[Bristol-Birds] Kevin Hamed 2010 Mount Rogers Rally Speaker -- Save the Date
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 02:07:56 -0400
2010 Mount Rogers Naturalist Rally Speaker:
Kevin Hamed
(SAVE THE DATE -- MARK YOUR CALENDAR)
The Mount Rogers Naturalist Rally program on May 7, 2010, will feature Kevin
Hamed who will discuss his ongoing research concerning the ecology of
salamanders in the Southern Appalachians, which have the world's greatest
biodiversity of these animals. The lecture will introduce the audience to these
amazing creatures and the threats to their survival.
On August 14, Kevin will move to Knoxville, TN and will be taking a year off
from his faculty position at Virginia Highlands Community College. He is in
graduate school at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville where he is studying
for a doctorate degree. He is an assistant professor of biology at Highlands
and will remain on the faculty at Virginia Highlands during his studies at UT.
Kevin took the position as a fulltime member of the biology faculty at Virginia
Highlands Community College in August 2003.
For several years Hamed and his VHCC students have been studying salamander
distributions in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. Disease, climate
change, habitat loss and invasive species are causing amphibians worldwide to
suffer population declines. Hamed is continuing the research of Dr. James
Organ, a biologist who tracked salamander populations on Whitetop in the 1950's
through the 1990's. Organ, now retired, lives in the Konnarock area and has
guided Hamed through much of the work he has done so far.
Amphibians are suffering population declines and extinctions worldwide.
Disease, climate change, habitat loss, and exotic species are potential causes
of these declines. Hamed's UT research will focuses on two categories of
anthropogenic factors that could impact amphibian populations: (1) effects of
long-term climate change and heavy metal deposition, and (2) seasonal
maintenance of power line right-of-ways.
Hamed has been leading field trips for the naturalist rally since 1997. At that
time Kevin was the nature center manager at Steele Creek Park. He has a BS in
Biology from Tennessee Technological University and an MS in Biology from East
Tennessee State University.
Kevin's graduate research was on the life history of the Tennessee Dace. For
the last six years Kevin has been the associate professor of biology at
Virginia Highlands Community College. Recent research topics include the effect
of bottle trash on small mammal populations, use of artificial nesting
structures by the Brown Creeper on Whitetop Mountain.
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