Dr. Charles van Riper III

USGS Research Scientist and Professor
 
USGS Southwest Biological Science Center Sonoran Desert Research Station, Leader

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Research Lab

Click here for information on how to obtain copies of publications.
Colorado Plateau
Book VI

 Book VII
 Book VIII
(Read about Book VIII)

Publications About
Dr. van Riper
Africa
Project
Yellow-billed
Cuckoo
Neotropical
Migrants
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Graduate Students
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences - School of Natural Resources - University of Arizona
125 Biological Sciences East - Tucson, AZ 85721 -
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PHOTOS of Field Work, Research, and other fun stuff

TJ Fontaine

Postdoctoral Fellow
fontaine.joseph@gmail.com

TJ obtained a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from The University of Montana in 1997, and his Ph.D. in Wildlife and Fisheries from The University of Montana in 2006. Over his tenure as a wildlife biologist TJ has examined questions relating to avian life history evolution and behavioral ecology on three continents. Currently, he is working as a postdoctoral fellow examining the patterns of migration and stopover ecology in Neotropical migrants. Specifically, he is interested in identifying major migratory pathways and sources of selection acting on stopover site selection. By understanding how birds move from winter grounds to breeding grounds and the obstacles they face along the way, we can better understand their evolution and subsequently their management.
Claire Crow M.S. Candidate
crowc@email.arizona.edu

Resume

Claire obtained a B.S. in Biology from Southern Connecticut State University in 1992, and is currently pursuing an M.S. in Wildlife Management and Conservation at the University of Arizona. Since 1995, most of her work has been in the federal service and she is presently a SCEP student. She is currently the Wildlife Program Manager at Zion National Park in Utah. Claire is a conducting her thesis research at Zion National Park and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah, and at Walnut Canyon National Monument and the surrounding Coconino National Forest in Arizona. She is investigating relationships between vegetation characteristics and bird community dynamics in pinyon-juniper woodlands. Her field sites include areas previously treated with chaining, previously treated by hand-cutting, and untreated areas. Additionally, the project includes an examination of pre- and post- treatment data collected from a hand-cut site at Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Her research applies directly to future decision-making and the evaluation of current practices in fire management and pinyon-juniper restoration.

Alyssa House M.S. Candidate
alyssahouse@yahoo.com

Resume

Alyssa grew up outside of Philadelphia. She received her BA from Smith College in Spanish and Environmental Science in 2000. She served in the Peace Corps in northwestern Nicaragua, in the environmental education sector, from 2000-02. She has also worked at the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory in Colorado, in education and research. She spent the past year interning at CEDO (the Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans) in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. Her master’s thesis will address the conservation and biology of shorebirds in the Upper Gulf of California wetlands. As well as being a migratory stopover, these estuaries are also a key breeding area for endangered Least Terns.
Glenn Johnson M.S. Candidate
glennjo@email.arizona.edu
Glenn is currently pursuing a Masters of Science degree with the Wildlife and Fisheries Science Program in the School of Natural Resources, University of Arizona. His goal is to understand and utilize the scientific process in wildlife ecology research, and effectively apply my knowledge in order to conduct meaningful field studies that will inform wildlife management and conservation practices. Research focuses on modeling bird distribution and diversity on the upper San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona and northern Sonora, especially in relation to the vegetative and hydrological influences of the thriving beaver population that was re-introduced to the area in 1999 and 2000.
Kristina Ecton Paxton
M.S. Degree
kristina.ecton@nau.edu

Website

Kristina ( formerly Ecton) Paxton was a graduate student at Northern Arizona University where she received her Ms degree. Her thesis focused on the use of stable hydrogen isotopes to examine Wilson's warbler migration dynamics in the southwest. She is now in the PhD program at Southern Mississippi State University.

 

 

Chris O'Brien Ph.D. Candidate
obrienc@email.arizona.edu

Resume | Website

Chris received a B.S. in Zoology from Northern Arizona University in 1996. After graduating, he remained in Flagstaff and worked at NAU and at the Colorado Plateau Research Station until 2002 when he started a Ph.D. in the Department of Biology. He move to Tucson to complete his Ph.D. in 2003, and is currently studying the community implications of parasite host interactions in a desert spring system in Central Arizona.
Karla Pelz-Serrano
M.S. Candidate
kpelzser@email.arizona.edu

Resume

Karla is originally from Mexico; she obtained her B.S. in Biology from the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro in Queretaro, Mexico in 2004. For the past four years she has been working on projects in ecology and the conservation of mammals, such as volunteering for The Northern Jaguar Project, and studying beavers, coyotes and black bears in the Sierra de San Luis, Sonora. Recently, she has been working for the Laboratory of Ecology and Conservation of Wildlife at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) on the “Janos la Ultima Pradera” project, first as a field technician and now as a volunteer. Her work on this project has been focused on the ecology and conservation of black tailed prairie dogs and American porcupines and monitoring reintroduced black footed ferrets. Karla is currently pursuing a M.S. in Wildlife Management and Conservation at the University of Arizona. Her goals are to apply all the scientific knowledge she gains in her M.S. to generate management plans for the conservation of the natural resources at a transnational scale. Her master’s research focuses on the effects of isolation on the conservation and population genetic structure of beaver populations in the Cajon Bonito River, Sonora (Mexico) and the San Pedro River, Arizona (U.S.). Her research has important implications for future management plans for the conservation of the beaver, which is in danger of extinction in Mexico, and for the riparian ecosystems in which beavers are important ecosystems engineers.

   
About Charles van Riper III:


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Special Assignments and Recognition
Ombudsman Assignment | George B. Fell Award | Science Strategy Team

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