Jesse R Lasky
Update: A recent shoulder injury is threatening my Chippendale's career. Please call ahead to confirm show times before arriving.
Education:
Boston University Tropical Ecology Program in Ecuador, 2002
A.B., Kenyon College, 2004
Santa Fe Institute Summer School in Complex Systems, Bariloche, Argentina, 2008
Graduate student
University of Texas at Austin, 2006-
Research:
Estimating dispersal limitation in community assembly in tropical forest tree communities
I am working on developing statistical models to test the importance of dispersal limitation and environmental limitation as processes that structure tree communities. I hope to use the BCI plot dataset and data that I will collect in secondary forests in Amazonian Brazil.
The effects of landscape structure on the movements of edge frugivores and seed rain
In eastern Amazonian rainforest fragments I am studying how spatial structure of vegetation affects the movement of avian frugivore species that forage at the edge of primary forests and in neighboring open habitats. Seed input into secondary growth can be limiting to forest succession, and the spatial distribution of frugivore dispersers is likely correlated to the spatial distribution of the seeds they deposit. This work is being conducted at the Fazenda São Marcos, near Aurora in the state of Pará. Support for this project comes from the Brazil Center and the department of Ecology Evolution and Behavior at the University of Texas at Austin, and from Tarcísio Meira, owner of Fazenda São Marcos.
Spatial variation in the abundances of Panamanian dry forest bird
species and functional groups along multi-scale environmental
gradients.
Panamanian seasonal dry forests are distributed from southwestern Panama province through southern Coclé, eastern Herrera, and eastern Los Santos provinces (El Arco Seco-Dry Arc). This is now the most heavily deforested region in the country. In some of the remaining fragments I am comparing models of estimating bird abundance using different environmental covariates, such as disturbance, vegetation and landscape structure. My goal is to estimate bird abundance on a fine spatial scale (100s of meters) and to determine which covariates and at what spatial scales are most informative for estimation. I am estimating the abundance variations in functional groups in order to determine how species traits mediate the relationship between their abundance and environmental heterogeneity at multiple scales.
Forest coverage on Azuero Peninsula and Coclé province (upper right portion). Light green represents dry forest (except in southwest portion, where forest is wetter and higher elevation), dark green represents mangroves. Yellow represents non-forest habitats, and black is for areas without data (or ocean). Study sites are circled.
http://www.keittlab.org/node/152
Data used for map taken from:
U.S. Geological Survey. 28 May 2002.Landsat ETM+ Scene, Path 12, Row 54, Orthorectified and GeoCover. Sioux Falls, South Dakota: USGS. Source for this dataset was the Global Land Cover Facility, http://www.landcover.org.
U.S. Geological Survey. 1 January 2001. Landsat ETM+ Scene, Path 12, Row 55, Orthorectified and GeoCover. Sioux Falls, South Dakota: USGS. Source for this dataset was the Global Land Cover Facility, http://www.landcover.org.
U.S. Geological Survey. 20 August 2001. Landsat ETM+ Scene, Path 13, Row 54, Orthorectified and GeoCover. Sioux Falls, South Dakota: USGS. Source for this dataset was the Global Land Cover Facility, http://www.landcover.org.
Publications:
Lasky JR and Keitt TH. Submitted to Landscape Ecology. Spatial variation in the abundances of Panamanian dry forest bird species and functional groups along multi-scale environmental gradients.
Pinto N, Lasky JR, Bueno R, Galetti M, Keitt TH. 2008. Primate densities in the Brazilian Atlantic forest: the role of habitat quality and anthropogenic disturbance. In South American Primates: Comparative Perspectives in the Study of Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. Garber PA, Estrada A, Bicca-Marques JC, Heymann EW, Strier KB (Editors). Springer.
Bonaccorso FJ, Winkelmann JR, Shin D, Agrawal CI, Aslami N, Bonney C, Hsu A, Jekielek PE, Knox AK, Kopack SJ, Jennings TD, Lasky JR, Menesale SA, Richards JH, Rutland JA, Sessa AK, Zhaurova L, and Kunz TH. 2007. Evidence for exploitative competition: comparing foraging behavior and roosting ecology of short-tailed fruit bats (Phyllostomidae: Carollia). Biotropica 39:249-256.
Tieleman BI, Dijkstra TH, Lasky JR, Mauck RA, Visser GH, Williams JB. 2006. Physiological and behavioral correlates of life-history variation: a comparison between tropical and temperate zone house wrens. Functional Ecology 20:491-499.