Graduate Students

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Photo Name Department Advisor Research Category Research Interest Contact
Behrens, Jonny
    • Bernhardt, Emily
    • Doyle, Martin

      Jonny is an urban ecologist and biogeochemist interested in the fate and transport of contaminant mixtures through urban freshwater ecosystems. His research engages stakeholders within the broader community to design field research and communicate results to inform water resource management decisions and policies.

      Boyd, Anjali D.
        • Silliman, Brian
         

        Anjali's research examines how species interactions (both intra and inter) and physical forces interact to regulate the recovery of foundation species to environmental stressors. She aspires to develop novel ecosystem-based restoration and management practices to restore foundation species worldwide, while also working to ensure communities of color have equitable access to a healthy ocean.

        De La Mater, David
          • Wright, Justin P.
          • Silliman, Brian

            Dave draws from the methods and theory of trait-based functional ecology and biogeography. He uses broad-scale observation, small-scale experiments, careful measurement, and a dash of modeling to make mechanistically-based predictions about how we might expect environmental change (e.g. climate warming, nutrient pollution, etc.) to impact species form, interactions, and functions. Dave's goals are twofold: to advance ecology towards generality through mechanistics, and to ultimately provide mechanistics-based prescriptions for the conservation and restoration of imperiled ecosystems.

            DeSisto, Camille
              • Nunn, Charles
               

              Camille is interested in how anthropogenic disturbances affect species interactions in tropical forests.

              Brandon Hays
              Hays, Brandon
                • Johnston, David W.
                 

                I think elephants are amazing in a hundred different ways. I want to understand how long term reintroductions of elephants have changed tropical forests relative to historic ecosystem states, with an eye towards evaluating whether rewilding ecosystem engineers can be employed as a quantitative and empirically supported tool in the conservation bat-belt. I also aim to conduct research that directly supports elephant conservation in SE Asia.

                Lauren Jenkins
                Jenkins, Lauren
                  • Clark, James S.

                    I am curious about the ways that forest communities respond to global change and the ways that we can computationally and mathematically model these systems. Specifically, how might tree communities be resilient and adaptive to rare weather events? How do tree's resposes to climate changes contribute to changes in biodiversity? How might these changes alter the food webs of a habitat?

                    Lohmann, Amanda
                      • Nowacek, Douglas
                        Greg Merrill
                        Merrill, Greg
                          • Nowacek, Douglas
                           

                          Greg's dissertation research is broadly focused on assessing the impacts of plastic pollution on the energy mobilization and thermoregulatory capacities of blubber in marine mammals. His previous work has focused on investigating maternal foraging behaviors of Alaskan northern fur seals in an effort to establish an effective and relatively inexpensive long-term monitoring index of foraging success and pup survival.

                          Pearce, Allison
                            • Heffernan, Jim
                              Renata Kamakura
                              Poulton Kamakura, Renata
                                • Clark, James S.

                                  I study tree health in urban forests, specifically 1) how both volunteer and paid tree maintenance can increase tree health 2) patterns in urban tree health through time and across geographies and 3) how to support managers and planners in designing urban forests that will support human and non-human communities with climate

                                  Lane Scher
                                  Scher, Lane
                                    • Clark, James S.

                                      Lane studies community ecology and the effects of global change on species interactions. She is particularly interested in forest dynamics and regeneration in temperate regions.

                                      Shearer, Caroline
                                        • Drea, Christine

                                          Endocrinology, parasitology, and social behavior in lemurs; Meerkat offspring behavioral development

                                          Shearer, Jeanne
                                            • Read, Andrew

                                              My research focuses on the behavioral responses of humpback whales to approaching large ships in order to understand how they respond to ship approaches and what mitigation efforts might reduce ship strike mortality.

                                              Simha, Anita
                                                • Wright, Justin P.

                                                  Anita's research focuses on how past events affect present community structure. Specifically, how and why do communities with different disturbance histories (like fire) vary in their responses to a next disturbance? When and how do initial conditions, like the order in which individuals arrive to a community, affect species’ traits and performance? What effects do initial conditions have on species’ interactions and ability to coexist?

                                                  Jillian Wisse
                                                  Wisse, Jillian
                                                    • Nowacek, Douglas

                                                      Jillian’s dissertation work investigates the physiological responses of short-finned pilot whales to naval sonar. By developing analytical chemistry methods for hormone analysis and establishing physiological baselines, she aims to improve our understanding of the behavioral ecology of poorly understood species and how they respond to environmental disturbances, like ocean noise.