Grace K.

Charles
Curriculum Vitae

Current address:
Department of Plant Sciences Phone: 781635-4359
University of California Email: gcharles@ucdavis.edu
Davis, CA 95616

Education
University of California, Davis, Davis, CA
Graduate Group in Ecology, September 2012 Present.
Major Professor: Truman P. Young

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
B.A. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology cum laude in field with high honors, May 2011.
Senior Thesis: Interactive effects of large-mammal extinction and climate change in an
African savanna: experimental approaches.

Experience
Project Manager, Ungulate Herbivory Under Rainfall Uncertainty (UHURU) project,
Mpala Research Centre, Kenya
Supervised five full-time field assistants and managed scheduling, vehicle fleet, equipment,
and data for a large international and multi-institutional research project. Also conducted
independent research. (July 2011-July 2012)

On-Call Peer Tutor, Harvard
On-call peer tutor for various subjects, including statistics and biology. (September 2010-May
2011)

Independent Research, Mpala Research Centre, Kenya
Independent senior thesis research on the interactive effects of climate change and species
extinction. Advisors: Professor Jonathan Losos and Dr. Robert Pringle. (June 2010-August
2010)

Independent Research, Harvard
Independent research on the evolution of a sexually selected trait in Anolis lizards. Advisors:
Professor Jonathan Losos and Dr. Terry Ord. (September 2009-July 2011)

Field Research, El Yunque Rainforest, Puerto Rico
Field assistant: Worked with Dr. Terry Ord examining the plasticity in signaling of Anolis
gundlachi. (July 2009)

Research Assistant, Work Study Program, Harvard
Research assistant: Worked with Dr. Terry Ord primarily on a comparative study on the
signaling strategies of various anole species in Puerto Rico and Jamaica. Motion image
analysis. (January 2009-August 2009)






Publications
Pringle, R.M., J.R. Goheen, T.M. Palmer, G.K. Charles, E. Defranco, R Hohbein, A.T. Ford,
C. Tarnita. 2014. Low functional redundancy among mammalian browsers in regulating an
encroaching shrub (Solanum campylacanthum) in African savanna. Proceedings of the
Royal Society B, in press.

Kartzinel, T.R., J.R. Goheen, G.K. Charles, E. Defranco, J.E. Maclean, T. Otieno, T.M.
Palmer, R.M. Pringle. 2014. Plant and small mammal responses to large-herbivore exclusion
in a semi-arid African savanna: the first five years of the UHURU experiment. Ecology
95(3):787.

Caro, T., G.K. Charles, D.J. Clink, J.R. Riggio, A. Weill, and C. Whitesell. The future of
terrestrial protected areas. To appear in: Forest conservation and restoration in the
Anthropocene: Adaptation of science, policy, and practices. A. Sample, ed.

Goheen, J.R., T.M. Palmer, G.K. Charles, K.M. Helgen, S.T. Kinyua, J.E. Maclean, H.S.
Young, and R.M. Pringle. 2013. Piecewise disassembly of a large-herbivore community
across a rainfall gradient: The UHURU experiment. PLoS One 8(2): e55192.

Charles, G.K. and T.J. Ord. 2012. Factors leading to the evolution and maintenance of a
male ornament in territorial species. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 11, 12731.

Ord, T.J., G.K. Charles, and R.K. Hofer. 2010. Evolutionary ancestry determines whether
communicating animals exploit periods of quiet in noisy environments. The American
Naturalist 177:54-64.

Posters and Presentations

Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University, Geospatial Collaboration: New
Common Ground. May 6, 2011. Poster: Efficacy of using vegetation indices to predict plant
productivity in African rangelands

Mpala Research Centre, Kenya, with Denver Zoo Discovery Day. July 24, 2010. Talk Title:
Interactive Effects of Species Loss and Climatic Variability: Experimental Approaches

Grants

Center for Population Biology Research Award, 2013. Multiple pathways of ecosystem
regulation by the island fox, Urocyon littoralis ($900)

Henry A. Jastro Graduate Research Scholarship, 2013. Rainfall-mediated effects of
herbivores on plant fitness and population structure ($3,000)

Graduate Scholars Fellowship, UC Davis, 2012. ($34,000)

Plant Sciences Departmental Fellowship, awarded April 2012.

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, awarded April 2012.



Explorers Club Youth Activity Fund, May 2010. Interactive effects of species loss &
climatic variability ($3000)

Museum of Comparative Zoology Grants in Aid of Undergraduate Research, April 2010.
Interactive effects of species loss & climatic variability ($2500)

Harvard College Research Program, April 2010. Interactive effects of species loss &
climatic variability ($1000)

Harvard University Center for the Environment, April 2010. Interactive effects of species
loss & climatic variability ($2500)

Office of International Programs Study Abroad Grant, May 2008. Harvard Summer
School in Oxford, England ($7000)

Teaching and Professional Service

Student co-teacher, NSF GRFP workshop, fall 2013 (Out of four students, one
fellowship and one honorable mention awarded).
Reviewer for Journal of Vegetation Science, Journal of Ecology, Oecologia, African
Journal of Ecology
Guest Lecturer for Ecology and Evolution 131: Ecology of Tropical Latitudes


Skills
Languages: Swahili (intermediate), Spanish (intermediate)
GIS: Coursework and research using ArcGIS 9 & 10, GeoDa, and Multispec
Programming: Proficient in C, R
Statistics Program Experience: R, Stata, Jmp