Jamaica & Kenya research

Jamaica research

For many years Matt and his students studied the ecology of birds in Jamaica, where Matt's PhD dissertation research was focused. Matt was first fascinated by how migratory and non-migratory (resident) birds are distributed among natural and agricultural habitats, and how their populations are influenced by food supply. This led the lab's first students to work in coffee farms, where we discovered that birds can help control insect pests, an example of an ecosystem service, a topic that has remained a core theme of the lab. Our work led to many publications and has been occasionally featured in popular articles, such as in National Geographic and Audubon magazine. We are no longer actively pursuing research projects in Jamaica. Instead, we turned our attention to other coffee-growing regions, including Kenya.

Kenya research

With the Jamaican research coming to a close, the lab turned some attention to related research questions in Kenya. With collaborators Dr. Tim Bean at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Dr. Julie Jedlicka at Missouri Western State University, the lab has studyied birds and insects in coffee farms. Specifically, we worked to understand how habitat, such as the amount of shade trees on a coffee farm, can influence the bird community and whether this has implications for the birds’ potential to control insect pests. We also examined how projected climate warming might affect the distribution of birds and their impact on pests. Most of this work has also come to a close, as we've turned our attention to more research in California.

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