Rob Pringle Graduate Student
	pringle@stanford.edu

My research interests are oriented along four loosely related lines.

History and historical methods in ecology

I have been collaborating with Jonathan Webb and Richard Shine in studies of how vegetation structure influences the thermal "landscape," and thus determines habitat suitability for the endangered elapid Hoplocephalus bungaroides in New South Wales. We have shown (1) that snakes use thermal and structural cues to choose microhabitat, (2) that thermally suitable microhabitat is limited, and (3) that simple habitat manipulations can dramatically increase habitat availability for this species. Currently, we are using series of aerial photographs to determine whether habitat availability for this species has been declining in historical time.

I am also interested in the use of traditional historical methods to recover important ecological data that have been lost or overlooked. Recently, I used a combination of archival and oral-historical methods to shed light upon the circumstances surrounding the introduction of the Nile perch into Lake Victoria.

The aesthetics of biodiversity, and cultural variation therein

Ecologists typically view biodiversity as intrinsically good, but we often have very little idea what biological diversity means to non-scientists from non-Northern, non-Western cultures. Our ignorance has not precluded rampant speculation; contradictory assertions that appreciation of biological diversity is either a human universal or a peculiarity of the post-Enlightenment West are common. I have begun to explore these issues in a recent anthropological study of Lake Victoria fishing communities. More broadly, and as a complement to recent enthusiasm surrounding market-based approaches to conservation, I am interested in developing strategies to enable and amplify aesthetic appreciation of organisms and ecological processes.

An East African food web

East African savannas conjure images of dramatic trophic interactions involving felids and bovids. However, interactions involving the quasi-charismatic minifauna have been overlooked. In collaboration with Truman Young and Dan Rubenstein, I have been investigating the indirect effects of large herbivores on lizards (via vegetation and arthropods) using a series of replicated large mammal exclosures. This study parallels another, focusing on snakes and rodents, conducted by fellow Stanford graduate student Doug McCauley and his collaborators.

Neotropical birds in fragmented landscapes

With Gretchen Daily and Jim Zook, I am working on analyzing a unique dataset of bird occurrences in habitats under varying degrees of human usage. In addition to answering questions about species diversity and its sensitivity to land-use intensity, we hope to apply phylogenetic metrics of biological diversity to communities in these landscapes and to learn something about what both species- and phylogenetic diversity suggest about the capacity of these assemblages to maintain their ecological function.

Publications

Pringle, R.M. 2005. The Nile perch in Lake Victoria: local responses and adaptations. Africa 75: 510-538.

Webb, J.K., R. Shine, and R.M. Pringle. 2005. Canopy removal restores habitat quality for an endangered snake in a fire-suppressed landscape. Copeia 2005: 893-899.

Pringle, R.M. 2005. The origins of the Nile perch in Lake Victoria. Bioscience 55: 780-787.

Webb, J.K., R.M. Pringle, and R. Shine. 2004. How do nocturnal snakes select diurnal retreat sites? Copeia 2004: 919-925.

Pringle, R.M., J.K. Webb, and R. Shine. 2003. Canopy structure, microclimate, and habitat selection by a nocturnal snake, Hoplocephalus bungaroides. Ecology 84: 2668-2679.