Dissertation Title: Effects of understory insectivores on community dynamics and ecosystem processes in a tropical forest
Current Employment: Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University
Amy Dunham is currently an assistant professor at Rice University in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Her work focuses on conservation and community ecology of tropical forests focused on on systems ranging from trees, to ants, to primates. Having grown up in a primate lab, Dunham also has interests in behavioral ecology and evolutionary ecology of mating systems and sexual selection. The main focus of her current work is on the influence of dispersers and disperser loss on tree community dynamics in Madagascar and Guam. Students in Dunham’s lab work on problems associated with conservation and community ecology using systems as diverse as lemurs, butterflies, birds and beetles in Madagascar, Guam, Peru and in the laboratory.