Research Opportunities
Possible Research Projects for students in my lab
I am always looking for highly motivated and gifted students interested in conservation biology and/or evolutionary genetics. I am particularly interested in students with previous experience using molecular genetic techniques (e.g., microsatellite development) or prior experience doing field work. Good quantitative or computer programming skills (or willingness and ability to learn) are a bonus. My research spans field studies on invertebrates (primarily spiders) and vertebrates (e.g., mammalian carnivores of all sizes, snakes, turtles), population genetic studies on invertebrates and vertebrates, manipulative experimental studies using seed-feeding beetles as a model organism, and computer/mathematical modeling of population viability and evolution. Students will have the option to carry out projects on a variety of topics, either locally in Kentucky or in collaboration with faculty in Thailand. My research is question-driven, not taxon-driven. If you are interested in competing for a spot in my laboratory, please introduce yourself and give me an idea of your research interests. It is helpful if you can also provide a CV, unofficial transcripts, and GRE scores.
I also mentor undergraduates and support undergraduate research projects. Currently I have four undergraduate students working in my laboratory.
Field Work
There are a large number of potential projects on spider ecology, genetics, and/or behavior that a student could undertake under my guidance (e.g., experiments looking at competition among species within communities or guilds of spiders, use of generalist predators as biocontrol agents, interacting effects of density and inbreeding). Previous research from my lab strongly suggests that competition (including cannibalism) among spiders is shaping their life histories. For Rabidosa punctulata and R. rabida, we know a lot about how they compete and what they are eating. For communities of Hogna sp. and Schizocosa sp. we know far less about how much their diets overlap, how often cannibalism occurs, etc. Studies could vary from simple autecological studies to complex removal experiments.
International
I have built collaborations with Kasetsart University and King Mongut’s University of Technology in Thailand (see research page for more details). Opportunities are available for students that want to do projects on tropical forest ecology or the conservation genetics of vertebrates (birds, mammals, or reptiles) in Southeast Asia. I have collaborators that are particularly interested in small carnivores and birds. Below are some potential projects that we feel we can obtain funding for.
Abbots Babblers (Malacocincla abbotti), Black-Headed Woopeckers (Picus erythropygius) and Puff-Throated Bulbuls (Alophoixus pallidus): Dr. George Gale, Dr. Tommaso Savini, and their students have studied several species of bird in the Mo Tsinto plot in Khao Yai National Park in Thailand for about eight years. Much of the data is focused on nestling survival, but they have banded hundreds of birds and are willing to increase the scope of their effort. We are interested in kin structure, dispersal, multiple paternity, habitat selection and extra-pair paternity in these birds. We are interested in using genetic data to add insight to behavioral observations. This would involve you spending approximately a year in Thailand doing field work (collecting blood from adults and nestling from as many nests as you can find) and then returning to the U.S. to do most of the lab work.
Bears: We just received three more years of funding to continue Dusit Ngoprasert's research on Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) and sun bears (Helarctos malayanus). There is room for a student to collaborate with Dusit and carve out their own project.
Clouded Leopards (Neofelis nebulosa), Asiatic Golden Cats (Catopuma temminckii), and/or Asiatic Leopards (Panthera pardus): We have done extensive camera trapping on these three species and are currently building habitat models for each. However, there is still almost nothing known about the diet of the first two and not a lot about the third either. The first two species are of interest because they may be close to local extinction and have been little studied. Asiatic leopards are more of interest because of their ecological role. They are the most behaviorally flexible and tolerant of anthropogenic disturbance of the big cats and thus may come to dominate the predator communities over large areas of Asia. Studies would involve radio-collaring individuals of one or more species, live capture, capture-recapture photography, and/or collecting scat for genetic/diet analyses. Studies would be carried out in collaboration with Dr. George Gale and Dusit Ngoprasert.
Elephants: There have been a smattering of attempts to look at the population genetics of wild elephants in Thailand. Yet, nothing has been published on the topic. Elephant dung is easy to obtain and if DNA can be extracted from it, rather large scale studies of gene flow and population structure of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) should be possible. I am currently in discussion with the Wildlife Conservation Society over the possibility of analyzing ~600 samples from elephants in Kaeng Krachan National Park.
Otters: There is a great deal of uncertainty as to how imperiled otters actually are in Thailand. Wanlop Chutipong and Dusit Ngoprasert (Ph.D. students at KMUTT) recently discovered a completely unstudied population of smooth-coated otter (Lutra perspicillata), a species that many feel is quickly disappearing from Thailand, quite close to the KMUTT campus. A number of useful ecological or genetic studies are possible on this population. Also, the otters are regularly raiding local shrimp and fish farms for food. This leads to considerable human-wildlife conflict and also to possible changes in the otter's behavior to escape persecution.
Pheasants: Tommaso Savini has a passion for galliformes. Feathers can be collected from pheasants across Thailand making for a potentially powerful phylogeographic study. The Siamese fireback pheasant (Lophura diardi) is the national bird of Thailand and a good target species for study.
Primates: There has been some loose talk between Andreas Koenig (http://www.stonybrook.edu/anthro/staff/akoenig.shtml), Tommaso Savini and myself concerning some potential primate studies in Thailand. We are particularly thinking about work that attempts to estimates densities, geographic range, and/or genetic diversity of one or more species.
Small Carnivores: Wanlop Chutipong has a large project underway looking at densities of a range of small carnivores (civets, mongooses, the smallest felids, etc.) in relation to fruit and rodent abundance. He is also placing radio collars on individuals that he can trap. It would be worthwhile to repeat similar studies in other protected areas.
Water Monitors (Varanus salvator): Water monitors are certainly not endangered as they have a huge geographic range and are locally abundant. In fact, it is their high abundance that makes us interested in them. These are the second largest lizards in the world and they are mostly ignored in the literature. They reach high densities (they show up very frequently in traps intended for other carnivores) and can weigh 20 or even 25 kg, thus their biomass probably exceeds all or most other carnivores in the forest. We are interested in what they are eating and on what their impact is on the forest ecosystem system and food web structure.
Laboratory
I have ongoing collaboration with Chuck Fox (http://www.uky.edu/~cfox/). My laboratory can easily be equipped to rear the seed-feeding beetles Callosobruchus maculatus and Stator limbatus. Chuck and I share common interests in adaptation to stress, the constraints of negative genetic correlations, and inbreeding/outbreeding effects.
Modeling
Several of my students are using computer simulations and simple mathematical models to test or expand theory in conservation biology and/or evolutionary biology. I have extensive experience using VORTEX software to address timely questions in conservation biology and I am currently interested in meta-models using VORTEX to interface with other models (e.g., models of disease transmission).
Population/Conservation Genetics
Numerous potential projects exist for students that want to integrate molecular techniques with conservation or ecological applications. I am currently collaborating extensively with Dr. Brice Noonan (http://bnoonan.org) and Dr. Dave Weisrock (http://www.as.uky.edu/academics/departments_programs/Biology/Biology/faculty_research/faculty/DavidWeisrock/Pages/default.aspx), both of whom provide invaluable help in developing microsatellite primers and SNPs.
We have developed hundreds of microsatellite primers for the wolf spider Rabidosa rabida. A number of projects could be developed looking at the population genetics, phylogeography, or phylogenetics of various spider groups using these microsatellites and/or mitochondrial DNA; also lots of room for using spiders as a model system for conservation genetics questions.
Alligator Snapping Turtles (Macroclemys temminckii): In collaboration with Dr. Day Ligon (http://biology.missouristate.edu/Ligon.htm), we are assaying reintroduce and captive bred populations in Oklahoma. We plan to analyze founder representation, the potential for multiple paternity, and inbreeding levels in this population. Many potential projects available looking at fitness components (growth rates of hatchlings, clutch size, hatchling survival) and its correlation with heterozygosity, specific molecular markers, and/or heritability studies. Samples available from some wild populations, projects could be devised to increase the area sampled and conduct phylogeographic research.
Cottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorus): Dr. Brian Greene (http://biology.missouristate.edu/faculty_pages/Greene_B/default.htm) has continuously studied one population of this snake near Springfield (Missouri) for more than a decade. This population occurs at the extreme north of the species range. Brian's work, in collaboration with his students, has produced a large data set on the behavior, demography, and life history of individuals in this population. This allows genetic tools to be used to address numerous questions concerning the possibility of multiple paternity, correlations between heterozygosity and fitness, etc. Extensive 454 sequencing has been done on the cottonmouth's closest relative the copperhead, so microsatellite development should be facilitated by this.
