gaining research experience in the lab, please send Chris Elphick a note describing
your academic record (a copy of your transcript is best), your reasons for
wanting research experience, and SPECIFIC ideas you have about which aspect of
our lab’s research you would be most interested in and why.
None
of the projects listed below require specialized skills. But all of the work in our lab requires a
good attitude, a willingness to learn, the initiative to work independently and
to develop ideas of your own, a healthy sense of humor, and an ability to put
up with Chris’s taste in music (if you’re not sure on this last point, check
out Radio Paradise). If you know something about birds, then that
would help, but we’ll do our best to indoctrinate you even if you don’t. For most projects (except those involving
field work) hours are flexible. Everyone
working in the lab is invited to our weekly lab meetings, where we sit around
eating stuff filled with fats and sugar and discuss work being conducted by lab
members.
Saltmarsh sparrow ecology
and conservation. For the last few years,
we have been studying saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrows and seaside sparrows
along the
Importance of rice
agriculture for waterbirds. Rice is one
of the world’s most important crops, and occupies a huge area of land
worldwide. Unlike most crops it is grown
in flooded conditions, and in some areas has been shown to contribute greatly
to waterbird conservation. We are currently
compiling a database documenting the use of rice fields by waterbirds
globally. Work on this project would
involve literature searches and database management. There are also several ways in which the
database could be used to develop an undergraduate thesis project (e.g., to
look at global patterns of biodiversity, or to look at conservation
questions). To read a little about work
on birds in
Conservation of birds in agricultural
settings. Expanding on our work on birds in rice
fields, we have begun reviewing the literature to find out what we know about
the value of other crops to wildlife.
This work has led to several ideas that could be developed as field
projects here in
Bird banding. Over the past few years we
have initiated a bird banding project here in
Ecology of molt. All birds replace their feathers at regular
intervals, through a process known as molt.
This activity is energetically costly, and takes several weeks to
complete. Consequently it is likely to
have significant effects on the lives of birds.
We are interested in trying to understand these effects better by
looking at variation among individuals in the timing of their molt. Research work on this project would involve
capturing birds in order to measure molt patterns. This project might be suitable for an
undergraduate thesis project.
Waterbird monitoring. Monitoring many species of waterbirds (e.g.,
shorebirds, seabirds, waterfowl) is difficult for many
reasons. One of the most fundamental is
that it is difficult to count birds when they occur in big flocks. Unfortunately, we don’t know very much about
how good people are at counting birds in flocks, or about how much mistakes
influence our ability to estimate population trends. To solve this problem we developed a computer
model to simulate the process of counting birds and estimating trends. We now have some data sets that we can use
with the model and could use help running simulations and organizing the output
data. This project does not require
programming skills (though they wouldn’t hurt), just patience and the ability
to learn simple software. This project
would be ideal for an undergraduate thesis project.
Identifying sources of
conservation research funding. This
literature-based study would involve understanding how conservation-oriented
research gets funded, and would be suitable for an undergraduate thesis for
someone interested in the intersection between biology and policy.
Web site development. We are currently (constantly!) in the process
of developing several web sites associated with the work being done in the
lab. Anyone with web site design skills
interested in helping us to do this would be welcomed with open arms (and generous
slabs of blackberry pie at lab meetings).