Vertebrate Ecology and Conservation Lab
California State University, Fullerton
Current Graduate Students
Stephanie Cashin - Stephanie began her M.S. program in Fall 2007 and is in the process of developing her research proposal.
Christopher Moore - Chris is studying the effects of fire on community structure and foraging behavior of rodents in the Mojave Desert. His work, supported by the National Park Service and Western National Parks Association, examines the changes in abundance and rates of seed predation across burned-unburned transitions, which will help aid in recovery of vegetation and rodent populations in sagebrush-juniper and Joshua Tree woodland communities.
John Kraft - John is studying host-parasite relationships and movements of grasshopper mice associated with prairie dog colonies, as part of the broader NSF-funded plague project underway in northern Colorado.
Abby Benson - Abby is studying the population ecology and sex-biased dispersal of thirteen-lined ground squirrels in and out of prairie dog colonies in northern Colorado. Her research is also part of the broader NSF-funded plague project underway in northern Colorado.
David Elliott - David's project examines the effectiveness of underpasses constructed for wildlife in maintaining connectivity of the local Chino-Puente Hills Wildlife Habitat Corridor for carnivores and deer. He will use a combination of track stations and remote cameras and road-kill surveys to monitor use of a planned underpass in the Puente Hills, before, during and after its construction.
Current Undergraduate Research Students
Kimberly Nelson - Kim is a scholar in the UMEB-SCERP Program and is studying the effects of invasion of Argentine ants on native arthropods in riparian areas at the Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary in southern Orange County.
Amanda Boone - Amanda is working on an NSF-REU research project comparing carnivore activity around active prairie dog colonies, those that have had plague, and areas without prairie dogs. Her research is part of the plague project.
Distinguished Alumni
Dan Salkeld (Postdoc 2005-06)
Dan Salkeld is a wildlife disease specialist who studied the ecology of fleas and small mammals as part of our NSF-funded study of the ecology of plague in prairie dog colonies. Dan received his PhD in Tropical Biology in 2004 from James Cook University in northern Queensland, Australia, and also serves as a Research Fellow for the IUCN World Conservation Union in Washington, DC. Currently, Dan is a postdoc in the Lane lab at UC Berkeley and continues to collaborate on the plague grant.
Scott Newbold (Postdoc 2006-07) - Scott received his PhD from Utah State University and worked on field data collection and synthesis for an ongoing, 4-year study of the effects of grazing on habitat and resources for Mountain Plovers in the eastern plains of Colorado. This project was supported in part by the NSF Shortgrass Steppe LTER project.
Katie Levensailor(M.S., Environmental Studies, 2007) - Katie studied the responses of small mammals and arthropods to various grazing regimes designed to create habitat for Mountain Plovers, a threatened shorebird of the western Great Plains. Her research was located on the NSF Shortgrass Steppe LTER site near Ft. Collins, Colorado.
Darcee Guttilla (M.S., Biology, 2007) - Darcee examined the effects of sterilization on spacing and movement behavior and habitat use of feral cats on Santa Catalina Island. Her project was part of a larger study of the ecology of feral cats on Catalina, which aimed to estimate the impact of cats on native species and evaluate the efficacy of sterilization as a management tool for controlling feral cat populations.
Sarah Millus (M.S., Biology, 2006) Sarah studied interactions between deer mice and Xantus' Murrelet, a threatened seabird, on Santa Barbara Island, the smallest island in Channel Islands National Park. Deer mice have been implicated as major predators on murrelet eggs and chicks, and are believed to have played a role in the recent decline of murrelet populations.
Jessica Aldana (B.S. 2007) - Jessica was an NSF-REU student who is studying the behavior of thirteen-lined ground squirrels in Colorado in association with our ongoing studies of the ecology of plague in small mammals associated with prairie dog colonies.
Melissa Fowler (B.S., 2006) - Missy was a scholar in the UMEB-SCERP Program who studied the effects of predator odors on foraging behavior of pocket mice in the eastern Mojave Desert at the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, California.
Loralee Larios (B.S., 2005)
Loralee was a UMEB-SCERP Program Scholar and studied the effects of artichoke thistle on arthropod biodiversity. Her research was conducted at the Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary in southern Orange County.
Leilani Townsend (B.S., 2004)
Leilani worked on the Catalina Island feral cat project, studying the diet of feral cats in different habitat types and near human settlements. Her project helped determine the effects of feral cats on native prey species.