Ecology and Evolution Graduate Program

Tyler Christensen, Ph.D Candidate in the Maslo Lab is studing habitat selection of eastern copperheads. Using radio telemetry and computer-based approaches, Tyler’s work (funded by the New Jersey Department of Fish and Wildlife) will provide critical information for developing habitat conservation directives for this species.

Christian Crosby, PhD Candidate in the Maslo Lab is studying resource selection patterns in coastal red fox populations. His research involves camera-based and GPS tracking approaches for studying these and other coastal carnivores and is funded in large part by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

Daniel Fisher, a Ph.D Candidate in the Maslo Lab is developing environmental DNA (eDNA) approaches for detecting bat roosts in bridges. Here Daniel is using a sterilized paint roller to collect eDNA from a bridge wall. In the lab, he will extract the DNA and use metabarcoding to determine whether bat DNA is present.

Max McCarthy studying metapopulations of a rare specialist bee, Andrena parnassiae, in the fens of northern New Jersey.

Blair Young processing voucher material of study species used in a publication (l) and collecting material of study species M. polymorpha at the Raritan (r).

Joanna Greenwood using her tree-climbing skills to study the ecology of forest-associated bee species, and their role in pollinating trees including spring-flowering crops such as apple and cherry.

Erin Chille taking measurements in an area of healthy montipora corals.

Andrew Aldercotte doing field work in Borneo where he is studying the phenology of plant-pollinator interactions in the tropical forest canopy.

Blair Young and Emily Hughes in the the Chrysler Herbarium and Mycological Collection

Ph.D students Becca DeCamp and Lindsey Hauff peer over a DNA sequencing run on the Oxford Nanopore MinION.

Maxine Marvosa doing a DNA extraction on acorns.

Elyse Talley is interested in understanding how native bee biodiversity can coexist with people, particularly in landscapes heavily altered by anthropogenic change.

Photos from the trip to the rainforest to take eDNA samples in the rainforest - Lockwood Lab.

Ph.D student Lindsey Hauff photographs a preserved lemur from the 1920s at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. She extracted DNA from a tiny piece of it to understand how humans have impacted wild lemur populations in the last century.

A small metallic sweat bee rests on the petal of a Spring Beauty flower.

Ph.D student and field worker collecting data on apple pollination at an apple orchard in Massachusetts.

Ph.D student Lindsey Hauff and Noa Elosmie Rasoanaivo collect fecal samples from brown lemurs in Ranomafana National Park alongside technicians from Centre ValBio. The team is collecting the samples for genetic analysis to assess population health.