Amazon

/Amazon

New publication on long-term research examining bird populations in Amazon forests

By | March 18th, 2024|Amazon, birds, Ecuador|

Just this week, we published our results from 22 years of studies on bird populations in 2 100-ha plots in the Amazon forests of Ecuador in Global Ecology and Conservation.  Starting in 2010, we began to see widespread declines in observations and captures of birds, and reported on these patterns in 2015.  This latest [...]

Mercury accumulation in tropical bats – new paper in Ecotoxicology

By | April 24th, 2020|Amazon, bats, Peru, SNRE, TCD, WEC, wildlife management|

Gold-mining and large-scale agriculture are becoming increasingly prevalent in Amazon forests of Peru and elsewhere.  With these activities, the possibility of mercury pollution increases, which could and has had serious negative impacts on human and wildlife health.  Dr. Farah Carrasco examined the presence of mercury in tropical bats in a region of Peru where gold-mining [...]

It’s official! Dr. Michael Esbach!

By | April 21st, 2020|Amazon, biodiversity, conservation, ecology, Ecuador, graduate students, interdisciplinary, SNRE, TCD, WEC, wildlife management|

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Esbach - his dissertation "Hunting for Justice: Cofán subsistence, sustainability, and self-determination in the Ecuadorian Amazon" was just accepted by University of Florida Graduate School. Great work! Michael will graduate (virtually) in May 2020 with a PhD in Interdisciplinary Ecology from the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) from the [...]

Michael Esbach defends his PhD!!

By | March 18th, 2020|Amazon, camera, conservation, ecology, Ecuador, research, SNRE, TCD|

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Esbach (or at least officially at end of Spring semester 2020) who defended his PhD dissertation "Hunting for Justice: Indigenous self-determination and the sustainability of subsistence in the Ecuadorian Amazon" on 17 March 2020 in a "virtual" defense.  Thanks to committee members Drs. Stephen Perz, Susan Paulson and Robert Walker at [...]

What did you do on Thanksgiving Break? Training Course for Brazilian Government Technicians!

By | December 4th, 2019|Amazon, Brazil, conservation, ecology, graduate students, wildlife management|

Robinson (Robin) Botero-Arias, PhD candidate in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation went to the Brazilian Amazon and led a training course for black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) management for government technicians over UF's Thanksgiving break.  Robin is a crocodilian specialist and has been working with Amazonian caimans for nearly 20 years and serves as [...]

First Record of Black Caiman Feeding on Monkeys!

By | October 18th, 2019|Amazon, Brazil|

Robinson Botero-Arias, PhD candidate in UF's Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation in collaboration with Boris Marioni (lead author), Marcela Magalhaes, José de Sousa Silva E. Júnior, and Ronis da Silveira, recently published a note on the diet of Melanosuchus niger, the Black Caiman in Herpetological Review, vol. 50 (3).  Here they report on food [...]

Farah Carrasco joins Field Museum staff in Chicago

By | September 23rd, 2019|Amazon, Andes, biodiversity, Peru, research|

Dr. Farah Carrasco finished her PhD in Interdisciplinary Ecology (SNRE) in December 2018.  After wrapping up several of her publications, she joined the Field Museum staff in Chicago as Coordinator of the Putumayo Biological and Cultural Corridor, in the Andes Amazon Program of the Keller Science Action Center at the Museum.  There she works with UF [...]

Vanessa Luna defends her MA thesis

By | April 11th, 2019|Amazon, Andes, conservation, development, graduate students, Peru, Uncategorized|

Congratulations to Vanessa Luna who recently defended her MALAS (Master of Arts in Latin American Studies) thesis.  Her thesis entitled "Does establishment of community conservation areas lead to greater protection of existing forest? A case study from the Andes of northern Peru", examined changes in forest cover over the past decade in communities without [...]

What is the value of riparian forest strips for bat conservation?

By | March 28th, 2019|Amazon, bats, biodiversity, development, graduate students, Peru|

Hot off the press!  Dr. Farah Carrasco Ruedo (PhD 2018, UF) studied this question for her dissertation research in a recently converted forest destined for palm production in the Amazon of north-central Peru.  Her results were just published in Ecology and Evolution and can be found here.  These riparian forest strips add important habitat diversity [...]

New Publication from Robinson Botero-Arias

By | May 4th, 2018|Amazon, Brazil, graduate students, research|

Congratulations to Robin Botero-Arias for his new publication in Conservation Genetics.  The paper "Delimitation of evolutionary units in Cuvier's dwarf caiman, Paleosuchus palpebrosus (Cuvier, 1807): insights from conservation of a broadly distributed species" uses molecular genetics to define evolutionary significant units (ESU) of dwarf caimans.  The work highlights how biodiversity is often underestimated and suggests [...]