Julia Monk
Ph.D. Candidate
Yale School of the Environment Pronouns: she/her/hers EducationM.Phil., 2018, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
B.A., 2013, Columbia University, Environmental Biology Research
Broadly speaking, I am interested in trophic interactions and how predator-prey relationships influence ecosystem function. I am also interested in teasing out issues of scale in wildlife research, specifically how trophic relationships can scale up to have emergent effects on landscapes. Understanding how predator-prey-habitat interactions at local levels relate to ecosystem- and distribution-wide patterns particularly interests me in the context of wide-ranging species such as mammalian predators, whose large individual home ranges in addition to overall species ranges encompass a diversity of communities and landscapes. In my dissertation research, I am studying the effects of puma-vicuña interactions on nutrient cycling in the high desert of the Argentine Andes.
Previous Research
Virginia Tech Shorebird Program - From 2014-2016, I worked on the Virginia Tech Shorebird Program's Fire Island project, studying the effects of Hurricane Sandy and subsequent beach stabilization projects on piping plover demography and habitat use. I was particularly involved in researching habitat use and community structure of migratory shorebirds, as well as the effects of human activity on piping plover chick survival.
The Nature Conservancy/Columbia University - From 2010-2013, I worked as a biological assistant for The Nature Conservancy in the Centennial Valley in southwest Montana. I returned to the Centennial Valley to conduct my senior thesis research on the effects of fire on greater sage-grouse brood-rearing habitat and food resources. I found that in the presence of three-tip sagebrush (Artemisia tripartita), which re-sprouts after burning, small fires do not reduce sage-grouse occupancy and may increase invertebrate prey availability. University of Montana/SUNY Stony Brook - From 2006-2008, I worked as a research assistant for Dr. Charles Janson's brown capuchin monkey behavioral study. We implemented banana feeding platform experiments to understand foraging decision-making in capuchin monkey groups. We also deployed predator model and audio recording experiments to understand methods of capuchin monkey predator detection. PublicationsMonk, J.D., E. Giglio, A. Kamath, M.R. Lambert and C.E. McDonough. 2019. An alternative hypothesis for the evolution of same-sex sexual behavior in animals. Nature Ecology and Evolution. doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-1019-7
Burak, M.K., J.D. Monk and O.J. Schmitz. 2018. Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics: The predator-prey adaptive play and the ecological theater. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 91:481-489. DeRose Wilson, A., K.L. Hunt, J.D. Monk, J.D. Fraser, D.H. Catlin, and S.M. Karpanty. 2018. Piping plover chick survival negatively correlated with beach recreation. Journal of Wildlife Management 82:1608-1616. doi:10.1002/jwmg.21552 Monk, J.D., A. DeRose-Wilson, J.D. Fraser, D.H. Catlin and S.M. Karpanty. 2016. Observations of Fish Consumption by Piping Plovers. Northeastern Naturalist 23: N22-N25. |
ContactEmail: julia.monk [at] yale.edu
Office: Greeley Laboratory, Rm 119 Mailing Address: Yale University School of the Environment 370 Prospect Street New Haven, CT 06511 USA julia-monk.com 
Banding and measuring a male piping plover
Newly hatched piping plover chicks
Study site in Centennial Valley, MT
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Juvenile brown capuchin monkey in Iguazu National Park, Argentina
