Education Background
 

B.S. Biology, University of Georgia
Ph.D. Candidate, University of Georgia

 

 

 

Research Focus 

Distributional patterns of bird communities in large river floodplains in Georgia.

 

Bird and plant communities of tidal wetlands of the Altamaha River and estuary,

and their vulnerability to sea level rise.

 

 

Project Summary

My research generally divided among two primary projects.  The first was an effort

to understand the way in which bird and vegetation communities are distributed

along and across major river-floodplain systems in the state of Georgia (this is not

merely an arbitrary study extent, since many of the "kinds" of rivers in the southeast

are represented here).  The data informing this effort were collected during an ecological survey project called the Georgia River Survey.  In particular, I'm interested in the relationship between local floodplain hydrology, vegetation, and birds.  I also wanted to gauge the degree to which concepts of river system organization (e.g., River Continuum, Flood Pulse) can be applied to floodplains in the southeast.

 

My second project was aimed at predicting changes to bird and vegetation communities due to sea level rise in the Altamaha River delta and estuary on the Georgia coast.  While much attention has been given to salt marsh ecosystems in this context, I believe that the complex arrangement of tidal wetland types near a river's mouth demands that the entire mosaic be considered.  Indeed, most of the area's bird diversity results from the close proximity of quite different habitats.  In the end, my research is connected by a strong interest in the relationship between birds and the plants that compose their habitat, and in the effects of hydrology on wetland bird species.

 

 

Additional Information
Research is funded by a NOAA NERRS Graduate Research Fellowship, and the Georgia Ornithological Society.