Alice Boyle

Alice's CV (pdf file)

I was a graduate student in the Bronstein lab from 2000 until the fall of 2006 when I completed my Ph.D titled "Why do birds migrate? The role of food, habitat, competition, and predation".  I continue to be affiliated with the Bronstein lab while I remain in Tucson during the spring of 2007 during which I will be teaching the Ornithology course at the U. Arizona. 

My dissertation work examines the ecological causes of the evolution of bird migration.  The field component of my work used altitudinal migrants in Costa Rica as a system to study broader questions about the evolution of migration.  Additionally, I used altitudinal migrant birds to examine the ecological and evolutionary relationship between these frugivorous birds and their food plants. Why do these birds migrate?

Do their movements influence fruit traits and the fruiting phenology of the plants whose seeds they disperse?

My dissertation research ranges from a comparative study examining the correlates of migratory behavior in Tyranni (New World flycatchers, cotingas, piprids, tityras and becards), to experimental and observational field studies on altitudinal migrants in Costa Rica.

I do my research in Braulio Carrillo National Park, La Selva Biological station and at Rara Avis on the Atlantic slope, north of San Jose.
During fieldwork early in my dissertation I examined dietary correlates of migratory vs. sedentary behavior in several species-pairs of frugivorous birds, related diet composition to fruit preference using captive wild-caught birds of the same species-pairs, and examined the relationship between fruit resource standing crop with fruit production rates. Building upon this work, I spent the year of 2004 in the field. I focused on one altitudinal migrant, the White-ruffed Manakin (Corapipo altera) and it's major food plants - understory shrubs and trees in the Melastomataceae and the Rubiaceae. I asked how relative abundance of C. altera over its elevational range related to relative abundance of a) standing crop of fruit resources, b) fruit production rates, or c) arthropod prey abundance. Simultaneously I examined how phenological patterns of these plants and fruit production rates vary between elevations differing in seasonal patterns of seed disperser abundance. Finally, I conducted an artificial nest predation experiment along the whole La Selva--Braulio Carrillo elevational gradient to test the hypothesis that altitudinal migrants may escape high rates of nest predation in lowland areas by migrating up hill. I could not have done this work without the help of some absolutely fantastic field assistants I have had - please visit their page.

As part of my research I have spent hours and hours looking at seeds through the microscope and learning how to distinguish plant species through seed characteristics. One of my on-going projects is to make these tools accessible to others working with seeds of tropical plants. Many of the digital seed images are now available online, and I now have incorporated some limited search capabilites to facilitate matching seed characteristics to a taxon.

During the summer of 2005 I collaborated with Dr. D. B. Clark in mentoring two undergraduates in La Selva Biological Station's REU program (Research Experience for Undergraduates). Our students' projects  addressed the dynamics snags in a series of long-term monitoring plots on the La Selva property and patterns of cavity distribution and abundance both in snags and living trees.  Additionally, I mentor an EEB undergraduate who examined patterns of parasite infection in Costa Rican frugivorous birds.

I minored in Renewable Natural Resouces and was co -advised by Dr. C. J. Conway (his lab).

When I'm not in my office, my lab, or the field, I play fiddle, occaisionally play viola, and go on birding, botanizing, and hiking trips. Prior to becoming an ecologist, I was a professional musician playing in the Costa Rican National Symphony in San José and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach.  Now I play in a local contradance band, the Jumping Chollas, and participate in local sessions.

email Alice

Canopy Mist-netting Manual
Alice and Brad's Scrapbook (for friends and family!)