Testing predictions of the core-satellite and resource-breadth hypotheses in small mammal communities: field tests of a macroecological pattern. Together with collaborator Jake Goheen, the lab earns NSF support to study the relative influences of dietary generalism/specialism and dispersal limitations on the diversity of small mammal communities in Kenya. This research leverages Project BASEPAIR, the UHURU experiment, and our new DNA sequencing facility at Mpala Research Centre. Grant: 1930820.

Of note:
Colleague Dr. Jake Goheen from U. Wyoming is recruiting a grad student (MSc or PhD) to collaborate on our NSF-funded research on small mammal communities and food webs in Kenya. This is an outstanding new opportunity (application deadline: October 1, 2019); Dr. Goheen is a fantastic mentor. ​

An extensive review by Goheen et al. was just released as a contribution to ​The Year in Ecology and Conservation Biology series. The paper details major conservation lessons learned through large-scale and long-term experiments involving large-mammal communities in Kenya -- an important set of lessons for ecologists and conservation biologists provided by an inspirational team of researchers and collaborators.

Congratulations to Bianca for her winning proposal to conduct exploratory research on the microbiome of the small mammals in Kenya. The competitive award, from the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES), is offered to graduate students to pursue research, training, and travel abroad. Bianca will use the award to study how the microbiomes of a diverse guild of small mammal species differ in the presence or absence of large mammalian herbivores, and across a climatic gradient, at Mpala Research Centre.