UT Geography grad students, Molly Polk and Maria Jose LaRota, were selected to attend the second annual Student Conference in Conservation Science in NYC, organized by Center for Biodiversity Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History. The conference was held over three days and gathered over 300 conservation scientists from 28 nations around the world to present, discuss and share the latest research in topics of biodiversity conservation.

Molly presented a poster entitled “Glacier Recession and Wetlands in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru” that described her recent research on the response of high Andean wetlands to shifting hydrology located in Huascaran National Park.

Maria Jose presented a talk of her Master’s thesis results, “Guild specific responses of birds to habitat fragmentation in coffee agroecosystems”, where she studied the conservation role of different coffee production systems in the tropical Andes of Colombia.

SCCS-NY is a unique opportunity for those beginning their careers to present their work before established leaders in science, policy, and management. It was featured in the NY Times blog Green
More information about the conference can be found at http://symposia.cbc.amnh.org/sccsny/