We study avian behavior
and ecology to answer questions about the effects of environmental
change on organisms. We use concepts from the fields of tropical
biology, restoration ecology, and conservation biology in our
work. Lab members have expored the following questions: How
do populations respond to
small and large-scale changes in the environment, for example the
creation of
edges and the conversion of forest to agriculture? Which aspects
of land-cover change most
strongly influence population abundance and species richness? How
can we use behavior to measure habitat
quality? In recently published work the P.I.
examined whether land-cover models explaining the abundance and
richness of
bird groups in southern Costa Rica were applicable to central Costa
Rica, i.e.
how generalizable are models developed from one tropical area to
another area? Other work focuses on investigating how
local- and landscape-scale factors influence the types and abundance of
bird
species in tropical sites undergoing
forest restoration. Recent projects in the temperate zone
quantify foraging behavior to examine the responses of birds to
environmental change.
Principal
Investigator:
Dr.
Catherine Lindell
lindellc@msu.edu
Mailing address:
Associate Professor
phone:
(517)
884-1241 Dept. of Zoology
Department of
Zoology
(517) 353-9874
203 Natural Science Building
Center for
Global Change and Earth
Observations
fax: (517) 432-2789
Michigan State University
Michigan
State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
