Get to know us!
Philip Lavretsky (PI) : My interest lies in bridging the gap between evolutionary and wildlife genetics as an informative means for conservation and management efforts. Specifically, I believe that our ability to identify and understand what species, population, etc. are in regards to adaptive and non-adaptive traits is essential when attempting to establish potential plans. In addition to conservation implications, I am interested in understanding the underlying evolutionary drivers impacting genomes as a means to understand the primary drivers of speciation, particularily at the earliest stages of divergence. While my primary study system has been the mallard complex (see study systems for more info), I have, and continue to work on a variety of taxa and questions. Finally, I believe that with advances in ancient DNA techniques, ancient/historical museum specimens are becoming an ever more valuable asset to understand the speciation processes, identify unqiue and extinct lineages, determine the timing of speciation events, etc. [C.V.] |
Flor Hernández (PhD Student): I was a Peruvian ornithologist for 9 years where I studied the ecology of various bird species through banding programs throughout Peru. My interests range from understanding species spatial diversity and distribution to overall population dynamics, parasit e ecology, and foraging behavior. Moreover, I have worked in various museums where I have specimen prepared close to 1,000 specimens. In 2018, I joined the Lavretsky Lab at UTEP and started my PhD in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department. My dissertation focuses on the genomes of various taxa within the recently radiated Mallard Complex. I will be using a combination of whole genome re-sequencing and partial genome sequencing to understand how various evolutionary mechanisms interact at the earliest stages of species divergence. In addition, I will be performing association tests to determine the genetic variation that underlie phenotypic variance among taxa. In addition to answering more broad evolutionary questions, I will apply my findings towards the conservation and management of these species. [C.V.] |
Sara Gonzalez (PhD Student): I received my Bachelor’s at UTEP and shortly after received my Texas Alternative Teaching Certification through Region 19. I taught in public and private school for 4 years and then decided to continue my studies and pursue my PhD. Coming from a family of engineers, I was involved in robotics ever since I was in high school. Using my varied background, I hope to develop a neural network that can scan pictures of birds and give confident IDs. Using this program, we hope to receive real-time information of bird populations across the World Wide Web as people upload pictures of birds and give us instantaneous information of location and time. This will not only help with tracking distribution, but also let us compare to historic data and see how climate change may have altered these distribution patterns. |
Lauren Mcfarland (PhD Student): Growing up in southeastern Louisiana, I was constantly immersed in the outdoors. It is here where my passion for wildlife conservation began. I received my bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University in Natural Resource Ecology and Management. During my undergraduate career, I gained experience banding waterfowl and extracting DNA from wild Turkey egg shells, which further peaked my interest in waterfowl genetics. My PhD research project will focus on population genetics of interbred domestic and wild mallards. Specifically, I am interested in incorporating findings from contemporary DNA analyses to conventional methods to better understand and conserve species. |
Michael Buontempo (PhD Student): I got my bachelor’s degree from Christopher Newport University, where I worked on thermal ecology of southwestern lizards. My research interests lie in molecular ecology of sky island species and examining intraspecific differences among mountains. I am particularly focused on montane rattlesnakes and how different ecological factors have influenced microevolution of venom. I have been interested in venomous snakes from a very young age and have been working with them both professionally and privately for 7 years. The sky islands of Southeastern Arizona hold a special place in my heart and are the focus of my dissertation. I am working to help better understand the ecology and life history of the Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake (Crotalus willardi). In addition, I will be assessing population genetic health and completing a phylogeographic study of the species. Using what I learn in my dissertation, I aim to continue my study on the microevolution of venom and the genetics of montane species professionally. |
Kristi Fukunaga (MS Student): I received my bachelors at Willamette University in Biology and Environmental Science as a double major back in 2017. Since then I have been hopping islands in the Pacific, predominately in chain of the Hawaiian Islands, as well as American Samoa, working with seabirds, waterbirds, shorebirds, forest birds, and raptors. I worked for both the federal government and nonprofit organizations, learning about the major issues native species face on islands and how different organizations are managing wildlife on their land. During that time, I’ve gained a massive appreciation for integrative research that progresses management strategies forward. This lead me to working in the Lavretsky Lab, applying genetic techniques towards the conservation of the Hawaiian duck ("Koloa"). For my Master's, I am looking at Koloa, mallards, and their hybrids and am examining their sex ratios and the genetics of multiple populations across three islands in Hawaii to determine how hybridization is impacting the conservation of the endemic Koloa. My work will be used to directly inform us on life history traits critical to help us understand how best to hopefully translocated Koloa across islands to increase their numbers out of being an endangered species. |
Nicholas Enriquez (MS Student): I received my bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas at El Paso in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. During my undergraduate studies, I gained experience volunteering with Texas Parks and Wildlife on a dove banding project as well as volunteering at a Chronic Wasting Disease checkpoint here in west Texas. However, my passion for research began at the Indio Mountain Research Station where I helped graduate students with their projects. Towards the end of undergrad career, I took Dr. Lavretsky’s Waterfowl Ecology class and began working in the lab prepping ducks which made me enthusiastic for all thing’s waterfowl. My Masters research project will focus on the differences in wing morphology between domesticated mallards and wild mallards and if these variations translate to differences in flight efficiency. In addition, I will be performing immunostaining to determine the concentration of slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers and if there is any correlation between muscle fiber type and flight efficiency. I hope these findings can shed a light into the possible effects of the movement of domestic phenotypic traits into wild populations so that waterfowl populations can be better managed.
|
Vergie M Musni (Technician / MS Student): I'm a class of 2020 UTEP Alumni with a bachelors in Environmental Science with a concentration in biology. My passion is rooted in environmental issues and ecosystem sustainability. I branched out from a family that came from medicine and followed my passion for conservation. I spent my undergraduate career volunteering in this population genetics lab where I gained an interest in wildlife genetics. Now, I am currently back in the lab as a technician being able to gain the experience I lost due to COVID. My goal now is to pursue a career in this field and become a graduate student studying wildife genetics. |
Past Students and Postdoctoral Fellows:
Dr. Joshua Brown (PhD Graduate 2021, Postdoc @ Smithsonion): I have been hunting since I was 6 years old, and with this I have developed a passion for the outdoors and wildlife conservation. This passion is what has motivated me to pursue a Master’s degree in Biological sciences specifically focusing on waterfowl population genetics. For my Master’s research project, I will be using Next Generation Sequencing techniques to look at movement patterns and hybridization of Mexican ducks and New Zealand Grey ducks. I am personally interested in integrating next generation genetic methods with traditional ecology to better inform waterfowl management and conservation plans throughout North America. [C.V.] |
Dr. Paige Byerly (Postdoc @ Smithsonion): My research interests broadly center on investigating the effects of anthropogenic influences on wildlife populations in order to inform conservation efforts. I’m particularly interested in the effects of habitat fragmentation and population declines on the movement of highly mobile taxa such as seabirds. For my Ph.D. research at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, I combined ecology and population genetics to investigate causes of contemporary declines in Caribbean Roseate Terns and temporal changes in connectivity and genetic diversity of Roseate Tern populations across the Atlantic Basin. Within the Lavretsky lab, I’ll be using museum genomics to explore the long-term effects of hybridization between domesticated and wild type mallards on mallard fitness in North America.
|
Marissa Kaminski (MS Graduate 2021): I received my bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (UWSP) in Wildlife Ecology and Management. During this time, I developed a passion for learning about waterfowl biology and conservation. During my undergraduate, I was a co-leader for the wildlife society that provided me the opportunity to conduct undergraduate research on Wood Duck nesting ecology, and studying macro-invertebrate abundance in restored wetlands in Wisconsin. I am interested in using an all-encompassing approach to better understand waterfowl ecology and improve conservation decision making in the future. More specifically, my master’s research will be focused on making a full assessment of Pacific Black Ducks on the island of Aunu’u in American Samoa. I will be filling knowledge gaps in their general ecology, behavior, habitat use, and genetics of this unique waterfowl species. In the future, I hope to use such a multi-faceted approach to better manage waterfowl populations.
|
Dr. Caitlin Wells (Postdoc - Colorado State University-Fort Collins): Caitlin is a vertebrate behavioral ecologist, who studies social and ecological influences on the reproductive strategies of birds and mammals. Caitlin has worked with Hawaiian birds since before her PhD, and has spent the last few years working on the conservation of the endangered Hawaiian duck (koloa maoli). With the Lavretsky lab, she is using contemporary genomics to understand the ongoing hybridization between Hawaiian ducks and feral mallards, and 3D geometric morphometrics and paleogenomics to investigate the ancient hybrid origin of this species. |
Undergraduates:
Current | Past |
Miranda Fuentes | Andrew Sanchez |
Diane L. Martinez-Ricartti | Kathia Gonzalez |
Fernanda L. Soto | Matthew Salyer |
Alexander B Moore | Marisa Cone |
Abigail Gallegos | |
Krystal Small | |
John Wakefield | |
Paulino Cavarrubias | |
Lorain G Flores | |
Andrea Chavez | |
Esmeralda Duenez | |
Alexis Cervantes | |
Melissa I. Aguirre | |
Luis F. Galindo | |
Yanime Marquez | |
Katlyn A Feick | |
Ariana I De La Hoya | |
Esli Saldivar | |
Daniela Dominguez | |
Camille Cyr | |
Sydney Held | |
Vergie Musni | |
Mariana Castaneda | |
Nicholas A Enriquez | |
Matthew V Jimenez | |
Camryn Brown | |