RESEARCH interests - cv

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Inselberg in Nouragues biological station where Dr. Ari Martinez and I spent two months studying the stability of mixed species flocks and the dependence of bird species on interspecific communication.

I 

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I am broadly interested in the ecology and evolution of Neotropical Organisms.  Particularly, my research focuses on trying to understand the drivers for the high species diversity in tropical lowland communities. My research focuses on testing hypotheses about the role of biotic an abiotic factors in determining species co-occurence patterns.  ​While I base most of my research on field studies, I am also interested in finding proper ways to analyze the data gathered. This interest has taken me to participate in projects that develop new statistical techniques that take better advantage of the data at hand.

Projects

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Environmental effects on bird community composition

This study focuses on understanding how biotic and abiotic mechanisms alternatively explain species diversity and bird community composition along environmental gradients. We now hypothesize that turnover in bird community composition along precipitation gradients results from a change in the mechanisms structuring communities. While on the wet end biotic interactions such as predation are more important, in dry forests, the abiotic environment determines species recruitment and persistence. This project has mainly taken place in the Magdalena River Valley in Colombia in which precipitation varies from ~1000 mm to ~5000 mm yearly.

The Magdalena River Valley seen from the road from Bogotá to Dorada

As part of this research I have started collaborating with Dr. Gustavo Londoño investigating the role of predation on determining community composition along elevational gradients. Dr. Londoño has spent years investigating nest predation and bird physiology in Peru, Tatama National Park, Anchicayá river Valley and in the Magdalena River Valley and we are now analyzing some of his data and will soon have some exciting results to share.

Cerro Tatama. Taken from the Montezuma Road in the border of the Tatama National Park in Pueblo Rico, Risaralda.

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Effect of fragmentation and environmental conditions on bird community turnover

This is a project led by Dr. Daniel Karp at University of California Davis. He has shown that bird Communities in Costa Rica are negatively influenced by habitat transformation by homogenizing bird communities at the regional scale and decreasing turnover rates. We are now replicating this study in the Magdalena Valley in Colombia with similar methods used by them in Costa Rica. As part as Alison's Ke PhD dissertation we have censused several farms along the rainfall gradient in the Magdalena Valley in different habitats. Alison is now analyzing the data and will soon be able to share the results.

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re-census of the cocha cashu biological station 100 ha bird plot

Back in the 80's a group of scientists that included one of my former advisors Dr. Scott Robinson pioneered a study attempting to estimate bird community composition in a 100 ha plot of pristine Amazonian forest in Peru. This study inspired many other researchers that established long term bird monitoring plots along the Neotropics. The Cocha Cashu plot however was never censused again. Lead by Dr. Ari Martinez, we are now attempting to re-census the plot with the exact same methods used in the first census. So far, we are finding incredible longterm stability in bird community composition.

Cocha Cashu seen from the station's shore

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