Education :

Ph.D.  Stony Brook University, Ecology & Evolution  (2003)

B.A.  Connecticut College, Zoology (1995)

Postdoctoral positions :

2006-2007   Smithsonian Institution, Department of Conservation Biology

2005-2006   Harvard University, Sarah and Daniel Hrdy Fellow in Conservation Biology, Department of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology

Academic Positions  :

2009-pres    Assistant Professor, Rice University

2007-2009    Research Faculty Fellow, Rice University,    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

2004-2005    Visiting Assistant Professor, College of William & Mary, Department of Biology

 

 

Some Representative Publications :

 

Books

 

Shultz, S., A. E. Dunham, K. Root, S. Soucy, S. Carroll, & L. Ginzburg. 1999/02/06/08. Conservation Biology with RAMAS Ecolab. Sinaur Associates, Mass. 251pp.   (Undergraduate text/lab book teaches students quantitative conservation biology and wildlife management)  Latest release in digital form available from Web School of Science.  Click here for reviews.

 

 

 

Amy Dunham

Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Rice University

MS-170,  6100 Main St.

Houston, TX 77005

Contact Information:

Phone: (713) 348-2792

E-mail: aed4(at)rice.edu

Research Interests :

Effects of altered functional diversity and habitat structure on species interactions and ecosystem functioning

 

Impacts of climate change on species interactions and wildlife demography

 

Quantitative tools for decision making in conservation, endangered species recovery, and reserve design

 

Evolutionary and behavioral ecology of mammals and birds

Text Box: LAB NEWS:

Amy Bridges, an under-graduate EEB major, and independent research student was awarded a Sigma Xi Research Grant, the Clara Carter Summer Environmental Studies Award, and an Explorers Club Award to support her work to extract a record of cyclone landfall in Madagascar’s eastern rainforest using historical records and radio-isotopic analysis of tree cores. This data will be combined with lemur population data to explore effects of changing cyclone frequencies on past, present and future lemur demography.

Margie Diddams, an undergraduate EEB  major, was awarded The Joan K. Hunt & Rachel M. Hunt Summer Scholarship in Field Botany from the Garden Club of America and a grant from the Explorer’s club for her independently designed research project to use tree cores to look at  the impacts of climatic variability on native vs invasive tree growth.

Recent Journal Publications

 

Dunham, A. E., Mikheyev, A. S. (in press)  Influence of an invasive ant on grazing and detrital communities and nutrient fluxes in a tropical forest. Diversity and Distributions **[PDF]**

 

Dunham, A. E., Rudolf, V. H. W. 2009. Evolution of sexual size-monomorphism; the influence of passive mate-guarding.  Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 22(7), 1376-1386. Press Release  **[PDF]**

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122401872/abstract    

Supplementary data: Appendix A, Appendix B

 

Dunham, A. E. 2008. Battle of the sexes: Cost asymmetry explains female dominance in lemurs. Animal Behaviour. 76 (4): 1435-1439     **[PDF]**

 

Dunham, A. E.  2008. Above and below ground impacts of terrestrial mammals and birds in a tropical forest. Oikos. 117 (4), 571-579    **[PDF]**

     http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0030-1299.2008.16534.x

 

Dunham, A. E., Erhart, E., Overdorff, D. Wright, P. C. 2008. Evaluating effects of habitat loss, hunting, and El Niño on a threatened lemur. Biological Conservation. 141:287-297.    **[PDF]**

    http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2007.10.006

 

Bagdassarian, C., Dunham, A., Raucher, D. and Brown, C. 2007. Biodiversity maintenance in food webs with regulatory environmental feedbacks. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 4:705-14    **[PDF]**

 

Dunham, A. E., &  Akçakaya, R. H. 2006. Using scalar models for precautionary assessments of threatened species. Conservation Biology. 20 (5), 1499–1506     **[PDF]**

 

For a full list click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Onja Razafindratsima, a first year graduate student was elected “International Peace Fellow” from the Philanthropic Educational Organization for 2009-2010.