Dr. Blaire van valkenburgh

 

email:

bvanval@ucla.edu


phone:

(310) 794-9398


address:

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

UCLA

621 Charles E Young Drive South

Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606

Large predators on land and sea receive much attention among ecologists because they act as major drivers within their ecosystems and many are threatened with extinction.  As top-down regulators, they are pivotal players in trophic cascades that affect both plant and animal distributions and abundance. Modern species evolved within much more diverse and complex guilds of large predators that included species such as short-faced bears, sabertooth cats, and dire wolves.  To better understand both the dynamics of extant predator communities and the adaptations of individual species, I explore the fossil record of carnivores from both ecological and evolutionary perspectives, sometimes focusing on guilds of species in distinct time horizons, and other times focusing on the evolutionary trajectories of species over millions of years.  Under the RESEARCH section, I describe four recent areas of research that exemplify the current work in my lab.

Prospective students should email me with a resume and a statement of research interests. More information about the graduate program in The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA can be found here

Blaire’s cv can be downloaded here: cvbvv_2009.pdf