KATHRYN GRABENSTEIN

Evolutionary Genomics in
Backyard Birds
A. Hund
About
Speciation, hybridization, genomics, human change, chickadees, citizen science
I am currently a Post-doctoral Associate at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Formerly, I was a NSF Predoctoral Fellow at CU Boulder working with Dr. Scott Taylor in the Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Department.
Combining genomics with field studies, I explore hybridization in human contexts: specifically, when humans transform earth's landscapes (build cities, construct dams, etc.) they can create conditions where naturally co-occurring species hybridize. I investigate how human habitat disturbances drive hybridization and the evolutionary consequences of this hybridization for populations.
For my dissertation work, I founded and directed the Boulder Chickadee Study as an experimental framework and citizen science network to explore the natural histories of Colorado chickadees, and to improve our understanding of how humans shape evolutionary trajectories.
