Hi - I am a master's student at Iowa State University.  This is my 3rd year, I expect to be finishing up sometime this summer.  I am originally from California and have lived most of my life in the San Francisco bay area.  My thesis research is on amphibians in northern Iowa, an area that is heavily dominated by conventional corn and soybean fields.  I am studying amphibians in wetlands in this area to see if I can find any relationships between the relative abundances of amphibians in these wetlands and the water quality of the wetlands, as well the land use surrounding the wetlands.  I am also investigating the presence of a chytrid fungus, which causes a potentially fata disease in amphibians around the world.

    Between undergrad and grad school I worked for about 5 years doing various types of ecological work mainly for the National Park Service, USGS, and University of California, Berkeley.  I consider myself a generalist (taxa-wise) since I have worked with plants, insects, small mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptilies at some point in my career.  However, I have been interested in amphibian declines for a long time and hope I can continue working on this issue in some way after I graduate.  Unfortunately there is not a whole lot of information (if any) out there about amphibian use of linear habitats for me to contribute.

    I mainly consider myself a conservation biologist and wildlife ecologist.  I am very interested in biodiversity conservation in agricultural lands (hence my move to the midwest where more people are working on this because there are not other options).  At ISU we also have an interdepartmental graduate program in sustainable agriculture that I am informally involved with.  Other specific interests in the ecological field include population ecology, landscape ecology, and restoration.