Principle Investigator
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Amy Dunham, PhDI am primarily interested in the interactions of species in complex tropical forests and especially in relation to anthropogenic disturbances. However, my research spans a wide range of topics in ecology, evolution and conservation biology, from geographic and phylogenetic patterns of trait distributions and community assembly to impacts of extinction and invasion on trophic cascades and ecosystem processes, to studies of global climate change impacts on demography and species interactions.
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Graduate Students
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Eric WuesthoffEric is first year PhD student and NSF GRFP fellow interested in the impacts of anthropogenic environmental changes on the spatial and community ecology of tropical mammals. For his doctoral research, he looks to compare the ranging patterns and habitat uses between primate groups living in interior forests and those living within and around agroforests. Eric is also interested in how mammals influence the structure of agroforests through seed dispersal and the implications of these interactions for conserving threatened species and supporting the needs of local communities.
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Jadelys Tonos LucianoJade is finishing up her dissertation this year. She is an NSF GRFP fellow interested in the role that vertebrate seed-dispersal plays in maintaining and restoring biodiversity in tropical rainforests. Her current research uses observations, spatial analyses, and network approaches to understand how frugivores may be important for shaping seed dispersal patterns and plant-plant interactions. Her current work focuses on lemurs in Madagascar's diverse rainforest. After Jade defends her PhD she will be joining Dr. Onja Razafindratsima at UC Berkeley for a postdoc!
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Graduate Student Alumni
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Click here to see full profiles
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Internationally Based Student Collaborators
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Zo FenosoaFenosoa has a DEA from the University of Antananarivo in zoology for which she studied the physiology of mouse lemurs. She is currently working on her PhD at the same institution in association with our research group. She is examining the role of lemurs and birds as seed dispersers of mistletoe, a keystone resource and hemiparasitic plant in Ranomafana National Park located in Madagascar's southeastern rainforest.
Prerna SwarnimPrerna is a sophomore at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali.
She is a DST- INSPIRE fellow, interested to learn more about the possible impact of anthropogenic activities on primates and frugivores seed dispersers. Being from India, she grew up in a tropical environment and wants to learn the mechanisms that are important for structuring forest communities, leading to better conservation management action. |
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Hasinala Ramangason, MSHasinala is a PhD student at U Calgary studying lemur community ecology. He was a visiting scholar and Houston Zoo Conservation Fellow at Rice hosted by our research group. Hasinala has been collaborating with us to examine the role frugivore guilds play in gap regeneration across a time gradient in Madagascar's southeastern rainforest.
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