Courses Taught: Biological Concepts, Conservation Biology, Ornithology, Conservation Law and Policy
Ph.D. Department of Biology, University of Washington, 2006 M.S. Natural Resource Policy, School of Natural Resources & Environment,
University of Michigan, 1994 J.D. School of Law, University of Michigan, 1992 B.A. Religious Studies. EvangelCollege, 1981 B.M.E. Music Education. EvangelCollege, 1981
Biography:
Alan believes strongly in an interdisciplinary approach to academia and has undergraduate degrees in both Religion and Music Education. After his undergraduate training, Alan taught music in an OzarkMountain public school system. He then spent several years performing nationally in theatre, opera, and musical comedy. Alan returned to school at the University of Michigan and obtained both an M.S. in Natural Resource Policy and a law degree (J.D.). Following a six-month stint studying endangered species law and policy in New Zealand and Australia, Alan joined a major Northwest law firm and began a land conservation law practice.
While in NewZealand, Alan encountered his first penguins – the yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptes antipodes). He was never able to get the incredible vision of wild penguins or his childhood dream of studying birds out of his mind. And eventually hearing the call of the wild, Alan left his law practice and began studying Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) for his Ph.D. dissertation under the guidance and direction of P. Dee Boersma (Homo sapien) at the University of Washington, Department of Biology.
In addition, to his land conservation law practice, Alan has worked as a legal intern for both Environmental Defense and the National Wildlife Federation, as a research fellow for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and as a visiting legal research fellow at the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand
Current Interests and Research:
Alan’s dissertation research was primarily field-based and focused on the behavioral ecology of Magellanic penguins. In particular, Alan used playback experiments and observation to explore the role of vocalizations in individual recognition and assessing male quality, female mate choice, and social facilitation of breeding behavior. Alan is interested not only in the function of calls, but also in the evolutionary relationship of calls within and between species. His research is focused on several scales ranging from individual choice to colony-wide patterns of behavior.
Alan finished his Ph.D. in 2006 and later completed a post-doctoral position with Sievert Rohwer at the University of Washington’s BurkeMuseum where he studied the vocalizations of several Pacific NorthwestDendroica warblers in zones of hybridization and sympatry. Although his primary focus is now behavioral ecology, Alan maintains strong connections to the fields of environmental law and natural resource policy. Because of Alan’s diverse, multi-disciplinary background, he continues to publish papers that focus on the intersection of law, policy, and science in wildlife conservation issues. For example, articles Alan wrote on taxonomic bias in conservation research appeared both in Science (Clark and May 2002) and Conservation in Practice (Clark and May 2002). Concurrently with his primary dissertation research on the behavioral ecology of Magellanic penguins,
Alan was deeply involved in a joint project of the Society for Conservation Biology and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which conducted an analysis of U.S. Endangered Species Act recovery plans. Alan was lead author of the main summary paper from that meta analysis (Clark et al. 2002).
In addition to continuation of his vocalization studies of Magellanic penguins and Dendroica warblers, Alan has begun a long-term study of the vocalizations of a suboscine bird, the Eastern Wood-pewee, at Fordham’s Calder Biological Field Station and other nearby reserves.
With Nigel Mann, a colleague from SUNY-Oneonta, Alan has begun a field study of the vocalizations of two unusual duetting species: stripe-breasted (Thryothorus thoracicus) and stripe-throated (T. leucopogon)wrens in Costa Rica and Panama. This research integrates field recordings, playback experiments, and call analysis to better understand the function of duetting inintersexual conflict and cooperation.
Alan currently has several collaborative research projects ongoing with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)/Bronx Zoo, including projects with Northern Bald Ibises, Canada Geese, Magellanic Penguins, and Chilean Flamingos. WCS has also asked Alan to help oversee their developingresearch program for the Falkland Islands, where WCS was recently granted ownership of two of the Falkland’s largest islands. These Islands are home to the world’s largest colony of Black-browed Albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophris), three species of penguins, and several rare and endemic species. Fordham’s involvement in WCS’ Falkland Islands research program is still in development. The goal is to provide both graduate students and recent undergraduates research opportunities and to help provide WCS with the information it needs to properly manage, monitor, and protect these astonishing resources.
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has developed and implemented a unique and highly-effective public-private partnership to help restore and protect the early successional habitat required by the Federally-listed threatened Bog Turtle (Clemmys muhlenbergii). Alan and his graduate students are collaborating with EDF to assess how Bog Turtles move through a complex mosaic of habitat types and invasive species, including how this species uses habitat newly restored specifically for Bog Turtles.
With campuses in Manhattan and the Bronx, and with its Calder Biological Field Stationin WestchesterCounty, Fordham is ideally situated to explore ecological questions associated with the urban environment and the urban-rural corridor. Understanding how birds assess and utilize increasingly large, brightly lit, and noisy cities as they travel through urban-rural corridors and encounter tall buildings, towers, and aircraft is essential to their conservation. However, little is known about how birds evaluate and navigate the resources available in and obstacles presented by urban areas during migration, which generally occurs at night and is confounded by ubiquitous, yet highly variable, light and noise pollution.
Alan and a graduate study are currently conducting research that 1) tests a novel approach to tracking birds migrating through an urban-rural corridor and 2) quantifies the effects of light and noise pollution on such migration.
Recent Publications:
Clark, J.A., P.D. Boersma, & D.M. Olmsted. 2006. Name that tune: call discrimination and individual recognition in Magellanic penguins. Animal Behaviour 72:1141-1148.
Clark, J.A. & P.D. Boersma. 2006. Southern elephant seal Mirounga leonina kills Magellanic penguins Spheniscus magellanicus on land. Marine Mammal Science 22:21-25.
Clark, J.A. & R.M. May. 2002. Taxonomic bias in conservation research. Science 297:191-192.
Clark, J.A., J.M. Hoekstra, P.D. Boersma, & P. Kareiva. 2002. Improving U.S. Endangered Species Act recovery plans: key findings and recommendations of the SCB recovery plan project. Conservation Biology 16:1510-1519.
Clark, J.A. & E. Harvey. 2002. Assessing multi-species recovery plans under the Endangered Species Act. Ecological Applications 12:655-662.
Hoekstra, J.M., J.A. Clark, P.D. Boersma, W.F. Fagan, & P. Kareiva. 2002. A comprehensive review of Endangered Species Act recovery plans. Ecological Applications 12:630-640.
Campbell, S.P., J.A. Clark, L. Crampton, A.D. Guerry, L.R. Hatch, P.R. Hosseini, J.J. Lawler, & R.J. O’Connor. 2002. An assessment of monitoring efforts in endangered species recovery plans. Ecological Applications 12:674-681.
Boersma, P.D., P. Kareiva, W.F. Fagan, J.A. Clark, & J.M. Hoekstra. 2001. How good are endangered species recovery plans? BioScience 51:643.
Current Graduate Students:
Rachel Bricklin – Quantifying the effects of light and noise pollution on birds migrating through and stopping over an urban-rural corridor.
Alvaro Cure Dominguez – Use of newly restored habitat by a federally-listed threatened species, the Bog Turtle (Clemmys muhlenbergii).
Suzanne Macy – Assessing and improving census methods for a federally-listed threatened species, the Bog Turtle (Clemmys muhlenbergii).
Current Undergraduate Students:
Chuck Cerbini – Inducing earlier breeding through visual and vocal enrichment in captive Chilean Flamingos.
Sara Ludwig – Nest site selection and long-term pair bonds in an urban population of Canada Geese.
Garry Van Genderen – Inducing increased breeding through vocal and visual enrichment in captive Northern Bald Ibises.
