Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, professor of anthropology

Studies: Evolution and human behavior, dynamics of cultural diversity and strategies for biodiversity conservation in the developing world

Questions she asks: Why do women and men stay in marriages or divorce and how do these decisions affect their families? How are cultural ideas and social institutions transmitted across cultures and down generations? What are the connections among biodiversity conservation, poverty reduction, market access and power vested at the local level?

Conclusions: Economics play a vital role in shaping men’s and women’s marital and reproductive strategies. Many cultural traits are transmitted between cultural groups, rendering currently popular tree-like analyses of cultural diversity questionable. Biodiversity conservation is best achieved when power is partially given to local communities and poverty is explicitly addressed.

Latest book published: Conservation: Linking Ecology, Economics and Culture, co-written with a former UC Davis graduate student, Peter Coppolillo, Ph.D. ’00

Tim Caro, professor of wildlife, fish and conservation biology

Studies: A mixture of conservation and behavioral ecology

Questions he asks: How do different forms of land use (national parks, forest reserves, villages) protect or harm plants and animals? What are the strategies we can use to design reserves? What antipredator defenses have evolved in birds and mammals? Why are some mammals black and white, and how has color evolved in others?

Conclusions: Different forms of protection foster different communities of species such as frogs and birds. Commonly used conservation shortcuts like umbrella and flagship species are of little use in designing protected areas. The evolution of coloration in mammals, an unexplored topic in biology for over a century, is amenable to experimental testing and will be the focus of Caro’s research for the next five years.

Latest book published: Antipredator Defenses in Birds and Mammals

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