Conservation biology, terrestrial and marine organismal ecology, behavioral, physiological and population biology. Current research focuses on population dynamics and foraging ecology of marine turtles at Palmyra Atoll. Other research includes disease ecology (parasitology) of mesopredators in urban and suburban habitats.
The focus of my research is animal conservation biology. I happen to study a number of different marine and terrestrial animals. My primary research focuses on endangered and threatened species, or ecological research that may be applied towards these species. I am a jack of all trades and have focused on numerous and varied aspects of conservation ecology including:
- Feeding ecology using stable isotopes and scat analyses
- Phylogenetics to determine species designations
- Population dynamics using mark-recapture techniques
- Morphometric analyses including body condition indices
At the most general level, I am interested in any tools that can be used to manage, preserve, or protect wildlife. As a biologist, I approach my questions with an ecological perspective and I utilize numerous conservation tools. I feel that conservation requires many different approaches and the approach one chooses is dependent on the species of interest. Therefore, I have a wide repertoire of research interests.
My current research focuses on green (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) sea turtles at Palmyra Atoll. This work is in collaboration with researchers at the American Museum of Natural History (Drs Sterling and Naro-Maciel). My specific research interests in this project include understanding the fine scale behavioral ecology of the turtles at Palmyra, as well as their foraging ecology and estimating their current population abundance and distribution. This information is important because green and hawksbill sea turtles are considered globally threatened. The project is unique among sea turtle studies because it is part of the Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium (PARC), an innovative, multi- institutional and cross-disciplinary effort that is conducting integrative biodiversity, ecosystem function, and environmental physics research at Palmyra. Few sea turtle studies are carried out in marine systems under as intense scientific attention as Palmyra, and this broader research context should help address priority questions about the ecological roles of sea turtles and ecosystem approaches to sea turtle conservation and management.
A remote and unique ecosystem, Palmyra Atoll (5°53'N 162°05'W), located in the Central Pacific about halfway between Hawaii and American Samoa. In recent years the atoll has been uninhabited except for management or research personnel, including members of the multi-institutional Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium (PARC), which carries out integrative studies of biodiversity and environmental physics along the Atoll. Ten institutions, including the American Museum of Natural History, presently belong to this Consortium and research topics ranging from terrestrial invasive species to marine ecology to ocean acidification. During World War II, however, Palmyra was heavily altered when the U.S. Government and others occupied the atoll. Extensive dredging, and connection of the islets that made up the atoll into causeways, changed the hydrological and oceanographic features of the atoll. Efforts to restore the original hydrodynamic flow, which are currently being considered for the lagoon system, could involve breaching these causeways. This may release toxic plumes and other pollutants left by the previous inhabitants, potentially negatively impacting sea turtle feeding grounds and other habitats.
Locally, my students and I conduct research on how small mammals respond to alterations in oak forest habitat. This study investigates the effects of oak removal, replicating sudden oak death, on small mammal communities and their species composition. Using species abundance data, body condition indices, disease surveys of trapped individuals, and vegetation and entomological data, my students and we examine how the loss of tree species in an ecosystem strongly affects forest trophic interactions. We use mark-release-recapture techniques to model the distributional patterns and population structure of small mammal species and use this knowledge to make conservation recommendations to protect mammalian population and community structure.
In other areas of New York, I work with researchers such as Dr. Jacqueline Frair (SUNY) to identify the foraging habits of coyotes. We will be using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses to identify the preferred prey of coyotes with varying proximity to urban centers.
