Current Students

Climate change education, civic ecology practices in areas threatened by sea level rise, online learning

Ecology and conservation of migratory birds in Central America

Socio-political institutions, Human well-being & Biological conservation

Broadly interested in socioecological systems, community development, and environmental education in developing countries.

Spatial ecology and early life-history of coregonine fishes in Lake Ontario

Environmental factors affecting the survival of blacklegged ticks in New York state

Policy of market based instruments for conservation in developing countries

Community-based ecological conservation, high elevation ecosystem dynamics, agroecology

My research interests lie in conservation, movement ecology, and population biology of migratory organisms, especially birds. In particular, I am interested in understanding how seasonal interactions influence population dynamics, movement, and behavior between different periods of the annual cycle.

Examining the processes of developing and implementing landscape-level conservation across complex social-ecological systems, with an emphasis on understanding the role of local stakeholders in conservation decision-making.

Using passive acoustic technology to monitor African forest elephant distribution and abundance in response to anthropogenic activities

Predator-prey population dynamics in Lake Ontario.

My main areas of interest are focusing on sustainable forest management, deforestation & land conversion, human-wildlife conflicts, and climate change. I will be conducting spatial risk mapping in Ecuador as a tool to plan and implement human-Andean bear conflict mitigation measures.
 

Evaluating limits to the restoration of cisco in Lake Ontario

Political ecology of market based environmental governance

Intended and unintended impacts of payment for ecosystem service projects on biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods in areas with high poverty and weak governance

My research involves sediment biogeochemistry in a New England seagrass meadow ecosystem.

Bird damage to fruit crops as part of a multi-state, interdisciplinary USDA project

Using GIS to model soil moisture and nutrient transport

Spatial ecology and acoustic sampling of Mysid "shrimps"

Civic ecology practices in coastal communities, environmental education, the political ecology of plastics, citizen science and participatory observatories for microplastic pollution in coastal zones of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean systems.

Daler completed his BA at American University of Central Asia, Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) majoring in the Environmental Management and Sustainability and minoring in Anthropology. His BA thesis is on community resilience and commodification of nature in Eastern Pamirs of Tajikistan since 2015. Currently, he is working on the role of Ecological Knowledge to Anticipate Climate Change in village scale, specifically in the Alai and Pamir region, with the science team of Belmont Forum funded project “Ecological Calendars and Climate Adaptation in the Pamirs”

Quantifying the relative contribution of Hudson River tributaries to river herring spawning densities

Ecohydrology and carbon flux in Southeastern Alaska

I am investigating the northern United States tallgrass prairie region, as well as adjacent agricultural land, for an extensive suite of physical, chemical, biological and microbial soil properties. These data will be used to establish a landmark, comprehensive soil health profile for relict, natural tall grass prairies and a consequent set of targets for grassland remediation efforts. This research will also provide Midwest relict (near virgin) grassland soil data, which is scarce at best and contribute to national efforts to map the health of domestic soil. Lastly, when compared to the active agricultural land samples, these data will establish a quantifiable estimate of post-European colonization degradation of soil.
 

Critical environmental policy and institutional analysis, environmental governance, science and technology studies.

Patterns of habitat use by tropical resident and migratory bird species in regenerating pasture landscapes in Guatemala

Nutrient cycling and limitation in northern hardwood ecosystems.

The application of genomic tools in fisheries management and conservation

I am studying bird behavior and ecology, and working as a research assistant to create an online platform for co-created citizen science centered around the Lab of Ornithology’s Bird Cams.

Modeling trout population dynamics in NY streams

My research examines how framing, specifically word choice, can impact the long term conservation of a species. I'm broadly interested in overarching questions related to how humans act towards and think about non human animals, and particularly interested in categories of animals that become targeted for mass management (such as feral, non native, invasive, etc). I hope to better understand the complicated ethics behind why people make certain decisions or take certain actions in relation to these animals- and ultimately influence those decisions and actions.

My primary research goal is to study the ecology of rare/declining wildlife species to aid in conservation/management efforts

The impact individuals' perceptions of the environment, community and sense of place have on environmental behavior

My research interests include environmental sociology, natural resource dependent communities, energy transitions, and social class dynamics. 

Spawning habitat utilization by cisco in the Great Lakes and applications for cisco restoration in Lake Ontario

Socio-economic impacts of rural landscape policies in developing countries

Motivating civic ecology practices, educating for systems thinking and environmental stewardship

Effectiveness of social marketing campaign on wildlife conservation in Nam Et — Phou Louey, Lao People’s Democratic Republic

The preservation of traditional ecological knowledge and its application in conservation.

Deep chlorophyll layers and lower food web ecology in the Great Lakes

I study the effect of climate change, habitat patchiness and landscape configuration over the structure and composition of Polylepis (Rosacea) bird community in Huascaran National Park and Biosphere Reserve in norther Peru.

Ecology, biogeochemistry, and management of water chestnut. Broadly interested in biological invasions and their impacts on ecological interactions and nutrient cycling. 

I research computational hydrology and ecohydrology at the Soil and Water lab. Broadly, I'm interested in learning how vegetative form and function determines water budget and hydrogeochemistry, and how invasive species and land use changes transform them

Modeling residential develop and assessing potential impacts on bio-diversity habitat

I study the effect of human development activities on the behavior and population structure of forest birds in the Chilean temperate forests, both in mainland and oceanic islands. For my dissertation, I investigate how the deforestation for firewood and cleaning for cattle and agriculture affects habitat use and survival of Magellanic woodpeckers. 

Occupancy and co-occurrence dynamics of carnivore species in the Ecuadorian Andes

Estimating population abundance and genetic relatedness of New York state black bears.

Migratory connectivity and the effects of climate change on arctic shorebirds

I focus on the ethnobiological dimensions of plant genetic resource value.  I have conducted interdisciplinary research in Turkey and Azerbaijan in a context where rural smallholders and society at large are adapting to significant threats to the native chestnut species caused by imported pathogens and rural abandonment.  I strive to make contributions to ethno-landscape ecology, conservation ethics, theories of plant value and participatory mapping.  My research is best described as conservation-driven ethnobiology and cultural geography.    
 

Nutrient limitations of algal in streams and lakes. The nutrients I am interested in include: nitrogen, phosphorus, and thiamine (vitamin B1). 

Impacts of water extraction for Marcellus Shale development on stream habitat and species

I am investigating the abundance of moose in New York State's Adirondack Park, as well as helping develop new sampling and analysis methods for assessing population characteristics of rare species. 

I am interested in the business model of environmental education organizations.

My primary research interest is in roles and environmental education of campus environmental groups, especially campus environmental clubs in China.

The civic role of NGO and domestic communities in responding social environmental issues;
conservation governance; community mobilization