Principal Investigator: Dr. Corey Tarwater
Avian Ecology & Behavior Lab
Panama PLUMAS Project
The PLUMAS (Precipitation and Land-Use effects on Multiple Avian Species) Project investigates the impacts of forest fragmentation and local climatic variation on bird species in Panama. Forest fragmentation and climate together may pose underappreciated threats in tropical bird species, and particularly in the more vulnerable understory birds. Panama PLUMAS has multiple projects which are being conducted on tropical forest birds along a fragmentation-rainfall gradient (22 sites) across the Isthmus of Panama. Using a variety of bird species, we are investigating everything from demography, sexual and natural selection, physiological variation, cellular aging, and species interactions.
The latest work that is part of the PLUMAS project is investigating how birds that follow army ant swarms vary across the gradient. See MSFA: Ant followers page for more information.
Funding sources:
Please visit and like the Panama PLUMAS Project Facebook page by clicking on the graphic at right. There, you will receive notifications about field work and publications.
Collaborators
Dr. Patrick Kelley (University of Wyoming)
Dr. Dylan Maddox (Field Museum of Natural History) website
Dr. Jeff Foster (Northern Arizona University, NAU): lab website
Dr. Luke Powell (Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center) lab website
Dr. Jeferson Vizentin-Bugoni (Universidade Federal de Pelotas)
Laura Gomez Murillo (UW MS student)