PhD candidate’s presentation honored by international group
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Mao-Ning Tuanmu’s presentation about the giant panda’s potential ability to survive climate change has earned him an honor from the U.S. Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (US-IALE).
Tuanmu, a doctoral student in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability at Michigan State University, was given the Award for Best Student Presentation which he gave at the annual US-IALE meeting in Portland, Ore., in April. With the award comes $300 and a waiver of the registration fee and complimentary attendance to one fieldtrip or workshop at next year’s US-IALE annual meeting.
“The longstanding tradition emphasizes the value of student contributions to present and future development of the US-IALE professional society, as well as Landscape Ecology as a discipline,” wrote Anita Morzillo, chair of the US-IALE awards committee. “Many past recipients have become leaders within the society, as well as within the discipline.”
Tuanmu’s Ph.D. research has focused on the dynamics of giant panda habitat and of pandas’ major food resources, understory bamboo. His work is oriented towards the spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of species distributions and biological diversity, their underlying processes and drivers, and their implications for biodiversity conservation.
Tuanmu also is studying the impacts of climate change on the long-term dynamics of panda habitat with the support of the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship.
Tuanmu received his B.S. and M.S. in zoology from National Taiwan University in Taiwan.
The center works in the innovative new field of coupled human and natural systems to find sustainable solutions that both benefit the environment and enable people to thrive.
