US-Costa Rica Dissertation Enhancement: Effects of Patch Size and Matrix Composition on Survival

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This Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement award will support the travel, living expenses, and other direct costs for one PhD student (Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez) to conduct research in Costa Rica. The research will be conducted from May-August 2006, and from Dec-April 2007 at field sites located in the vicinity of the Las Cruces Biological Station where the researcher will be staying. The Costa Rican host is Mr. Julio Sanchez, curator of birds at the National Museum of Costa Rica and one of Costa Rica's leading ornithologists. Mr. Sanchez will be a co-advisor to Ms. Ruiz-Gutierrez on this project along with Dr. Thomas Gavin, Associate Professor at Cornell University. Despite a long history of research in population ecology, very little is known about the factors that drive demographic processes of populations. Most empirical research has focused on the effects of habitat fragmentation on community-level patterns rather than population-level processes. This study investigates how survival is affected by habitat patch size and will attempt to evaluate the effects of the surrounding habitat matrix. If successful, the results of this project could help guide future land use planning for areas in the vicinity of parks throughout the Americas.