I am a PhD candidate in Dr. Thomas Sherry's lab in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University. My research interests broadly center around avian ecology, life histories, and conservation of Neotropical resident and migratory species. I'm also interested in community ecology and trophic cascades, specifically how environmental perturbations altering the abundance of one species or guild can cascade up or down the food web impacting other members of the community.

My dissertation research is an investigation of the mechanisms and consequences of declines of understory insectivorous birds in fragmented tropical rainforest. Understory insectivorous birds are highly specialized in diet and foraging techniques, have generally "slower" life-histories than their temperate counterparts (characterized by low fecundity, possibly longer survival, and limited dispersal), are strong edge-avoiders, and thus are highly sensitive to fragmentation. However, this guild has experienced substantial declines at fairly large (~1600 hectare) reserves such as La Selva Biological Station, where half of the species that declined between 1960 and 1999 were insectivorous. Conversely, this guild remains abundant at the adjacent, and much smaller (345 hectare), Tirimbina Rainforest Center. Numerous mechanisms have been proposed to explain the declines, including dispersal limitation, an area effect resulting from large home ranges and low population densities, food limitation, microhabitat and microclimatic specificity, and nest predation. In my research I'm focusing on the latter three mechanisms, given the disconnect between area and persistence at La Selva and Tirimbina. I'm also investigating the possibility that mesoherbivore release, in the form of increased abundance of collared peccaries (Tayassu tajacu) may have contributed to the declines.

In the second component of my research I'm investigating the potential community-wide consequences of the lost ecosystem services formerly provided by understory insectivorous birds. Additionally, I'm studying the relative predation impacts of insectivorous birds and bats, and investigating the possibility for functional compensation by bats following declines of insectivorous birds.

Finally, I'm collaborating with Peter Pyle at the Institute for Bird Populations, Chase Mendenhall, and others to identify molt limit and skull pneumaticization patterns which can be used to determine specific ages of Neotropical resident bird species.

Resources -

Poster from 2008 AOU/COS Conference (PDF, 500 KB)

Powerpoints for Field Assistants: Create a folder on your computer named C:\CostaRica\Powerpoints and download the following files to that folder

Insect Identification Slideshow (8 MB)

Understory Insectivorous Bird Identification Slideshow (23 MB)

Sound files for Understory Insectivore slideshow (14 MB)
Download the zip file to the C:\CostaRica\Powerpoints folder you created above, then unzip all files, extracting them to the exact same folder, C:\CostaRica\Powerpoints. The spelling and capitalization must be the same, and the files cannot be in a separate subfolder within that folder, or the links in the Understory Insectivores slideshow will not work.

Leaf Litter Insect Identification Slideshow (11 MB)