Kika Tuff: Habitat Loss
It's impossible to pinpoint when my interest in biology began. When is the first time you noticed an insect and thought, "Why is it doing that?" Lucky for me, I had a mother and teachers that nurtured this curiosity that I think we all have from a very early age. I believe we all wonder why nature works the way that it does. I believe we all wonder what the rules of the game really are. Evolution, of course, but what else is out there?
I'm a doctoral student in ecology in Kendi Davies Lab and, generally, I study the rules of how nature works. Currently, I am exploring the curious and unexpected consequences of habitat loss. Specifically, I am looking at what happens when you cut forests down and drench ecosystems in unprecedented levels of light and heat. Body sizes change, trophic interactions change, population numbers and distributions change. The effect is wild and multi-faceted, so my job is to try to identify patterns that I can assemble into rules with predictive power. Like many ecologists, my goal is to translate those predictions into policies that people can use to guide development and conservation decisions
Wog Wog Habitat, New South Wales, Australia