Current (PhD) Research
Coming Soon!
Masters Research
My Masters research ws focused on the St. Croix Ground Lizard (Ameiva
polops), an endangered lizard that is endemic to St. Croix,
US Virgin Islands. The species is extirpated from the main island of
St. Croix due to predation by invasive mongooses, and remains on small
islands off the coast of St. Croix. With the National Park Service and
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service we translocated the species from Green
Cay National Wildlife Refuge to Buck Island Reef National Monument. The
St. Croix Ground Lizard was presumably present there until the arrival
of mongooses, which were eradicated there by the mid 1990s.
We translocated 57 lizards and housed them on Buck Island in a series of 10m x 10m open enclosures (at a density of 700/hectare). The lizards were released to the rest of the island after 9 weeks. The period during which they were enclosed was used to determine detection probability of the species, and to assess the impact of their presence on their invertebrate prey base.
Undergraduate Research
Invasion of Anolis sagrei on St. Vincent,
West Indies
During a Research Experience for Undergraduates with Dr. Robert Powell
at Avila University I studied the invasion of the Cuban Brown Anole Anolis
sagrei on St. Vincent. This species has been dispersed
throughout much of the tropical world by accidental transport with
building materials and shipping materials. Our study focused on the
potential impacts that the species has on native Anoles in St. Vincent.
We did not see any definitive effects, though our data suggest that in
the presence of Anolis sagrei, the native Anolis
trinitatis may increase its perch height.