Vance Thomas Vredenburg
Vance Thomas Vredenburg
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Professor/Chair
BiologyCollege of Science and Engineering
Bio:
Vance Vredenburg is a Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Biology at San Francisco State University, Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, and Research Associate at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at University of California Berkeley. He grew up in Mexico, received his bachelor's degree from the University of California Santa Barbara, and his Ph.D. from University of California Berkeley. His Ph.D. research showed it is possible to reverse the decline of a threatened frog in the wild (Vredenburg 2004). This conservation approach has been implemented in montane areas globally. His current research focuses on the impacts of an emerging infectious disease (chytridiomycosis) on amphibians and the role of the amphibian skin microbiome in health and disease.
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Research Description
Vance Vredenburg was raised in Mexico and the United States. His scientific training began as an undergraduate at the University of California Santa Barbara where he worked on ecological research projects in coastal California, Alaska, the Caribbean and Antarctica. His Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley (2002) included whole-lake experiments that showed that recovery of threatened frogs in the Sierra Nevada, California is possible with the removal of introduced fish predators (trout).
Research in the Vredenburg lab focuses broadly on ecology, evolution and conservation in the context of climate change. Most projects in my lab focus on amphibians, though we also study bird behavior and communication. My lab incorporates elements of population, community, and behavioral ecology to investigate hypotheses that can explain vertebrate species loss as our climate changes. These include studies of the impacts of emerging infectious disease, introduced predators, and habitat destruction. Our approach uses a combination of field and lab-based experiments as well as comparative methods (using museum specimens).