Lauren Pintor

M.S., Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. August 2000. Thesis: The effect of drought on species interactions, behavior and habitat use by the Hine’s emerald dragonfly, Somatochlora hineana.
Advisor: Dr. Daniel A. Soluk.
B.S., Ecology, Ethology & Evolution. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. May 1997.

Research Interests
I seek to integrate behavioral and community ecology to understand biological invasions. Specifically, I’m interested in the behavioral mechanisms behind the success of invasive species. My dissertation research addresses the behavioral mechanisms underlying the impacts of invasive crayfish in northern Californiastreams. This work has been a part of a larger collaborative project funded through National Sea Grant which has taken a multi-stage approach to understanding the invasion ecology of two species of exotic crayfish in California. I hope to continue this type of research further integrating behavioral and community ecology to better understand biological invasions and other anthropogenic impacts on natural communities.

Aquatic Nuisance Species: A multi-stage approach to understanding the invasion ecology of exotic crayfish in Northern and Southern California.
In collaboration with Andy Sih, Lee Kats and Jake Kerby.
(Funded by National Sea Grant Foundation)
Signal Crayfish

We are using a blend of field surveys, landscape-level, GIS-based distributional analyses, controlled experiments in mesocosms, and field experiments to study the invasion ecology of exotic crayfish in both northern and southern California. Specifically, we propose to examine key factors influencing dynamics in each of the stages of the invasion. In brief, we will:

1) Develop a quantitative model for assessing factors that influence patterns of crayfish spread across the landscape by using sophisticated statistical analyses of GIS-based, landscape level databases coupled with crayfish distributional data. This work is being conducted in collaboration with Jim Quinn, Josh Viers and Josh Johnson in the Information Center for the Environment (ICE) in the Department of Environmental Science & Policy at UC-Davis.
2) Compare impacts of exotic and native crayfish on a range of prey.
3) Quantify the efficacy of existing and experimental barriers in preventing spread of invasive crayfish.
4) Examine community recovery following removal of exotic crayfish.

In southern California, we’re working in streams in the Santa Monica Mountains invaded by the red-swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarki. In northern California, we’re working in streams within the upper Sacramento and lower Pit River watersheds invaded by the signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus. Part of the research being conducted in the lower Pit River watershed is in collaboration with Spring Rivers Ecological Sciences, focused on conservation of the federally endangered Shasta crayfish (Pacifastacus fortis).