Undergraduate Studies in the United States and South America
Our long-term Louisiana Waterthrush research program has been benefitted by, and has benefitted, numerous students from the U.S., Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. Dozens of undergraduates have gained valuable field research experience finding Louisiana Waterthrush nests, banding adults and nestlings, monitoring nesting outcomes, and quantifying habitat characteristics. Undergraduates from University of Michigan, Duquesne University, Chatham University, and Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) have completed their Honors thesis on the ecology of the waterthrush on their breeding or wintering grounds.
Several graduate students have provided new and important contributions to our understanding of the full annual cycle of the Louisiana Waterthrush. Brian Trevelline, from Duquesne University, developed DNA metabarcoding as a practical tool for understanding the diet of songbirds, like the Louisiana Waterthrush. He then used DNA metabarcoding to reveal resource partitioning and pollution-related dietary shifts among breeding waterthrush. Trevelline was also among the first biologists to explore the microbiome of birds and how human activities change the microbial communities within the guts of the birds.
Brandon Hoenig, also from Duquesne University, extended this body of research to understand how changes in prey selection by adult waterthrush affected provisioning behavior and nestling development of the Louisiana Waterthrush.
Finally, Mack Frantz, at West Virginia University, built on our studies suggesting the presence in Louisiana Waterthrush of metals associated with hydraulic fracturing. He documented demographic, spatial, and epigenetic responses of the waterthrush to gas development through hydraulic fracturing of deep shale layers.