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Research

My students and I are currently involved in a number of diverse projects concerning wildlife conservation. 

We are working towards quantifying the how climate change along with Land Use and Land Cover changes affect the distributions, demographics and inter-species interactions in bird and insect communities. 

Our mission is to develop management and conservation practices that are inclusive, effective at grassroots level. We strive to find solutions that not only benefit wildlife but also farmers and local community. 

Arthropods and Bird Community

Through this study we quantify the arthropod-bird community network. 

Grassland bird communities are among the most rapidly declining bird taxa in North America. This decline is often attributed to decline in arthropods along with habitat loss/degradation and climate change.  

The goals of this study are to quantify the effect of climate change and LULC on:

1) Grassland Bird and arthropod distribution patterns.

2) Community Interactions

Our Collaborators: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,  Michigan State University, USGS, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Dartmouth College

Climate change and anthropogenic disturbance is having a major impact on mammal distributions and behavior. 

The goals of this projects are: 

1) Distribution and range expansion of Armadillos due to rapidly changing climatic conditions. 

2) Quantify mammal distribution patterns in Central Illinois 

3) Quantify the impact of urbanization on mammal behavior

Our Collaborators: Mississippi University, Harvard University, Columbia University, Mississippi State University, Meredith College, University of Arkansas, USGS

Mammals

Traditional Ecological Knowledge

For effective, efficient and sustainable conservation to happen it's imperative for the local/indigenous communities to be involved. 

We at Deshwal Lab of Conservation are working at:

1) Documenting the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of farming, hunting, fishing community

2) Documenting the TEK of Native Americans

We are collaborating with the University of Oxford, and Ethno-ornithology World Atlas in documenting TEK

Through this effort we hope to bring TEK in mainstream conservation efforts.

Give Voice to local/indigenous community, minorities.

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