Mike Wunder, PI
I’m an Associate Professor of Biology with an interest in the ecological, behavioral, and evolutionary dynamics of migratory animal populations. I’ve spent most of my life in Colorado, having obtained my undergraduate degree in Environmental, Population, and Organismal Biology from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1994, and my doctoral degree in Ecology from Colorado State University in 2007. Between the two degree programs, I worked as a wildlife biologist for private consulting firms, Bureau of Land Management, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and Colorado Natural Heritage Program. I accepted a faculty position with the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Colorado Denver in 2008 and served as the Director of Graduate Studies from 2014-2016. I served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Animal Ecology from 2009-2016 and am currently an Associate Editor for Avian Conservation & Ecology
My research is framed by regional and global scale questions of how wild animal populations cope with the uncertainty of seasonal environments, and how our understanding of that shapes population conservation and management decisions. Most research in my lab is empirical and involves varied combinations of field based sampling, laboratory based analysis, and computation based inference. Current research projects focus primarily on questions about migratory bird populations. For a full list of peer-reviewed publications, see Google Scholar and Research Gate.
I teach upper division and graduate courses in biostatistics, data analysis, and scientific communication. I am an affiliate faculty for ITCE: Inter-University Training for Continental Ecology, an NSF-funded training program for macrosystems biology. As part of this program, I co-teach a short course on the use of isotopes in spatial ecology and biogeochemistry at the University of Utah every summer. CV
Michelle Deprenger-Levin, PhD Candidate
I received a BA in Environmental Studies from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN in 1999. I began working for Denver Botanic Gardens in 2001 and earned my MS from UCD in 2007 studying the conservation genetics of a rare sedge. I joined Dr. Wunder’s lab in the spring of 2018 with the goal of developing my modeling skills to further my studies in applied plant conservation. At Denver Botanic Gardens I conduct field research to understand plant population dynamics and model species distributions, population level genetic structure, and response to climate change. Contact Michelle
Allison (Alli) Pierce, PhD Candidate
I earned my BS in Biology from the University of Colorado Denver in Integrative Biology. Prior to joining the Wunder lab, I worked as a certified veterinary technician with emphasis in critical care, dentistry, and exotic animal medicine. In 2014, research experiences during my undergrad inspired me to leave my career and pursue graduate study. My broad research interests include animal population dynamics and behavioral ecology. In fall of 2017, I transitioned into the Integrative and Systems Biology PhD program after completing my master’s thesis which focused on population biology of Mountain Plover breeding at high-elevation in South Park, Colorado. For my doctoral studies, I aim to extend the scope of my research beyond localized breeding season effects on population dynamics to investigate questions about migratory ecology and population dynamics of Mountain Plovers at the continental scale. I am interested in the effects of environmental and phenotypic variation on individual migration movements and survival, and how this translates to population level effects on seasonal distribution and population persistence across the landscape. As part of this research, I am tracking individual plover migration movements using GPS data loggers in collaboration with the Migratory Connectivity Project and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Read more about my work here and here. Contact Alli
Alyssa (Ally) Davidge, MS Student
I earned my BS in Wildlife and Fisheries Science with a minor in Biology from Penn State University in 2014. Prior to joining the Wunder lab, I spent several years as a wildlife biologist with a focus on endangered raptor species. In 2019, I returned to graduate studies at the University of Colorado, Denver and became a degree-seeking master’s student in the Department of Integrative Biology in Fall of 2021, where I am co-advised by Dr. Laurel Hartley and Dr. Mike Wunder. My research interests include urban ecology, movement ecology, migratory raptor phenology, and resource management policy. For my master’s project, I study the breeding population of Cooper’s hawks in Denver County and how their patterns of occupancy compare to available resources shaped by socio-economic policy. I am interested in how cities can maximize the benefits they provide to urban wildlife, and how birds of prey use urban spaces. Contact Ally
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