Temporal and spatial variation in food abundance has been invoked as the general cause of altitudinal migration in birds and bats. As a M.S. student at the University of Costa Rica, I conducted the first systematic assessment of the temporal abundance of an assemblage of large frugivorous birds and the fruits they eat along a tropical altitudinal gradient. My results led me to propose than food abundance only partially explains altitudinal migration in large frugivorous birds (Ornitologia Neotropical 2004). I also showed through systematic monitoring and radio telemetry that the entire population of the Bare-necked Umbrellabird in the Monteverde area of Costa Rica was at risk due to their migratory behavior (Bird Conservation International 2003). My results have been used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature to reevaluate the conservation status of this species in the Red List of Threatened Species.
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN OBLIGATE ARMY-ANT-FOLLOWING BIRDS
As a Ph.D. student at Purdue University, I led a study at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica, aimed at identifying the causes of group feeding in the ocellated antbird, an obligate army-ant-following species that feeds in groups. Using novel molecular markers and radio telemetry (Molecular Ecology 2008), I found that when ocellated antbirds feed in groups they are less aggressive to unrelated adjacent neighbors present in the group, which increases prey intake rates and benefits group feeding through amelioration of intraspecific competition (Proceedings of the Royal Society B 2009). I also found that they use army ant colonies as sources of information about the location of additional ant colonies (Journal of Ornithology 2011).
COEVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS BETWEEN PREDATOR AND PREY
As a postdoctoral researcher in Steve Johnson's lab at the University of New Orleans, I studied how ecological conditions influence the compressive resistance of the freshwater snail Mexipyrgus churinceanus to the snail-crushing cichlid Hericthys minckleyi. Both species are endemic to the Cuatro Ciénegas valley in the Mexican Chihuahuan desert. I used novel molecular markers (Conservation Genetics Resources 2011), geometric morphometric analysis, stable isotope analysis, and field experiments to examine how environmental heterogeneity in nutrients/productivity, predator-induced plasticity, and local adaptation may influence small-scale spatial variation in prey defense (PLoS ONE 2011, PLoS ONE 2012, Evolutionary Ecology Research 2012). In the process, I reconstructed the historical processes that led to the contemporary geographic distributions of endemic species in Mexico (Conservation Genetics 2011).
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
Since I started teaching undergraduate students conducting abroad studies in Costa Rica, I have became more interested in the behavior of arthropods in general, and on the consequences of human disturbance on animal behavior. As a result, I have advised several undergraduate research projects on these topics, some of which resulted in publications. Examples: 1) optimal foraging (Neotropical Entomology 2016, Journal of Insect Behavior 2020), 2) behavioral consistency/plasticity in response to habitat disturbance (Journal of Ethology 2017, Ethology 2018, Behaviour 2021), 3) morphological diversity that corresponds to behavioral diversity (Journal of Insect Behavior 2018).