E. Camilo Alejo Monroy, M.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisor:
Catherine Potvin
Started his Ph.D. in September 2018
Topic:
Forest degradation and recovery in neotropical indigenous territories.
Indigenous territories cover a considerable area of neotropical forests. These territories are effective in preventing deforestation, but assessments regarding forest degradation remain uncertain. Forest degradation is considered to be a loss of recovery capacity in response to disturbance. In neotropical forests, degradation can add 47% additional carbon over the emissions from deforestation alone. However, compared with deforestation, the literature explaining the causes and mechanisms of degradation has started to emerge more recently. Hence, forest degradation in indigenous territories represents a strategic scenario with ecological and social implications. For instance, how global desires, such as climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation, could be achieved in the context of land rights and traditional livelihoods. My research aims to determine in neotropical indigenous territories the effectiveness and mechanisms to avoid degradation. I propose a multiscale approach. On a neotropical scale, I will analyze biomass change patterns and identify their most influential biophysical and social drivers. Departing from this coarse-scale approach, I will assess in the field regeneration processes and functions associated with forest recovery capacity. By relating this assessment with local land use management and livelihoods, I am expecting to identify trade-offs and synergies involved with degradation and recovery.
Jose Avila Cervantes, M.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisors:
Hans Larsson
Enrique Martinez Meyer (UNAM)
Started his Ph.D. in September 2013
Topic:
Phylogeography and testing parallel evolution and adaptation in Neotropical Crocodiles.
My project investigates different states of speciation in Neotropical crocodile populations integrating climate, geography and genetics to detect evolutionary patterns and ecological processes. The Neotropical Crocodylus genus ranges from Florida to Venezuela on the Atlantic coasts, from Baja to Ecuador on the Pacific coasts, and several inland regions in between. One species that ranges over much of Mexico and Pacific Central America is Crocodylus acutus.
My research focus is on answering three questions with this species:
1. Does the wide distribution of Crocodylus acutus correspond to local adaptation across the wide variety of climatic conditions over its range?
2. Is genetic divergence associated to adaptation to different environmental conditions?
3. Do these populations exhibit parallel evolution?
Marc-Olivier Beausoleil, M.Sc.
Department of Biology and Redpath Museum
Supervisors:
Owen McMillan
Started his Ph.D. in September 2017
Topic:
Ecological genomics of Darwin鈥檚 finches: using genomics, phenotypes and fitness to understand the speciation of island birds.
Why is the organic world so diverse? How does biodiversity emerge? These are some of the most exciting questions that evolutionary biologists are trying to answer currently. With the advent of molecular techniques to get to one of the finest genomic information, we are now able to probe life at its basic constituents and understand the processes acting on it. With this in mind, I study the emergence of new species in Darwin鈥檚 finches. The population currently studied is currently undergoing a speciation event or the split of different populations that are adapted with different phenotypes. To understand how speciation is occurring I鈥檓 linking genomic information with changes in phenotypes and its impact on fitness. This project will bring insights in the evolutionary mechanisms responsible for the split of species. Moreover, human influence on the Gal谩pagos Islands is increasing and potentially changing the evolutionary course of the finches living near the cities. Thus, using molecular genomics, I want to quantify the effect of this urbanization of the birds鈥� environment compared to their more pristine habitats. This research thus informs us on the influence of humans, when modifying their environments, in the evolutionary trajectory of species.
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Paola Carrion-Aviles, M.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisors:
Andrew Hendry
Jaime Chaves (San Francisco State University
Started her Ph.D. in September 2018
Topic:
Anthropogenic Impact in the Evolution of Darwin Finches.
Understand possible causes and consequences of the human presence on several phenotypic and genetic traits of Darwin finches in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.
Sofia Carvajal Endara, M.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisors:
Andrew Hendry
Thomas Davies
Started her Ph.D. in September 2013
Topic:
Darwin鈥檚 finches and plant assemblies: Evaluating the role of predation on phylogenetic community structure.
I am interested in the eco-evolutionary dynamics that are shaping the structure of communities. I intend to explore how evolutionary changes in species traits can influence the ecological and evolutionary patterns of a community. During my Ph.D, I will focus my research on the effect of seed predation of Darwin鈥檚 finches on plant communities in the Galapagos Islands. In this extraordinary system, the availability of food items is thought to have played a determinant role in the evolution of the morphology of finches鈥� beaks and in their adaptive radiation. However, the feed back of these interactions, the effect of predation by finches on plant community structure remains unexplored.
Dirley Cort茅s Parra, B.Sc.
Department of Biology and Redpath Museum
Supervisors:
Hans Larsson
Carlos Jaramillo (STRI)
Started her Ph.D. in September 2018
Topic:
Phylogeny, diversity patterns, and paleobiogeographical relationships of Early Cretaceous vertebrate fauna from Colombia.
Early Cretaceous life was influenced by the accelerated breakup of Pangaea (the supercontinent). After the formation of Gondwana, several faunal turnovers were experienced by marine and terrestrial ecosystems. In this time, northern South America was an epicontinental sea formed by the rapid western expansion of the Tethyan sea at the time, suitable for the proliferation of a diverse fauna. However, how these extinctions and environmental drivers might have affected Early Cretaceous ecosystems remains unclear. One of the best sedimentary sequences that would potentially register dramatic changes in diversity is recorded in the Barremian-Aptian aged Paja Formation in Colombia (~130 million years ago). Being one of the most complete exposures from that part of the early Cretaceous in South America, the Paja Formation has yielded enormous and bizarre marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs, turtles and ichthyosaurs, and also terrestrial dinosaurs. As the Paja Formation is located in tropical latitudes that are remarkably undersampled, this constitutes an extraordinary opportunity to explore both the marine and terrestrial realms of the Early Cretaceous South America. My research investigates the hypothesis of a biodiversity 鈥榟otspot鈥� where marine vertebrate communities (e.g. plesiosaurs, turtles, fish, ichthyosaurs and crocodiles) were isolated after the end-Jurassic global extinction. The hotspot hypothesis will be tested as both a refuge for lineages that went extinct elsewhere during the end-Jurassic mass extinction and as a region of high speciation rates.
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Maria Creighton
Department of Biology
Supervisors:
Simon Reader
William Wcislo (STRI)
Started her M.Sc. in January 2018
Topic:
Species Diversity in Primates: Predictors and Implications for Applied Areas of Biology.
My research focuses on the causes and consequences of species diversity across primate lineages. In my first chapter, I am testing the Behavioural Drive Hypothesis, which posits that behavioural flexibility leads to faster rates of evolutionary diversification, thereby increasing diversification rates in behaviourally flexible groups. In this chapter I use a measure of the number of evolutionary branches that subtend each species to estimate evolutionary diversification rate. Diversity within species is often used a metric of diversification rate, however, 鈥渟pecies鈥� themselves are scientific hypotheses that are constantly being redefined and tested. Therefore, my second chapter focuses on how methodology for defining species influences perceived diversity across primate groups and the predictors of species inflation under the phylogenetic species concept (PSC). I additionally explore the implications of changing species definitions on applied areas of research such as conservation. As a part of my internships for the BESS (Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainability) program, I have also been involved in two ongoing behavioural studies focusing on the diet of black-handed spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) in the neo-tropics.
Holy Cronin, M.Sc.
Department of Geography
Supervisor:
Brian E. Robinson
Started her Ph.D. in September 2014
Topic:
Untangling the Dynamics of Institutional Innovation in the Burgeoning Seaweed Aquaculture Sector.
My research interests focus on relationships between human communities and marine environments with an aim to contribute to improving opportunities for sustainable development in coastal regions. As a doctoral student, my work investigates emerging seaweed aquaculture industries as dynamic social颅-ecological systems. Seaweed farming represents a promising avenue for economic diversification in coastal communities while providing locally beneficial ecosystem services. Cultivation of seaweeds on ropes in the ocean requires no fresh water, arable land, or fertilizer and seaweed crops sequester carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus as they grow. To develop sustainably, the sector must navigate a mix of scientific, farming, entrepreneurial, market, and policy challenges. Successful emergence of environmentally sound regional seaweed industries thus requires thoughtfully customized and innovatively structured support. Using a mixed methods approach, my research examines the roles of leaders, social networks, and policy design in shaping the evolution of innovative new seaweed industries in Panama and the United States with the objective of distilling lessons for how to organize and channel coastal resources management and the development of sustainable industries more broadly.
Cassia Foley, B.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisors:
Virginie Millien
H茅ctor Guzm谩n (STRI)
Started her M.Sc.in September 2018
Topic:
Environmental drivers of humpback whale movement patterns and the risk associated with fishing gear entanglement and ship-strike.
Humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, are a philopatric, migratory species with a range distributed along continental coasts and tropical oceanic islands. Through the use of satellite telemetry and animal movement models, I am examining how the whales鈥� distributions and movement patterns are predicted by dynamic environmental drivers, and how climate change is expected to alter their locations and underlying behavioural states. Additional to the implications associated with a changing climate, humpbacks are particularly vulnerable to a number of human-induced stressors such as by-catch incidental to commercial fisheries and ship-shrike. I will plot fishing ship and vessel tracks against whale coordinates to better understand this interaction.
Ximena Florez Buitrago, M.Sc.
Department of Plant Sciences
Supervisors:
Suha Jabaji
Allen Herre (STRI)
Started her M.Sc. in September 2018
Topic:
Biodiversity and Functional Characterization of Endophytic Bacteria Associated with Cacao (Theobroma cacao) Fruit.
I have a strong interest in the development and implementation of new technologies in agriculture to ensure food security in the short and long term. In Latin America, the cacao production is affected principally by the disease "frosty pod rot" caused by the fungus Moniliophthora roreri, which generates losses over 30%, and up to 100%. For small-scale farmers, the ecological and health impacts, and the cost of pesticides can exceed the economic benefits. In the idea to provide green solutions, I am exploring the endophytic community of bacteria present in the cacao fruits. Accumulated evidences suggest that the interaction of these group of microorganisms with the host plant can potentially provide resistance or tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Therefore, my main goal is to assess the antagonistic potential of the culturable bacteria isolated from the cacao fruits against the pathogen M. roreri.
Roberto Forte Taylor, M.Sc. & MBA
Department of Bioresource Engineering
Supervisors:
Grant Clark
Stanley Heckadon-Moreno
Started his Ph.D. in September 2018
Topic:
Helping Smallholder Farmers in Panama Transition to Permaculture.
My name is Roberto Forte, and I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Bioresource Engineering at 捆绑SM社区. I want to establish ecological agriculture as a method of production in Panama鈥檚 rural areas. Conventional agricultural practices in Panama degrade soils, pollute rivers, and exterminate species. This is symptomatic of a single-minded focus on profit and unplanned development that is devastating Panama's natural resources. This crisis in the agricultural sector forces us to consider progressive agricultural practices such as agroecology, permaculture, and agroforestry. Permaculture has been shown to improve soil fertility and crop resilience and will increase local production and reduce CO2 emissions. To work well, however, permaculture practices must be planned together in a single integrated design method and must be developed from a bottom-up approach so that they respond to the specific needs of a community or region. I am creating a bottom-up methodology for the adaptation of localized, feasible, and sustainable permaculture designs in Panama鈥檚 rural areas. The methodology will be communicated to smallholders in Mariato, Panama to help them simplify the development of their permaculture farms. Moreover, this research also aims to help scientists and people with agroecological interest to develop localized, sustainable, and feasible permaculture designs in other regions of the world.
Camilo Gomez Chaparro, M.A.
Department of Anthropology
Supervisor:
Colin Scott
Started his Ph.D. in September 2016
Topic:
The Value of the Sacred: Extraction of Natural Resources in Indigenous Territories. Culture, Spirituality, and Conflict in the Colombian Amazon.
My investigation challenges destructive assumptions commonly made regarding the interplay between material and sacred aspects of Indigenous territories in the Colombian Amazon. As long as government and extractive corporations misunderstand this dynamic interplay, relationships, contracts and agreements will be fraught with conflict. In order to better understand the complex associations between landscape, people and other organisms in the Amazonian rain forest, this research combines Cybernetic Studies, theories of Communicative Action, Social Construction of Knowledge, knowledge mobilization (KMb), Political Ontology and the Indigenous premise of Buen Vivir (Living Well).
Chantal Hutchinson, M.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisors:
Frederic Guichard
Peter Edwin Caines
Started her Ph.D. in January 2015
Topic:
Effect of climate events on the stability of a tropical planted forest.
I will be developing climate-driven neighbourhood competition models for growth and survival to better understand the mechanisms driving stability of forest ecosystems. The basic theory underlying this problem is the insurance hypothesis, which says a diversity of complementary species responses to changing conditions maintains ecosystem function. To test this hypothesis, the covariance matrix of responses to climatic fluctuations between relevant variables will be investigated. Trees are an ideal study population because they are sessile, allowing a more controllable investigation of the mechanisms responsible for the competitive and facilitative interactions responsible for complementarity. These models will be built/tested using long-term data collected from the Sardinilla planted forest in Panama as well as the Anhembi study site in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I鈥檓 also interested in scaling our predictions to the landscape level and integrating over an entire forest rotation to address practical problems in forestry.
Nicole Knight, B.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisors:
Frederic Guichard
Andrew Altieri
Started her Ph.D. in September 2015
Topic:
What role does diet play in the biogeography of marine fishes?
Herbivorous marine fishes are abundant in the tropics, but virtually absent at high latitudes.聽 We do not have a mechanistic explanation for this pattern, although several hypotheses have been put forward. My research seeks to systematically test how environmental factors, particularly temperature, interact with fishes鈥� diet to determine their distributions and range sizes.
Kristen Lalla, B.Sc.
Department of Natural Resource Sciences
Supervisors:
Kyle Elliott
Kevin Fraser (University of Manitoba)
Started her M.Sc. in September 2018
Topic:
Purple martin movement ecology.
The purple martin (Progne subis) is a declining colonial aerial insectivore. There are many proposed causes for decline, such as agricultural intensification and habitat loss. The purple martin breeds in North America, usually in nest boxes, and winters in Brazil. This project aims to have direct conservation implications for Montreal鈥檚 purple martins. A focus will be given to post-fledging survival and wintering ground habitat preferences. Fledglings will be radio-tagged and tracked to look at dispersal and locate post-fledging roosts near Montreal. I will also estimate post-fledgling survival. Furthermore, I will examine habitat preferences in purple martin non-breeding grounds in Brazil for both foraging and roosting using a combination of GPS and radio tracking.
Francis van Oordt La Hoz, M.Sc.
Department of Natural Resource Sciences
Supervisors:
Kyle Elliot
Jorge Tam (IMARPE-Peru)
Started his Ph.D. in September 2017
Topic:
Foraging ecology and energetics of Peruvian resident seabirds.
Seabirds are an excellent study group to understand optimal foraging and central place foraging theories, as they normally make long flights from their nests to find food in a patchy environment while caring for their eggs or feed their young. In the Peruvian Humboldt Current system, where some 100 species of seabird co-occur, about twenty species of seabirds are resident to this region, using the available resources year-long. One of the aims of my study is to describe foraging niche partitioning in the resident seabird assemblage using a stable isotope approach to understand resource use segregation. This technique is widely used among ecologists, but many times limited to a few indicators (bulk carbon and nitrogen isotopes). Expanding the calculation of niche metrics using a greater range of isotopes (e.g. sulfur, aminoacids specific, fatty acids, etc.) will give a better and more complete idea of niche segregation in this ecosystem. I will try also to detect foraging patterns and habitat segregation in species of piscivore seabirds (cormorants, boobies and pelicans) and how this is linked to physiological condition, stress and foraging effort and how these foraging components are associated to environmental disturbances in time in the Upwelling Humboldt Current System off the Peruvian coast.
Ananda Regina Pereira Martins, M.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisors:
Owen McMillan
Rowan Barrett
Started her Ph.D. in January 2016
Topic:
Hybridization between two Heliconius subspecies in the Brazilian Amazon.
Understanding the mechanisms responsible for the design and maintenance of biodiversity聽remains a great challenge for evolutionary biologists.聽Recent genomic technology combined with morphological, ecological and behavioral data allow biologists to shed light on processes that may guide diversification, such as hybridization.聽Despite the large number of hybridization research over the last decades,聽some questions still need to be addressed with more empirical supports and using new approaches methods聽for understanding speciation processes, hybrid zones dynamics and the evolutionary forces acting in these zones.聽Henry Walter Bates, during his trip through the Brazilian Amazon more than 150 years ago, recognized the existence of intermediate phenotypes of Heliconius populations, which could be seen as an evidence of hybridization. He proposed that these were transition forms between two species 鈥� Heliconius melpomene and H. thelxiope.聽Nowadays, these populations are treated as subspecies of H. melpomene and聽I propose to study the hybrid zone between these two butterflies to answer questions like:聽鈥渨hat is the 鈥榬ole鈥� of hybrids in a incipient聽speciation process?鈥�, 鈥渨hat evolutionary factors are responsible for the sustainment of hybrids?鈥�
Betzi Perez Ortega, M.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisor:
Andrew Hendry
Started her Ph.D. in September 2015
Topic:
Exploring the relationship between health condition and anthropogenic stressors in a wild population of bottlenose dolphin.
The bottlenose dolphins of Dolphin Bay in the Archipelago of Bocas del Toro (BDT) live in a small and genetically isolated population (Barrag谩n-Barrera et al. 2012, 2015) that sustains the largest dolphin tourism industry in Panama. In this location, dolphins are exposed to high levels of dolphin watching on regularly basis and they have adopted a number of short-term behavioral and acoustic strategies in an apparent attempt to overcome the invasiveness of these interactions. Until now, studies have suggested that dolphin watching in general is considered as a stressor (New et al., 2015; Parsons, 2012) but no study has directly tested the link between the dolphin watching and physiology in a wild population. If dolphin-watching activity is causing prolonged stress, then I will expect stress levels will have significant consequences for survival, reproduction, and the overall health of the population (Kirby et al., 2009; Thomson and Geraci, 1985). During my doctoral studies, I will quantify the stress hormone levels of dolphins in relation to dolphin-watching activities. To do so, I will be collecting biopsies from wild animals in three neighboring areas that vary in boat activity: Changuinola, Chiriqu铆 Lagoon, and Bocas del Toro. The last of these sites has the highest dolphin watching levels, and the other two locations have very limited dolphin watching levels. Specifically, I will ask the following questions: Are hormone levels significantly higher in the dolphin populations where dolphin-watching activities are high? and, if so, do hormone levels vary with seasonal variation in tourism? Finally, based on hormone levels, can we predict the health status of this population?
Andrew Sellers, M.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisors:
Brian Leung
Mark Torchin
Started his Ph.D. in September 2014
Topic:
Effects of seasonal upwelling events on algal-herbivore interactions in tropical shores.
Flows of resources and materials between ecosystems are ubiquitous across biomes, and can strongly influence ecological processes in recipient communities. Nutrient subsidies can have particularly profound effects on ecosystems by supporting high primary productivity, which in turn alters interactions between consumers and their resources, and the flow of energy through food-webs. In marine systems, wind-driven upwelling events transport nutrient rich waters from the deep ocean to shallow coastlines. The effects of upwelling events on producer abundance and herbivory have been widely studied on temperate coasts, while similar research in the tropics is sparse and limited to the Galapagos Archipelago. Understanding how upwelling activity influences ecological processes in the tropics is important because research on tropical shores has been largely limited to the influence of top-down processes, specifically herbivory and predation. Meanwhile, how large-scale oceanographic processes, such as upwelling, influence community dynamics and top-down control in the tropics remains largely unexplored. The regional and seasonal contrasts of upwelling activity that characterize the relatively short stretch of Panama鈥檚 Pacific coastline make it an ideal location to investigate the influence of upwelling activity on tropical coastal ecosystems. The focus of my research is to understand how seasonal upwelling events in Panama influence the effects of herbivores on marine algae, and determine whether increases in primary productivity supported by upwelled nutrient subsidies have a positive effect on the fecundity of tropical consumers.
Heather Stewart, M.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisors:
Lauren Chapman
Mark Torchin
Owen McMillan (STRI)
Andrew Altieri (University of Florida, USA)
Started her Ph.D. in September 2016
Topic:
The roles of stress and disturbance in the spatial variability of biodiversity: Lessons from mangroves.
Global environmental changes due to anthropogenic disturbances and climate change impact species composition and diversity which can alter the ecosystem functioning. Foundation species (e.g., red mangrove Rhizophora mangle), organisms that play a strong role in structuring communities, are an integral part of the ecosystem, making them an ideal study species to understand the role stress and disturbance play in altering community composition.
My current research fits under three categories:
1. The importance of red mangrove root properties in driving local species composition.
2. The role of stress and disturbance in shaping community composition within mangrove islands.
3. How mangroves may offer refuge for scleractinian corals in a changing world.
I am working to understand the patterns and processes that influence community structure and biodiversity in these vital ecosystems to best inform conservation practice.
Timothy Thurman, B.A.
Department of Biology and the Redpath Museum
Supervisors:
Owen McMillan
Rowan Barrett
Started his Ph.D. in September 2013
Topic:
The Genetics Basis of Adaptation in Heliconius Butterflies.
Adaptation is a fundamental process of evolution, but many questions remain about how it operates at the genetic level: What is the genetic architecture of adaptive traits? How does natural selection shape variation across the genome? How predictable is evolution at the genetic level? With recent advances in DNA sequencing technology, biologists can finally begin answering some of these questions. I鈥檓 interested in combining field experiments with genome sequencing to understand how selection pressures from ecological interactions shape genetic variation in natural populations of Heliconius butterflies. Heliconius butterflies are widespread across the neotropics and face a number of adaptive challenges, from specializing on different host plants to adapting to different climate regimes. By understanding how Heliconius meet these specific challenges, I hope to gain insight into the genetic basis of adaptation in general.
Wyatt Toure, B.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisors:
Simon Reader
Rachel Page (STRI)
Started his M.Sc. in September 2018
Topic:
Examining the extent of environmental influence on the exploratory behaviour of Trinidadian guppies.
My research aims to determine the extent of influence the environment has on shaping individual behaviour, focusing specifically on guppy exploratory behaviour. Exploratory behaviour potentially provides animals with information about the environment and/or the objects within it which can lead to the discovery of superior resources. However, exploration can also involve important costs as it involves increased investment with uncertain outcomes, especially if there is current knowledge on certain outcomes. Exploring the environment will inevitably lead to encounters with novelty and in the current context of global environmental change, how animals respond to novelty will become of increasing importance. Curiously, individual guppies differ consistently in how likely they are to engage with novelty and there is evidence that this correlates across contexts. A guppy more likely to explore novel spaces tends to be more likely to explore a novel object. That these differences exist and have ecological as well as evolutionary consequences has been well established 鈥� how these divergent responses to novelty arise remains relatively unknown. One possibility is that as individuals accumulate different experiences with novelty, they develop concordant variation in their exploratory tendencies. To test this hypothesis, I am experimentally manipulating experiences with novelty to see if this results in a shift in the behavioural phenotype and whether these shifts stretch across novelty contexts. Additionally, my first internship involved investigating the cognitive consequences of evolutionary divergence in brain size in Heliconiini butterflies.
Carmen Umana-Kinitzki, M.Sc.
Department of Anthropology
Supervisor:
Colin Scott
Started her Ph.D.in September 2018
Topic:
Where water-worlds converge: Indigenous responses to industrial development along the headwaters of the Amazon River.
Throughout the Andean-Amazon Watershed, concessions are being granted to transnational companies to build highways, extract petroleum, and develop large-scale hydroelectric dams along free-flowing rivers; thereby expanding South America鈥檚 water/energy nexus. Included among these rivers are the Mara帽贸n and Ucayali, whose headwaters unite to form the main branch of the Amazon River in Peru. Experts warn that adequate basin-scale impact assessments have yet to be conducted for these projects, while numerous Indigenous-led efforts are underway to ensure that their riverine knowledges and values gain political recognition in the decision-making processes. My work aims to examine these knowledge disjunctures by exploring Indigenous approaches to freshwater stewardship, ontologies of more-than-human personhood, and ethical dimensions of multispecies-reciprocity.
Angelly Vasquez Correa, M.Sc.
Department of Biology
Supervisors:
Ehab Abouheif
Owen McMillan
William Wcislo
Started her Ph.D. in September 2017
Topic:
Origin of caste polymorphism in fungus-farming ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae: Attine).
In social Hymenoptera (Ants), the complexity of caste systems is marked by three major thresholds: the evolution of eusociality, the evolution of worker-queen dimorphism, and the evolution of polymorphic worker castes. Worker caste polymorphism in ants is a particular case of phenotypic plasticity because it is environmentally induced and its expression is regulated during development. My research is focusing on worker polymorphism of tropical ants as new model organisms to understand the diversification of a single worker caste into a complex system of morphological and behavioral subcastes. Specifically, my research examines the origin of caste variation in the polymorphic species of leaf-cutter ants and big-headed ants from an integrative framework, combining tropical ecology, phylogenetic comparative methods, and developmental biology.
Gabriel Yahya Haage, B.Sc. & Diploma in Environment
Department Natural Resource Sciences
Supervisor:
Peter G. Brown
Started his Ph.D. in September 2016
Topic:
Historical trends in Panamanian dam building projects.
Dam development in the Neotropics can have large impacts, due to, among other issues, environmental degradation, community relocation and variable economic growth. This project seeks to understand historical trends in Panamanian dam projects. By analyzing documents arising from different types of institutions, including government agencies, NGOs, corporations and the media, one can track how discussions of various themes has changed through time. A thematic analysis will look at discussions, by different institutions, of flora/fauna and Human-Wildlife Conflicts, components of sustainable development, use of academic resources and experts, and, finally, local stakeholder participation. The results of this project will highlight how generalizable one dam development project is to others in the nation while also potentially informing future policy regarding such projects.