Deborah Clark

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Deborah A. Clark is a Research and adjunct professor of Tropical Ecology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. For over 40 years she has worked with her partner David B. Clark on the zoology, botany, geosciences, ecology, and climatology of the rain forests in Costa Rica. [1]

Contents

Personal life

Deborah A. Clark met her long-time collaborator and husband David B. Clark on their first day of college at the University of North Carolina in 1966. [2] They have been married since 1970.

Education

Clark graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1970 with a B.A. in biology. She then went on to the University of Wisconsin, where she completed a Ph.D. in zoology with a minor in botany in 1978. [1]

Professional work

In 1978 Clark accepted a position with the Point Reyes Bird Observatory in Stinson Beach, California. She left this position in 1979, when she and her husband became the first co-directors of the Organization for Tropical Studies's La Selva Biological Station. In addition to rapidly expanding the scope of research carried out at La Selva, they also establish some of the long-term studies on forest dynamics that continue to this day. [2] During their tenure a 5 km concrete trail and mapped 100 m transects that facilitated research in the reserve were completed with grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation; they also marked and mapped hundreds of individuals of six different tree species.

The Clarks stepped as co-directors of La Selva in 1994 to conduct full-time research on tropical forest structure, life histories of tropical trees, and the effects of climate change. [3] With funding from numerous source they implemented a 42-meter tower to measure atmospheric carbon as part a global array dedicated to studying climate change. [2]

Related Research Articles

La Selva Biological Station is a protected area encompassing 1,536 ha of low-land tropical rain forest in northeastern Costa Rica. It is owned and operated by the Organization for Tropical Studies, a consortium of universities and research institutions from the United States, Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico. Recognized internationally as one of the most productive field stations in the world for tropical forest research and peer-reviewed publications, La Selva hosts approximately 300 scientists and 100 university courses every year. The primary goal of La Selva Biological Station is to preserve and protect an intact forest, as well as providing laboratory facilities for tropical research and education. The research potential of the area is not only vital to tropical ecology, but it is also an important location in the effort to study relations between local communities and protected areas. In addition, its high diversity and ease of access to the Puerto Viejo-Horquetas highway makes La Selva an important ecotourism destination and environmental education center for tourists and the local community.

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References

  1. 1 2 Kaiser, Jocelyn (2003-04-25). "An Intimate Knowledge of Trees". Science. 300 (5619): 566–567. doi:10.1126/science.300.5619.566. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   12714718. S2CID   129116921.
  2. 1 2 3 Ph.D, Deborah A. ClarkUniversity of Missouri-St Louis | UMSL · Department of Biology 38 70 ·. "Deborah A Clark | Ph.D. | University of Missouri - St. Louis, Missouri | UMSL | Department of Biology". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2018-11-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. "Deborah A. Clark". www.umsl.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-15.