Emerson 'Keith' Bowers

Associate Professor
Director, Meeman Biological Station

Keith is an evolutionary ecologist interested in the causes and consequences of intrafamilial strife — sexual conflict, parent-offspring conflict, sibling rivalry — in addition to general life-history evolution, ecophysiology, and climate change.

ekbowers ‘at’ memphis ‘dot’ edu

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Dr. Kelly Miller

Postdoc
Program Coordinator, Meeman Biological Station

Kelly (AKA “Killer”) joined the UofM from Indiana University, Bloomington. With a background in Animal Behavior and Psychology, Kelly is currently studying sexual selection in the warblers and parental investment in the wrens.

kdmller3 ‘at’ memphis ‘dot’ edu

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ResearchGate

Kelly O'Neil

PhD Candidate

Kelly O joined us from the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg. She is interested in social behavior and the potential for kin-selected cooperation within families in addition to questions related to the meaning carried by nestling begging signals.

kloneil ‘at’ memphis ‘dot’ edu

Publications
Brode M, Miller KD, Atkins Coleman AJ, O’Neil KL, Poole LA, Bowers EK. Brode M, Miller KD, Atkins Coleman AJ, O’Neil KL, Poole LE, Bowers EK. 2021. Parental favoritism in a wild bird population. Animal Cognition 24:677–687. 

Rin Pell

PhD Student

Rin completed her undergraduate degree at Dalton State College, where she conducted research on blue-green eggshell coloration in eastern bluebirds, and is currently exploring eggshell maculation, kin discrimination, and parent-offspring communication here at Memphis.

rin.pell ‘at’ memphis ‘dot’ edu 

Shelby Green

MS Student

Shelby completed her undergraduate degree and was a field assistant during her program here at the University of Memphis. She then worked for a couple years as a Naturalist with Tennessee State Parks before coming back for her Master’s degree.

srgreen5 ‘at’ memphis ‘dot’ edu 

Madi Mash

PhD Student

Mash completed her undergraduate degree and was a field assistant, all while playing an instrumental role in the University Marching Band, during her program here at Memphis. Having just joined, she’s currently pondering her forthcoming contributions to human knowledge.

mash.madison ‘at’ memphis ‘dot’ edu 

Field Fellows 2017-pres

2022

(l-r, b-f) Lila Gathright, Shelby, Rin, Kelly O, Nash Barton, Keith, Killer, Charlie LaMountain

2021

(l-r) Hailey Haskins, Killer, Madison Mash, Rin, Madison Brode, Ashley, Kelly O, Elena Valencia-Barbosa, Stephanie Mendoza, Keith

2020

(l-r) Juan Ramirez-Ortega, Killer, Kelly O, Rin, Ashley, Shelby, Kaitlyn Satterlee (Keith n.p.)

2019

(l-r) Keith, Ashley, Killer, LeighAnn, Kelly O

2018

(l-r) Jonathan Jenkins, Killer, Alex Mueller, Keith

2017

(l-r) Jonathan, Alex, Keith

Collaborators

We collaborate with Charles Thompson and Scott Sakaluk at Illinois State University to study the evolutionary and physiological ecology of house wrens (Troglodytes aedon). This system was established in 1980 by Charles Thompson, and currently hosts 820 nestboxes available for breeding wrens distributed over ca. 150 ha. Each year, 500-800 nests are produced in these boxes.

Male delivers food to brooding female.

Indeed.

EKB's first field season.

We've also recently collaborated with Than Boves at Arkansas State University and the Prothonotary Warbler Working Group to study this species of special conservation concern across their breeding range.

Male prothonotary warbler.

A population in decline (data from North American Breeding Bird Survey).

We are also collaborating with Dylan Maddox at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, IL on questions related to the molecular ecology of birds in West Tennessee. Among these efforts, we are in the process of assessing the frequency and occurrence of extra-pair young in the prothonotary warbler using genetic data, and assessing parasitemia (and parasite lineages) and expression of immune genes in birds of West Tennessee.

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