Ecology and Conservation Biology Research Labs
Our faculty experts and scientists are conducting impactful, interdisciplinary research that address critical issues pertaining to food, agriculture, natural resources, youth development and human health. We work where agriculture and the life sciences meet, using advanced research methods and immersive technology to enhance education, science communication and agricultural literacy and strengthen both urban and rural communities in Texas, the nation and around the globe.
Animal Behavior Lab
The laboratory is focused on understanding animal behavior, with an emphasis on sensory ecology, animal communication, and conservation. We adopt an interdisciplinary approach to investigating the mechanisms that shape the form and function of diverse signals.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Yorzinski
Avian Communities and Ecophysiology Lab
Our lab is interested in how animals and their communities respond to stressors in their environment. We answer this in terms of physiology (e.g. hormones, immune responses, body condition), ecology, life history, and behavior.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Grace
Coastal Ecology and Management Lab
Coastal landscapes are naturally dynamic, but people have long sought to stabilize them with engineering structures. The Coastal Ecology and Management Lab discovers innovative solutions that balance erosion protection with ecosystem sustainability.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Feagin
Ecological Systems Lab
The Ecological Systems Lab promotes formal exposure to systems analysis and simulation as an integral part of the training of professionals and academicians involved in ecological research or natural resource management.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Grant
Forest Ecology Lab
The Forest Ecology Lab investigates the carbon transfer between plants, microbes and the soil, and how environmental and management factors affect it.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Noormets
Gonder Lab
Our research centers on investigating the biological history of the Gulf of Guinea and Congo Basin rainforests, crucial hubs of global biological diversity. Research encompasses three main areas of focus: 1) analyzing spatial biodiversity patterns, 2) unraveling the underlying evolutionary and ecological mechanisms contributing to diversity, and 3) contributing to conservation strategies that incorporate both evolutionary patterns and processes.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Gonder
Laboratory of Fire Ecology & Savanna Conservation
We study relationships among plant species, ecosystem functions, and human-induced environmental change. Fire – both as an ancient evolutionary force and as a management tool – is central to our research on the conservation of tropical and subtropical savannas and forests.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Veldman
Landscape Ecology Lab
Our current work is focused on the spatial ecology and pyric herbivory in savanna landscapes and an associated education program focused on faculty/teacher development and educational innovations.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Wu
LASERS Lab
The LASERS Lab conducts research in remote sensing of the environment, with a core component in laser or lidar remote sensing of three-dimensional vegetation structure using data from sensors on terrestrial, airborne and spaceborne platforms. The lab focuses on algorithmic developments to derive vegetation biophysical parameters, including biomass, carbon, forest fuels, fire risk, and other structural metrics that enable advanced research in ecological and earth system sciences. The lab owns and operates advanced laser scanning and imaging systems on terrestrial and UAV/UAS platforms and uses state of the art remote sensing methods for assessing ecosystem dynamics and land cover mapping.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Popescu
Mariana Mateos Lab
Insect-Bacteria Interactions: Evolutionary Ecology and Mechanisms. Evolutionary Genetics and Conservation of Fishes and other creatures.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Mateos
Ornithology Lab
Our lab is interested in many aspects of avian evolution and biology, to include systematics, speciation and biogeography, microbiome and malaria. To investigate these aspects we rely heavily on phylogenetic analysis of genetic material, and on occasion morphological data. The lab has also delved into systematic and biogeographic questions of other animals, to include reptiles, fishes and mammals.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Voelker
Paleoecology, Evolution and Climate Lab
We aim to address the critical challenge of predicting biotic responses to environmental change with the goal of informing practices that will mitigate loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function. We use quantitative approaches paired with field and museum work.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Lawing
Physiological and ecosystem ecology group
We study the interactions between plants and their environment, in multiple directions and across multiple scales.
Faculty Contact: Dr. West
Plant Systematics and Biogeography Lab
We study the origin and extent of plant biodiversity in and across landscapes.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Spalink
Quantitative Population Ecology Lab
We apply statistical and mathematical models to population data to describe their dynamics and predict their future states. The information is used for future conservation efforts of organisms.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Fujiwara
Riverscape Ecology Lab
Work in our lab focuses on the conservation and sustainable management of freshwater fish diversity, understanding reasons for its decline, and developing approaches for mitigating threats in Texas, the southern Great Plains, and beyond.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Perkin
Spatial Sciences Lab
We strive to develop and support excellence in research and teaching in areas of advanced spatial analysis, spatial data handling, geographic information systems, global positioning systems, and remote sensing.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Srinivasan
Stable Isotopes for Biosphere Sciences Lab
The Stable Isotopes for Biosphere Sciences Lab analyzes plant, animal, microbial, soil, water, and gas samples for 2H, 13C, 15N, and 18O abundances to facilitate ecological and biogeochemical research.
Faculty Contact: Dr. West
Systematic Ichthyology Lab
We are contributing to the global effort to inventory and classify the world’s ichthyological diversity through taxonomic and phylogenetic investigations conducted at TAMU.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Conway
Terrestrial Plant Ecology Lab
The Rogers’ research lab in Terrestrial Plant Ecology experimentally examines how local environmental factors such as drought, herbivores, fungal pathogens, soil resources, mycorrhizal symbionts, disturbance regimes, and recruitment limitation interact to influence plant populations.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Rogers
Wilcox Ecohydrology Lab
Our focus is understanding how changes in vegetation cover influence the water cycle. For example–rangelands across the globe are transitioning from grasslands to woodlands. We are seeking to understand how these changes alter groundwater recharge and streamflows.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Wilcox
Wildlife Nutrition Lab
The effects of food, life history and environment demands on individuals and populations of wild mammals.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Barboza
Winemiller Aquatic Ecology Lab
The Winemiller Aquatic Ecology Lab investigates fish ecology and evolution, community ecology, and ecosystem ecology in aquatic habitats. Our research is strongly field oriented, with studies conducted at sites throughout Texas, Latin America, Africa, and, more recently, Southeast Asia.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Winemiller
Mammal and Parasite Research Lab
Research in the mammal and parasite lab group is focused broadly in evolutionary biology with a focus on systematics, population genetics, and coevolutionary associations between distantly related organisms, particularly mammals and their parasites. In general, our research relies on field work and specimens from natural history collections. We use molecular and morphological data from recently collected and historical specimens to help elucidate broad evolutionary processes operating in distantly related taxa.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Light
Conservation Social Science Lab
We study human-wildlife interactions, conflict and coexistence, multispecies ethnography, Indigenous and local ecological knowledge, community-based conservation, and ecotourism.
Faculty Contact: Dr. Stronza