Research Interests
The objective of my postdoctoral research at the Institute of the Environment will be to analyze satellite imagery to identify environmental variables that are associated with occurrences of avian influenza in North America. This analysis, which will be supervised by Sassan Saatchi, is part of an ongoing project about avian influenza at the Institute of the Environment that is supported in part by Grant No. 1R01AI074059-01, “EID - Effects of avian migration & anthropogenic change on the distribution & transmission of avian influenza'', from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The importance of determining environmental covariates that are correlated with the prevalence of avian influenza arises from the fact that identifying such covariates will help predict future influenza outbreaks. In addition, the proposed work will provide insights about the likely effects of ongoing land conversion on the transmission of avian influenza among migratory birds, resident birds, and humans. My postdoctoral research will build on previous work that has demonstrated the utility of remote-sensed data for the mapping of disease risk. For example, Chretien et al. (2007) used remote-sensed data to identify environmental variables associated with outbreaks of Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) on islands in the Indian ocean during 2005-2006. Chretien et al.'s analysis utilized VEGETATION, an optical sensor on the SPOT-4 satellite. In contrast, my work will primarily use radar remote-sensing, an approach which has proved effective at mapping species' distributions in the tropics (Simard et al., 2002; Saatchi et al. 2008).
Chretien, J.-P., Anyamba, A., Bedno, S. A., Breiman, R. F., Sang, R., Sergon, K., Powers, A. M., Onyango, C. O., Small, J., Tucker, C. J., Linthicum, K. J. 2007. Drought-associated Chikungunya emergence along coastal East Africa. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 76, 405-407.
Saatchi, S., Buermann, W., ter Steege, H., Mori, S., Smith, T. B. 2008. Modeling distribution of Amazonian tree species and diversity using remote sensing measurements. Remote Sensing of Environment 112, 2000-2017.
Simard, M., De Grandi, G., Saatchi, S., Mayaux, P. 2002. Mapping tropical coastal vegetation using JERS-1 and ERS-1 radar data with a decision tree classifier. International Journal of Remote Sensing 23, 1461-1474.
Education
Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from the University of Texas at Austin (2009).
M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin (2004).
B.A. in Historical Studies from the University of Texas at Dallas (2001).
Publications
Journal Articles
Sarkar, S., Sánchez-Cordero, V., Londoño, M. C., and Fuller, T. "Systematic Conservation Assessment for the Mesoamerica, Chocó, and Tropical Andes Biodiversity Hotspots: A Preliminary Analysis." Biodiversity and Conservation, in press.
Illoldi-Rangel, P., Fuller, T., Linaje, M., Pappas, C., Sánchez-Cordero, V., and Sarkar, S. 2008. "Solving the Maximum Representation Problem to Prioritize Areas for the Conservation of Terrestrial Mammals at Risk in Oaxaca." Diversity and Distributions 14: 493 - 508.
Sánchez-Corderdo, V., Illoldi, P., Linaje, M., Fuller, T., and Sarkar, S. 2008. "Por Qué Hay Un Costo En Posponer La Conservación De La Diversidad Biológica En México." Biodiversitas 76: 7 - 12.
Justus, J., Fuller, T., and Sarkar, S. 2008. "The Influence of Representation Targets on the Total Area of Conservation Area Networks." Conservation Biology 22: 673 - 682.
Fuller, T., Morton, D. P., and Sarkar, S. 2008. "Incorporating Uncertainty about Species’ Potential Distributions under Climate Change into the Selection of Conservation Areas with a Case Study from the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska." Biological Conservation 141: 1547 - 1559. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.03.021
Sarkar, S., Mayfield, M., Cameron, S., Fuller, T., and Garson, J. 2007. "Conservation Area Networks for the Indian Region: Systematic Methods and Future Prospects." Himalayan Journal of Sciences 4(6): 27 - 40.
Fuller, T., Sánchez-Corderdo, V., Illoldi-Rangel, P., Linaje, M., and Sarkar, S. 2007. "The Cost of Postponing Biodiversity Conservation in Mexico." Biological Conservation 134: 593 -600.
Sarkar, S., Pressey, R.L., Faith, D.P., Margules, C.R., Fuller, T., Stoms, D.M., Moffett, A., Wilson, K.A., Williams, K.J., Williams, P.H., and S. Andelman. 2006. "Biodiversity Conservation Planning Tools: Present Status and Challenges for the Future." Annual Review of Environment and Resources 31: 123 - 59.
Fuller, T. and Sarkar, S. 2006. "LQGraph: A Software Package for Optimizing Connectivity in Conservation Planning." Environmental Modeling and Software 21: 750 -755.
Fuller, T., Munguía, M., Mayfield, M., Sánchez-Corderdo, V., and Sarkar, S. 2006. "Incorporating Connectivity into Conservation Planning: A Multi-Criteria Case Study from Central Mexico." Biological Conservation 133: 131-142.
Sarkar, S., Justus, J., Fuller, T., Kelley, C., Garson, J., and Mayfield, M. 2005. "Effectiveness of Environmental Surrogates for the Selection of Conservation Area Networks." Conservation Biology 19: 815 -825.
Fuller, T., Sarkar, S., and Crews, D. 2005. "The Use of Norms of Reaction to Analyze Genotypic and Environmental Influences on Behavior in Mice and Rats." Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 29: 445 -456.
Sarkar, S., Moffett, A., Sierra, R., Fuller, T., Cameron, S., and Garson, J. 2004. "Incorporating Multiple Criteria into the Design of Conservation Area Networks." Endangered Species Update 21: 100 -107.
Crews, D., Fuller, T., Mirasol, E. G., Pfaff, D. W., and Ogawa, S. 2004. "Postnatal Environment Affects Behavior of Adult Transgenic Mice." Experimental Biology and Medicine 229: 935 -939.
Sarkar, S. and Fuller, T. 2003. “Generalized Reaction Norms for Ecological Developmental Biology.” Evolution and Development 5: 106 -115.
Fuller, T. 2003. “The Integrative Biology of Phenotypic Plasticity. [Review of Pigliucci, M. Phenotypic Plasticity: Beyond Nature and Nurture].” Biology and Philosophy 18: 381 -389.
Book Chapters
Sarkar, S., Fuller, T., Aggarwal, A., Moffett, A., and Kelley, C. D. 2009. "The ConsNet Software Platform for Systematic Conservation Planning." In Moilanen, A., Possingham, H., and Wilson, K. (Eds.), Spatial Conservation Prioritization: Quantitative Methods and Computational Tools. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. ISBN 978-0-19-954777-7.
Sánchez-Cordero, V., Illoldi-Rangel, P., Escalante, T., Figueroa, F., Rodríguez, G., Linaje, M., Fuller, T., and Sarkar, S. 2009. “Deforestation and Biodiversity Conservation in Mexico.” In Columbus, A. M. and Kuznetsov, L. (Eds.), Endangered Species: New Research. (Hauppauge, New York, USA: Nova Science Publishers). ISBN 978-1-60692-241-5.
Fuller, T. 2008. "Convention on Biodiversity." In Callicott, J. B. and Frodeman, R. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy. (Detroit: Macmillan Reference). ISBN 978-0-02866-137-7.
Fuller, T., Morton, D., and Sarkar, S. 2007. "Planning for Biodiversity Conservation Using Stochastic Programming." In Deutsch, A., Bravo de la Parra, R., de Boer, R. J., Diekmann, O., Jagers, P., Kisdi, E., Kretzschmar, M., Lansky, P., and Metz, H. (Eds.), Mathematical Modeling of Biological Systems, Volume II. (Boston: Birkhäuser). pp. 101-107.