Doug Causey Lab

As an undergraduate student, I studied the spatial ecology of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in Portage Valley, Alaska and performed acoustic surveys of bats on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.  I investigated the habitat association in hopes of obtaining a better understanding of how bats use the landscape and discovering roosting locations. During my undergraduate career I assisted on multiple projects including surveys of tricolored blackbirds (Agelaius tricolor) on Edward’s Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert and extraction of DNA from ancient whale bones. In August 2019, I participated in an internship performing oceanographic research with NOAA aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy collecting samples from the distributed biological observatory.

 

During my transition into graduate school, my research interests have shifted to virus ecology, and I plan to investigate the diversity of viruses carried by little brown bats in Southcentral Alaska. Using a One-Health approach, I plan to investigate the connections between environmental and human health as well as study subarctic bat ecology as a predictor of the Alaskan bat virome. I will be applying both field and laboratory techniques to investigate the diversity of virus families and the number of novel viruses present in the Alaskan subarctic bat populations. I plan to compare the viral genomes between populations of Southcentral Alaskan bats as well as make comparisons to bat viral genomes in the rest of the North America, and by assessing the similarity and differences between the viral genomes of different populations, I can make inferences about the degree to which populations of subarctic bats in Alaska are isolated from each other and from other North American bat populations. I also hope to make conclusions about the degree to which ecology influences the accumulation of viruses in bats, specifically, through primary and secondary acquisition.  

 

Presentations and Posters

Kollander, C. and D. Causey. 2019. “The Spatial Ecology of Little Brown Bats in Portage Valley, Alaska.” The Northern Bat Working Group. October 2019.

Kollander, C., A. Carson, A. Huls, D. Owens, S. Scott, D. Causey. 2019. “The Nightlife of Bats in Portage Valley.” BIOL A493/494 Exploration Ecology Presentation to the Forest Service. December 2019.

Kollander, C. and D. Causey. 2019. “The Spatial Ecology of Little Brown Bats (Myotis lucifugus) in Portage Valley, Alaska.” 2020 Alaska Chapter of the Wildlife Society Annual Meeting. February 2020. (Poster Presentation)