Erin Posthumus
Area of Expertise:
Wildlife conservation and management, mammalogy, endangered speciesAdvisor(s):
John L. KoprowskiCurriculum Vitae:
My background is in Environmental, Population and Organismic Biology, and I focused much of my studies during my undergraduate on ecology and wildlife biology. After graduating I worked as a field assistant on a variety of projects, collecting data for a study of avian malaria on the big island of Hawai’i, monitoring captive breeding of island foxes on the Channel Islands of California, taking DNA samples from swift fox in the panhandle of Texas and monitoring nesting success of wading birds in the Florida Everglades. With a desire to gain a broader understanding of environmental conservation internationally, I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the South Pacific country of Vanuatu. I worked as an environmental advisor in remote communities on the northern province's island of Gaua. Working with the local government's Environment Unit, I assisted communities to set up and manage conservation areas, trained Ni-Vanuatu in the international Reef Check monitoring program, taught environment education at primary schools and managed a program to improve the local water system.
I’m currently a Masters student in U of A’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment. My research interests include species diversity and the level of connectedness between species. Currently I’m looking into how species diversity is influenced by structures created by a larderhoarding mammal, the North American red squirrel. These structures concentrate food resources and create structural complexity in the forest, and some studies have found certain wildlife species to be associated with these structures. What is unclear is which characteristics of these structures attract species, which is what I’m investigating. My research will attempt to show which midden characteristics are most valuable to species diversity, which will have implications for forest management practices. My study will also shed light on the importance of larderhoarding animals to species diversity.
In the future I would like to continue to work on research that will influence management decisions for threatened species and work on a variety of aspects of conservation, from field research with management applications to policy development.
