Luther Lab at George Mason University
Our research focuses on behavioral ecology, tropical ecology, and conservation biology. We investigate how species respond to their surrounding environments and alterations to those environments with a combination of field and big data analysis techniques. The majority of our work is in the tropics, but we work in a wide range of ecosystems to better understand the behaviors and ecology of animals and how best to conserve them.
Tropical Forest Ecosystems
LAB NEWS
2024
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Meadhbh Molloy successfully defended her PhD!
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Bernadette gives a great talk to the Virginia Working Landscapes Group https://www.vaworkinglandscapes.org/workshop-summaries/emerging-scientist-lecture-grassland-bird-conservation/
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Several members of the Lab present at the American Ornithological Society Meeting in Colorado.
New research from the lab is published:
- Global Change Biology, on the potential impacts of future precipitation changes in the Neotropics for birds and protected areas https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17544
- Remote Sensing and the Environment, on the use of space borne lidar to predict avian richness and functional diversity across North America https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2024.114446
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Aidan Mccarthy joins the lab. Welcome Aidan!!
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Aline and Emilia continue field work in the Amazon. As the new Amazon
rainfall manipulation experiment gets underway.
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David gives a talk at UFAM the Federal University in Manaus, Amazonas, Brasil.
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Former lab members
Tovah, Jess, Sarah F continue to publish papers from their dissertations.
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2023
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Aline Medeiros joins the lab as a new PhD student. Welcome Aline!
Shawn Smith and Bernadette Rigley present their research at AOS in Toronto Canada.
Former Lab member Amy Johnson and current Phd student Bernadette Rigley are
featured in episode 5 at minute 30 on a new National Geographic TV show entitled
Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper which is available on Disney+!
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Congratulations Master Jillian Jorgenson on defending your MS thesis on the Andean
Tapir!
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Congratulations Dr. Sarah Weber on defending your dissertation on the social context
side of ReWilding!
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MS student Emilia Roberts begins her field research at the BDFFP on the
microclimate refugia hypothesis for Amazonian birds to escape the increased
heat and reduced humidity in the dry season.
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Bernadette Rigley begins another field season finding nests and tracking grassland birds
in Virginia!
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Congratulations Dr. Sarah Farinelli on defending your dissertation on detecting global
manatee populations!
Congratulations Dr. Jessica Roberts on defending your dissertation on behavioral
managment and reintroduction biology of birds!
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Congratulations Dr. Tovah Siegel on defending your dissertation on the effects of forest
fragmentation on mutualistic interactions in the Amazon rainforest!
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Congratulations Jess Roberts on publishing the first chapter of your dissertation!
Roberts J** and D Luther. 2023. An exploratory analysis of behavior-based and other management
techniques to improve avian conservation translocations. Biological Conservation.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109941
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Belated congratulations to Cameron Rutt for his new position working at the American Bird
Conservancy on finding lost species as well as the first publication of your postdoc at GMU!!
Rutt C, P Stouffer, J Cooper, C Vargas, T Costa, M Cohn-Haft, D Luther. 2022. Low species turnover of
upland Amazonian birds in the absence of physical barriers. Diversity and Distributions. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13662
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Congratulations Dr. Charlie Coddington on defending your dissertation!
Also congratulations for 2 chapters already published!
Coddington C**, J Cooper, D Luther. 2023. Avian breeding activity declines after forest fragment isolation.
Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14063
Coddington C**, J Cooper, D Luther. 2022. Forest structure predicts species richness and functional
diversity in Amazonian mixed-species bird flock. Biotropica. Accepted Dec 2022.
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2022
New paper out on the long-term changes in avian biomass and functional diversity within disturbed
and undisturbed Amazonian rainforest is published in Royal Society Proceedings B, with a cover image of a royal flycatcher. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1123
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Emilia Roberts joins lab as MS student interested in tropical avian conservation and ecology. Welcome Emilia!!
David Luther, Lynn Christensen (Vassar), and Nina Laney (USFS) were awarded an NSF grant to investigate Biodiversity responses to changing climate across the Americas: Synthesis of long-term ecological data. https://www.vassar.edu/news/lynn-christenson-co-pi-new-nsf-conference-grant
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David Luther, Kathleen Hunt, Scott Glaberman, and Greg Foster were awarded GMU College of Science SEED funds for an Investigation into the legacy and current chemical pollution as drivers of avian species declines in the Amazon.
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Charlie, Jess, Lara, and David from the Luther lab attended and presented at the American Ornithological Society annual meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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Undergraduate student Anna McElhinny is awarded an OSCAR URSP grant for field work in Bolivia to Investigate the effects of anthropogenic noise on vocal communication in Bolivian birds: The Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus), Rufous Hornero (Furnarius rufus), and Thrush-like Wren (Campylorhynchus turdinus).
Undergraduate student Gwendolyne Fields is awarded an OSCAR URSP grant to conduct research in Namibia to Compare growth rates of Somaliland and Namibian Cheetah cubs.
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Eleanor King successfully defends her Masters thesis on forest restoration in Madagascar!!
Jon Clark published his MS thesis on the Maintenance of local adaption despite gene flow in a coastal songbird and his work was the focus of the cover photo of the journal Evolution.
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David Luther, Henry Pollock and Corey Tarwater organized and presented the symposia Neotropical forest avifauna responses to climate and land-use change at the American Ornithological Society meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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Lara Kazo published her MS chapter on The effects of forest fragmentation on body condition of understory birds at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in Amazonia in Biotropica.
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Charlie Coddington published his MS thesis on Microscopic analysis of the plumulaceous feather characteristics of Cathartiformes and Accipitriformes in North America in the Journal of Raptor Research.
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2021
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Bernadette Rigley joins the lab as a new PhD student. She will study the behavioral ecology and conservation of grassland birds in Virginia in collaboration with Amy Johnson and the Virginia Working Landscapes.
This summer several new papers were published from our lab:
David, along with Liz Derryberry from UTK, finished editing a special issue on urban ecology for the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution and topped it off with a final editorial on Behavioral Adaptations to Life in the City.
Brian Griffith's paper on Dissimilarities among Amazonian mineral licks was just published in the journal Biotropica.
Our new paper on conservation actions for the most threatened species, Conservation actions benefit the most threatened species: A 13-year assessment of Alliance for Zero Extinction species, is now published.
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Derryberry and Luther team up again for research on the Spatiotemporal dynamics of singing in the city in the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology.
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Lauren Bradshaw and Danielle Armstrong join the Luther lab for the summer as high school researchers through the ASSIP program at Mason. They are researching the effects of climate change on functional diversity in the Amazon and the effects of forest fragmentation on breeding activity of birds in the Amazon Rainforest.
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Jess Roberts receives American Ornithological Society grant entitled, New Evidence-based Methods in Passerine Reintroduction Science.
Maggie Walker is awarded the Marion Lobstein Scholarship at George Mason University!!
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Maggie Walker and Jackie Batchelor successfully present their independent research projects at the College of Science Undergraduate Research Colloquium.
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Lara Kazo successfully defended her Masters Thesis!!
David is awarded both the GMU Stearn Center Teaching Excellence and GMU OSCAR Sustained Mentoring Excellence Awards!!
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Jess Roberts, Justin Cooper, and David Luther publish Global assessment of forest quality for threatened terrestrial vertebrate species in need of conservation translocation programs in PLOS One.
The George, GMU's daily newsletter, covers Hunter VanDoren's research on the conservation of Wood Turtles
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Shawn Smith has his paper on the long-term changes of plumage between urban and rural populations of White-crowned Sparrows accepted in the Journal of Urban Ecology
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2020
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Our paper on White-crowned sparrow song adjustments is published in Science and is covered by news outlets globally.
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TEDx talk by Amy Johnson - Bringing the birds back one farm at a time
Tovah Seigel is awarded a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship to pursue her dissertation work in Brazil!
Cameron Rutt joins the lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow after defending his dissertation at LSU.
David is interviewed on the weather channel to discuss bird song during the Covid-19 lock down. May 11 2020 Weather Channel link of the interview posted online
https://www.facebook.com/AMHQonTWC/videos/279463906702272/
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March 31 2020 NPR story With COVID-19, Fewer Cars, Quieter Soundscape For Birds And Humans
https://www.nepr.net/post/covid-19-fewer-cars-quieter-soundscape-birds-and-humans#stream/0
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Justin Cooper publishes both of his Master's thesis chapters.
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Maggie Walker presents her Undergraduate Research Project at the GMU Virtual Celebration of Student Scholarship https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmQABx-I2Oc&feature=youtu.be
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Charlie Coddington completed his qualifying exams and is now a PhD Candidate!
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Sarah Farinelli's research is featured on the CNN documentary about African manatees! http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2020/03/02/african-manatee-senegal-gabon-conseravtion-inside-africa.cnn.html
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2019
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Sarah Weber and Jillian Jorgenson join the lab as PhD students.
Sarah Farinelli, Jessica Roberts, and Tovah Seigel all complete their qualifying exams and are now PhD Candidates!
Jon Clark successfully defends his Masters thesis!!
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David Luther is awarded the 4-VA Mason Collaborative Research Grants award for his project entitled, "Species richness resilience to habitat fragmentation and restoration in tropical rainforests."
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Sarah Farinelli and Jessica Roberts are awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Nigeria and Brazil, respectively.
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2018
Justin Cooper successfully defends his Masters thesis!!
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Shawn Smith and Lara Kazo join the lab as graduate students.
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Charlie Coddington successfully defends his Masters thesis!!
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NSF awards grant to David Luther (Mason), Bill McShea (SCBI), and Gil Bohrer (OSU) for workshop entitled, "Linking remote animal detection and movement data with macrosystem environmental datasets and networks." held at the Smithsonian Mason School of Conservation on October 22 and 23, 2018. See the workshop website for more information.
Charlie Coddington is awarded the SMSC ConocoPhillips Conservation Research Fellowship for his upcoming PhD research on the effects of forest fragmentation on mixed species flocks of birds in the Amazon.
2017
Jon Clark joins the lab as a graduate student.
Amy Johnson successfully defends her PhD!! Amy Johnson starts a new position as the director of the Virginia Working Landscapes.
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Grassland avian research team, Jon Clark, Jess Roberts, and Charlie Coddington, conduct
research at Manassas National Battlefield and Sky Meadows State Park.
Dana Moseley accepts tenure track assistant professor position at James Madison University!!
Kate Gentry begins Postdoc in the Lucas Lab at Purdue!!
Kate Gentry successfully defends her PhD!!
Kate Gentry's manuscript from her masters thesis is published in the journal Bioacoustics and receives international press https://tandf.altmetric.com/details/18922441/news
2016
Dana Moseley joins the lab as Postdoctoral Associate!!
Current graduate students Kate Gentry, Amy Johnson and Lisa Schreffler pass qualifying exams and become PhD candidates. Congratulations!!!
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David is promoted to Term Associate Professor!!
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Mason undergraduate Jesse Wong begins investigation of climate on bill morphology of Puerto Rican birds.
New graduate students Jessica Roberts and Charlie Coddington join the lab.
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GMU undergraduate Jonathon Clark and incoming graduate student Charlie Coddington begin summer fieldwork at Manassas National Battlefield on the effects of anthropogenic noise on grassland bird community structure and grasshopper sparrow population density.
2015
David was awarded a Mentoring Excellence Award for his support of undergraduate research from the OSCAR program at GMU.
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Laura McDonald won the BIS capstone student project award for her project on citizen science and butterflies in northern Virginia!!
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Jesi Hessong won third place for best poster at the GMU College of Science Undergraduate Research Symposium!!
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Ray Danner accepted a faculty position at the University of North Carolina Wilmington!!
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Jesi Hessong presented her research at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research.
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Emma Boyer started her new job as the Waccamaw Riverkeeper with the Winyah Rivers Foundation in South Carolina.
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David and Kate Gentry were awarded a Scholarship Development Grant to transform the Animal
Behavior laboratory, BIO 472, into a research intensive course.
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2014
Emma Boyer successfully defended her Masters thesis entitled, A behavioral investigation of the thermal solar niche.
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Kate Gentry successfully defended her Masters thesis entitled, “An investigation of how vehicular noise mitigation impacts acoustic communication in avian fauna."
A 2-year NSF EAGER grant entitled, “Coupling remote acoustic recorders and camera traps with crowd sourcing for monitoring vertebrate biodiversity” was funded. This is a collaborative project between GMU and Smithsonian researchers David Luther, Bill McShea, and Tavis Forrester.
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Jesi Hessong presented her research on plumage differences between urban and rural white-crowned sparrows at the Ecological Society of America conference in Sacramento, CA.
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Amy Johnson presented on grassland bird conservation at the North America Society for Conservation Biology meeting in Montana.
Lisa Schreffler passed her written qualifying exam!
Jessica Magnotti abstract, "Can You Hear Me Now? The Impact of Our Sound Environment on
Avian Communication” accepted at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research.
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Urban-dependent selection on bird song grant funded by NSF!! A collaborative project between
GMU and Tulane researchers David Luther and Elizabeth Derryberry.
2013
David Luther and Jeff Walters are awarded a grant entitled Assessing the impact of conservation actions on population trends of endangered species, a VTech and GMU collaboration, funded by 4VA!
