Lyn C. Branch
Current Positions
- Professor, Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida.
- Honory Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management, Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, National University of La Pampa, Argentina.
- Affiliate Faculty, Center of Latin American Studies, University of Florida.
- Affiliate Faculty, School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Florida
Education
- University of California, Berkeley, California. Ph.D., Wildlife Resource Science
- Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. M.S., Zoology
- Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi. B.S., Honors Zoology with Special Distinction
Research Interests
Conservation biology, landscape ecology, behavioral ecology, conservation and development in Latin America. More specifically...... landscape ecology from an animal perspective (e.g., behavioral landscape ecology and metapopulations), impact of human alteration of landscapes on animal distributions, population dynamics and behavior, synergistic effects of landscape change and other human impacts (e.g., hunting) on animal populations, and other conservation and development issues in tropical and temperate regions of Latin America, including evaluation of protected areas, design of conservation landscapes, and payments for ecosystem services as a conservation tool.
My research includes long term field studies, field experiments, GIS-based modeling, and collaboration with molecular geneticists to address ecological questions. I am interested in temperate and tropical systems, and work in ecosystems ranging from wetlands to semi-arid scrub and forests. Students and post-doctoral researchers in my lab and I study:
- Habitat fragmentation and the dynamics of wildlife populations
- Other processes that contribute to spatial structuring of populations, including social systems of animals, human hunting, predation, and species interactions
- The role of animals in altering landscape dynamics and ecosystem processes
- Landscape-level issues with design of payments for ecosystem services as a conservation tool
Graduate Students
I advise graduate students through the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, and the Center for Latin American Studies (MALAS with concentration in Tropical Conservation and Development). See the web sites of these programs for program descriptions, application procedures, and entrance requirements. A note for students from Latin America: If you need to correspond in your native language, I read and speak Spanish and, to a lesser extent, Portuguese.