The American Ornithological Society (AOS) journal Ornithological Applications welcomes new associate editors Dr. Michelle Stantial, Dr. Facundo X. Palacio, and Dr. Frank Fogarty III to our editorial team. Dr. Stantial is Science Coordinator at Yosemite National Park and affiliated with SUNY-College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse. She is a quantitative ecology and decision scientist whose research focuses on wildlife management, and whose specialties include hierarchical models, occupancy estimation, and survival analyses. Dr. Palacio, a 2023 AOS Kessel Fellow, is an assistant researcher in ornithology and a member of the Faculty of the Natural Sciences and Museum at Universidad Nacional de La Plata. He is an accomplished ornithologist and ecologist who focuses on the evolutionary ecology of plant-bird interactions and the effects of anthropogenic change on bird ecosystem functioning. Dr. Fogarty, also a 2023 AOS Kessel Fellow, is an assistant professor at Cal Poly Humboldt. He studies how potential disturbances, including wildfire, climate change, habitat fragmentation, timber harvest, and cattle grazing interact with birds and their communities. He is also interested in methodologies for evaluating occupancy and abundance, and incorporates his expertise as a field biologist to examine model performance.
Ornithology also welcomes several new associate editors, Dr. Daniel (Dan) Baldassarre, Dr. Abigail (Abby) Kimmitt, and Dr. Lucia Mentesana to our editorial team. Dr. Baldassarre is an assistant professor and Provost Teaching Fellow at SUNY Oswego, where he teaches classes on ornithology, evolution, and animal behavior. With a team of undergraduate researchers, he studies the behavioral ecology of Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) and plumage coloration of various species. He also operates the Rice Creek Bird Observatory banding station in Oswego, New York. Dr. Kimmitt is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan. Her research aims to understand how birds cope with changing environments, both in the context of seasonality and global change. To accomplish this goal, she studies the hormonal and genetic mechanisms underlying seasonal behaviors as well as the evolutionary consequences of variation in seasonal behaviors. Most of her research focuses on the Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), but as a postdoc, she has incorporated a comparative approach to her research, working with data from several passerines. Dr. Mentesana, a 2023 AOS Kessel Fellow, is a member of the Faculty of Science at Universidad de la República, Uruguay. She is interested in understanding the mechanisms that allow organisms to cope with environmental changes. For this, she studies the interplay between behavior, physiology, ecology, and evolution.
The AOS is grateful to Drs. Erik Blomberg, Ryan Germaine, and Umesh Srinivasan who are departing after several years as associate editors for Ornithological Applications. Dr. Blomberg is chair of the department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation at the University of Maine. His research focuses on wildlife population dynamics and demographics, in the context of species conservation. Dr. Germaine is an assistant professor in the department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at the Technical University of Denmark. His research addresses questions of population and community ecology, often in the context of changing environments. Dr. Srinivasan is an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Science. His research foci include biodiversity, community ecology, and conservation science.
We also thank Ornithology departing associate editors Dr. Zachary Aidala, director of the Honors Program at Bloomfield College; Dr. Bruce Byers, University of Massachusetts Amherst, whose research focuses on songbird vocalizations; AOS Elective Councilor, Dr. Juan Francisco Ornelas from the Instituto de Ecología, AC (INECOL) who studies the behavior, ecology, and evolution of hummingbirds and their interactions with plants; sensory physiologist and ecologist, Dr. Kelly Ronald at Hope College, who studies the relationship between animal behavior and sensory physiology; Dr. Dave Shutler, professor emeritus at Acadia University, whose research focuses on how stressors affect the physiology and reproductive ecology of organisms; and Dr. Alexander E. White at the Smithsonian Institution whose expertise includes statistical modeling in biogeography, quantitative ecology, ornithology, and community phylogenetics. His research focuses on how ecological and evolutionary forces interact to mediate broad scale patterns of biodiversity and are influenced by local ecological dynamics.
Our associate editors are critical to the success of the AOS journals and we are really grateful for their contributions.