Center for Tropical Research April 2008 Newsletter

Feature Article

Integrating Wildlife Conservation into the Management of Cameroon’s Cacao Agricultural Landscape
by Thomas Dietsch, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment, UCLA

Field Report

Restoration of Lowland Tropical Rainforests in Kalimantan, Indonesia
by Akane Nishimura, Graduate Student, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment, UCLA

Updates

Podcast Interview with Thomas Smith and Louis Bernatchez

Molecular Ecology published a Special Issue in January 2008 entitled “Evolutionary Change in Human-altered Environments.” The papers in the issue are a result of the international summit held at UCLA in February 2007. A podcast interview with summit co-organizers and guest editors Thomas Smith and Louis Bernatchez is now available on the Molecular Ecology web site at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/podcast/mec.asp.

Field Research Trips

Thomas Dietsch returned from two months of field research in the Red River Delta region of northern Vietnam in January 2008 where he is working on a project monitoring wild birds for avian influenza. He began a second research trip on February 20. This research was made possible through support provided by the Office of Health, Infectious Disease and Nutrition, the Bureau for Global Health, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Awards, Presentations, and Appointments

Thomas Dietsch gave a presentation on February 16, 2008 at the Fourth International Partners in Flight Conference held in McAllen, Texas. About 700 people participated in the meeting. His presentation, “Assessing Conservation Values in Shade-grown Coffee Landscapes: A Model for Market-based Conservation Efforts and Ecosystem Management in a Global Context,” was part of the symposium session on the Value of Shade Coffee to Birds.

Ana Paula Giorgi was selected to give an oral presentation at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers to be held in Boston, Massachusetts from April 15-19, 2008. Her presentation, “Using Species Distribution Modeling to Understand Tropical Birds Metapopulation Dynamics in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil,” is part of the Species Distribution Modeling Roundtable Discussion session.

Alex Kirschel received a UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship for 2008 from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. On March 1, 2008, he gave a presentation at a meeting of the Southern California Animal Behavior Society, held at California State University Long Beach, on “Character Displacement in Tinkerbird Song.”

Raul Sedano was chosen to attend a weeklong workshop at the Bodega Marine Laboratory from March 8-15, 2008. The workshop in applied phylogenetics, held each spring at the UC Davis laboratory in Bodega Bay on the Northern California coast, covered topics in biogeography, ecology, conservation biology, phylogenomics, functional morphology, macroevolution, speciation, and character evolution.

Grants

Orange County Vector Control District, Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California
Ecological and Anthropogenic Factors Influencing the Distribution and Transmission of West Nile Virus in Vector and Host Populations in Orange County, California
National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Supplement
EID: Effects of Deforestation on the Prevalence of Blood-borne Pathogens in African Rainforest Birds

Donors

CTR would like to thank the Los Angeles Audubon Society for their recent contribution to CTR’s research project studying the genetics of the Southern California population of Tricolored Blackbirds. Sea & Sage Audubon and Pomona Valley Audubon Society chapters have also contributed to this project. California Audubon has pledged to match the funds donated by the three Audubon chapters. In addition, we would like to thank the people at The Girls in the Vineyard for their donations. If you buy a case of wine from them, they will send a donation of $30 to CTR (please designate CTR as your non-profit organization of choice at the time of purchase).

CTR would like to thank Margery Nicolson for her continuing financial support for CTR’s research projects, most recently for conservation and education projects in the Chocó rainforest in Ecuador. We would like to thank everyone who has donated funds for this important work, including the Los Angeles Audubon Society, as well as those who responded to a mailing of a video describing CTR’s research projects in Ecuador, and those who attended and donated at the fundraising event in February organized by CTR Latin America Director Jordan Karubian.