 
Dr. Susan Willson
Assistant Professor of Conservation Biology
Biology Department and African Studies
Office: Johnson Hall of Science Room 231
Phone: (315) 229-5846, fax: 315-229-7429
email: swillson@stlawu.edu
Education:
Ph.D., 2003, Department of Biology, University of Missouri-Columbia (Avian Ecology)
Bachelor of Arts, 1995, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY (Biology, Environmental Studies)
Courses Offered:
Ornithology
Ecology
Environmental Security: Ecological Issues and Human Security
FYS: Intro to Environmental Security
Tropical Ecology
General Biology, Fall Semester (BIO 101)
Research Interests:
I am a tropical avian ecologist, but I have also embraced the invertebrate world through my work with Neotropical army ants. My main interests are in tropical ecology and conservation, avian behavioral ecology, and population and community ecology of birds. I am interested in understanding the maintenance of biodiversity, as it is imperative to understand why and how species coexist so that we may try to maintain biodiversity in the face of the growing threat of climate change and anthropogenic forest fragmentation. My model study species are a group of extremely specialized and threatened Neotropical birds that feed exclusively at the antswarms of the army ants Eciton burchellii and Labidus praedator. In Amazonian Peru, I have been exploring the biotic and abiotic factors that affect relationships among five species of obligate army-ant following birds, in an effort to gain baseline ecological information from an intact system in healthy primary rainforest. I am also interested in examining the spatial ecology of the army ants that the birds rely on. Data from a pristine rainforest site are invaluable as humans continue to fragment or otherwise destroy tropical rainforest habitat, as they remind us what systems “used to be like” before human encroachment. There are many facets to this work, both in the field and in the lab, using GIS, and I encourage student involvement.
I am also interested in East African conservation issues, and was fortunate to spend five months in Tanzania in 2006, where I led a course on ecology and conservation of East African animals. I plan to continue to strengthen my ties to East Africa as an active member of the African Studies Program.
In addition to my tropical work, I am interested in getting students out in the field here in the North Country. A current interest that I will pursue over the coming years is the conservation of lowland Adirondack boreal birds, which are at their southernmost distribution here. As climate change affects ecosystems, boreal bird communities are predicted to be one of the first groups to be affected here in New York. I am planning to examine Boreal Chickadee dispersal and connectivity among boreal habitat “pockets”, that are found among a “sea” of deciduous hardwood habitat in the Adirondacks. This work will have both field and lab components, as we mistnet and colorband individual chickadees, and examine genetic relatedness among chickadee populations across habitat pockets. Collaborators on this work will include students, Biology and Computer Sciences faculty, the New York State DEC and others.
Selected Papers and Abstracts (Undergraduate Student Coauthors are in Bold):
Willson, S. K.. A. Savit, A. Sen, L. Shepard and R. Sharp. Does aggression pay? An analysis of foraging success and aggressive interactions in obligate army ant followers. In preparation.
Willson, S. K.. A. Savit, A. Sen, and L. Shepard. Behavioral ecology of Eciton burchellii army ant colonies in Amazonian floodplain forest. In preparation.
Willson, S. K. 2004. Obligate army ant following birds: a study of ecology, spatial movement patterns, and behavior in Amazonian Peru. Ornithological Monographs 55: 1-67. (Monograph reviewed by Isler, M. L. and P. R. Isler. 2005. Recent ornithological publications. Ibis 147: 626-627. )
Willson, S. and D. Hogan. 2002. First nest record of the Ash-throated Gnateater (Conopophaga peruviana). Ornitologia Neotropical 13:293-295.
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