People

Dr. Jalene LaMontagne, Associate Professor
I received my undergraduate degree in Ecology at the University of Calgary where I completed a thesis on food availability and maternal effects in Daphnia pulex with Dr. Edward McCauley. My Master's degree is in Conservation Ecology, where I studied habitat selection and behaviour of trumpeter swans during spring migration with Dr. Robert Barclay and Dr. Lee Jackson at the University of Calgary. I completed my PhD in Environmental Biology and Ecology at the University of Alberta where I focused on spatial and temporal variation in resource availability and impacts on consumer populations in a white spruce-red squirrel system in Yukon, Canada. In addition to my trumpeter swan research I have been involved in conservation-related research on spatial variation in sage grouse population dynamics, caribou responses to industrial disturbance, and red-headed woodpecker habitat selection and nest use. In 2009, I was a founding faculty member at the Asian University for Women, the first liberal arts university for women in South Asia, located in Bangladesh. In 2011 I joined the Department of Biological Sciences at DePaul University in Chicago where my lab conducts research on patterns and drivers of reproductive synchrony, urban ecology, and life-history & population dynamics. Since 2016, I am also an Adjunct Scientist at the Urban Wildlife Institute at the Lincoln Park Zoo, and since 2017 I am a collaborator on the Spruce and Peatland Response Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) project run by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Current lab members

Jessica Barton (Research Technican 2020- / Undergraduate Research Assistantship Program / Research Assistant 2017- 2019)
Jessica first joined the lab through the Undergraduate Research Assistantship Program in 2017. She worked on Daphnia pulex, conducting experiments that examined population dynamics when extrinsic factors are altered. She also worked on long-term population trends of a suite of tree-cavity nesting bird species in urban and rural environments and investigating interactions between European Starlings and Red-Headed Woodpeckers. Jessica graduated with her B.S. in June 2019. Jessica is currently working as a Research Technician on our NSF-funded Macrosystems and Early-NEON Science research.

Cristian Corona (NSF-REU Program / Independent Study 2019- )
Cristian is an undergraduate student completing a BS in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Ecology & Evolution. He joined the lab in summer 2019 through the NSF-Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Cristian is working on quantifying and describing patterns of conifer tree mortality following a spruce budworm outbreak in northern Wisconsin. He has a strong interest in studying wildlife ecology, and possibly wolves, in the future.

Roberto Cucalon (Lab Technician 2019 - )
Roberto completed his undergraduate degree at Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral from Ecuador, and then obtained his M.S. in Biological Sciences from DePaul University. He is interested in studying the evolutionary history of species and how that relates to their geography and ecology. His research in the lab involves investigating whether the genetic relatedness of perennial plants that undergoes mast seeding events is associated with the within-population variability in seed crop production, using white spruce (Picea glauca) as a model species. He will be pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he plans to continue his studies in evolutionary biology.

Abigail Leeper (Master's Student 2018-2020 / Lab Technician 2017 - 2018 / Undergraduate Summer Research Program / Undergraduate Research Assistant Program / Honor's Thesis Student 2014-2017)
Abby is currently an MS student in the lab, examining consequences of asynchrony in mast seeding. Previously, she was a lab technician on an NSF funded project on white spruce mast seeding. She originally joined the lab in 2014 and worked on acorn diversity and abundance near Red-headed woodpecker tree cavities. In summer 2015, Abby transitioned to working on mast seeding in white spruce, and conducted independent research on conifer seedling diversity. Abby's Honor's thesis looked at life-history trade offs and mast seeding in white spruce and she graduated with a BS in 2017. Abby then worked as a seasonal Wildlife Technician with the McHenry County Conservation District working on green snakes and native seed collection, before rejoining the lab. She is a coauthor on a paper investigating tree cavity availability in cemeteries and city parks (Bovyn et al. 2019).

Jazmin Rios (Master's Student 2017- )
Jazmín earned her undergraduate degree from Northeastern Illinois University in 2013. Her passion for conservation stems from her first research project studying the western fence lizard in the mountaintop of California and Nevada. Currently, she works at the Urban Wildlife Institute at the Lincoln Park Zoo, where she has been involved in a variety of research projects including the Urban Wildlife Biodiversity Monitoring Project and managing wildlife on zoo-grounds including at the Nature Boardwalk, a 14-acre recently natural space south of the zoo. Her current project is studying spatial and temporal patterns of rat population dynamics throughout the city of Chicago, and the ecological effects of feral cat programs on rat populations.

Ana Sofia Rivera (NSF-REU Program/ Independent Study 2020-)

Sofia is an undergraduate student completing a BS in Biological Science. She joined the lab in summer 2020 through the NSF-REU Program which focuses on understanding the patterns of seed production in a boreal conifer tree. She will be pursuing her Master’s at DePaul in 2021. She has a strong interest in studying animal behavior and statistical data analysis. Currently, she volunteers at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum where she helps monitoring green snakes and blanding’s turtles health. Her future goal is to become a Veterinarian.

Lab Alumni

Jillian Sterman (Undergraduate Student / Undergraduate Research Assistantship Program / Research Assistant 2017-2019)
Jillian joined the lab in Fall 2017 as an undergraduate with a concentration in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. She is currently processing seed traps collected at field sites in the northern Midwest and contributes to an ongoing study analyzing the mast seeding patterns of several tree species in these southern boreal forests. Jillian graduated in June 2019, then worked at the B4WARMED project. Jillian is currently a lab manager and will be pursuing her Master’s degree in Ecology at Michigan State University, and would like to work in a career in Natural Resources.

Bre Connolly (Undergraduate Research Assistantship Program / Research Assistant / Independent Study 2018-2019)
Bre is an undergraduate student and joined the lab in 2018 and is interested in Urban Ecology and Animal Behaviour. She has been working with graduate student Kayce Miller on avian behaviour, and is currently studying raccoon behaviour and group size across levels of urbanization in collaboration the Urban Wildlife Institute at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Kayce Miller (Master's Student 2017-2019 )
Kayce completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. For her Master’s research, she examined the effects of urbanization on visitation rates at a feeding station and problem solving in songbirds found in the Chicago area using a combination of backyards and forested areas, both within the city limits of Chicago and in rural areas. This research was a collaboration between the LaMontagne Lab, the Urban Wildlife Institute at the Lincoln Park Zoo, and the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes.

Samantha Evans (Undergraduate Assistant Spring 2018 / Independent Study Fall 2018)
Samantha was involved in the lab as a research assistant working on data collection and recording for an ongoing study focusing on mast seeding in white spruce trees. She then worked on an independent study focusing on reproductive synchrony during the fall 2018 quarter. She presented these findings at the Undergraduate Research Showcase. Samantha earned her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Ecology and Evolution and a Minor in Psychology from DePaul University in the fall of 2018.

Ryan Bovyn (Wenkus) (Master's Student 2013-2016 / Research Associate 2016-2018)
Ryan joined the lab in Fall 2013, and did her MS research on the influences of life history trade-offs on predator-prey dynamics in a Daphnia-algae system (Bovyn et al. 2018). Ryan completed her undergraduate degree at DePaul, and in addition to her work on Daphnia, Ryan has studied microbial biofilm communities in relation to differential exposure due to tidal cycles, and tree community patterns across barrier islands (in Research in Field Biology courses). Ryan is now working as a Restoration Ecologist, working on woodlands and wetlands, and led our study on tree cavity availability in urban areas (Bovyn et al. 2019).

Jesse Hacker (Master's Student 2015- 2018)
For his Master's research, Jesse examined the effects of urbanization on neophobia and behaviour in animals living in urban and exurban parks, with a focus on grey squirrels. This research was a collaboration between the LaMontagne Lab, the Urban Wildlife Institute at the Lincoln Park Zoo, and the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes. Jesse completed his undergraduate degree at Aurora University in 2015. Jesse was awarded an Honorable Mention for his NSF GRFP proposal in early 2016.

Alima Sajwani (Undergraduate Summer Research Program 2017)
Alima is working towards her BS in Biological Sciences. In summer 2017, she contributed to a project examining nutrient availability and white spruce reproduction.

Michael Wade (Undergraduate assistant / Honor's Thesis Student 2015-2017)
Michael studied spatial patterns in white spruce growth for his Honour's thesis . In summer 2016, Michael was awarded a Dean's Undergraduate Fellowship from the College of Science and Health to work at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Michael is currently working at the Vanderbilt Center for Quantitative Sciences and Department of Biostatistics as an Editorial Assistant, and will be starting an MS in Data Science.

Kattie Morris (2013-2017)
During Kattie's time in the lab, she did a field research project on population patterns of European Starlings with a variety of cavity nesters, and overwinter tree cavity use and nest site competition of Red-headed woodpeckers. Kattie earned her undergraduate degree from Elmhurst College in 2009. She had also worked at the Environmental Science Division of the Argonne National Laboratory, where she was involved in a variety of research projects.

Elsa Anderson (Master's Student 2012-2014)
Elsa was the first MS student out of the LaMontagne Lab, where she studied habitat selection of Red-headed woodpeckers for nest sites in Cook County, IL (Anderson & LaMontagne 2014, LaMontagne et al. 2015, Anderon & LaMontagne 2016). Elsa also was part of a collaborative research project on the physiological ecology of Sesarma reticulatum (the purple marsh crab) as related to their range expansion as part of the Research in Field Biology course at DePaul (Shaughnessy et al. 2017). Elsa completed her PhD at UIC in 2018 where she examined the ecological and social factors influencing species diversity in vacant lots.

Michael Lordon (Undergraduate Summer Research Program / Summer Research Assistant 2013 - 2015)
Michael took part in the Undergraduate Summer Research Program (USRP) in 2013 where he studied arthropod diversity and abundance across Red-headed woodpecker habitats in Cook County. He also worked on tree community composition across a barrier island, compiled data for a study on global synchrony in mast seeding, and conducted summer fieldwork on mast seeding in white spruce. Michael completed his BS in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Ecology & Evolution in 2014. He completed his MS in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan in spring 2017. He is the co-lead author on a paper in Marine Ecology (Zlatev et al. 2019) and is a coauthor on a paper investigating tree cavity availability in cemeteries and city parks (Bovyn et al. 2019).

Heather Anderson (Undergraduate Research Assisantship Program 2014 - 2015)
Heather worked as a research assistant in the lab, maintaining Daphnia tanks for a project on food quality shifts during population cycles, and taking samples for water chemistry. She completed her undergraduate degree at DePaul in 2015. Heather has had a long interest in working with animals, and she worked as a Seasonal Zookeeper at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

Dimitar Zlatev (Independent Study 2013 - 2014)
Dimitar studied community ecology and predator selection of bivalve prey by moon snails. He is the co-lead author on our paper in Marine Ecology (Zlatev et al. 2019). After completing his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at DePaul in 2014, he worked as a laboratory technician at Environmental Monitoring and Technologies, Inc. between 2014-2016. Dimitar completed his Master's at Utrecht University in the The Netherlands, between 2016-2018.

Allison Grecco (Undergraduate Summer Research Program / Independent Study / Honor's Thesis 2012 - 2015)
Allison helped to set up the initial field sites for the long-term white spruce mast seeding project. She also researched variation in white spruce cone size. In 2014, Allison spent the summer as a NSF REU student in Minnesota studying purple coneflower reproductive synchrony. She is a coauthor on a paper investigating tree cavity availability in cemeteries and city parks (Bovyn et al. 2019).

Derek Moore (Independent Study 2013 - 2014)
Derek completed some preliminary data analysis on avian guild diversity across urban ecosystems of south Asia. Derek then worked in industry analyzing large datasets.

Hannah Kemp (2018), Tim Walsh (2018), Gabriella Gasparani (2018), Heather Rider (2012 - 2013), Maria Chavez (2012), Gina Trilla (2012), Alex Adam (2012)