Karen Dutko

Karen Dutko

Graduate Student

Email: kdutko2001@g.ucla.edu

Phone: 818-268-4446

Curriculum Vitae

Education

BS Environmental Science, Minor in Geographic Information Systems and Technology, UCLA 2023

Research

GIS, Remote Sensing, Climate-based vulnerability assessments, land use/land cover change, tropical ecology, island biogeography, and habitat suitability modeling.

Currently I am assessing the effects of climate change on native plant distributions across the Hawaiian Islands using baseline and future climate model projections. Previously I have also done research on deforestation, habitat degradation, and land cover/land use change within the Congo Basin. I aim to delve further into tropical ecology dynamics and incorporate my environmental science background into my biogeography research as I continue to assess critical threats in a variety of tropical ecosystems.

Grants & Awards

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SCHOLARS PROGRAM GRANT
UCLA Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology / Los Angeles, CA / 2022 – 2023

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWS PROGRAM SCHOLARSHIP
UCLA Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology / Los Angeles, CA / 2021 – 2022

Courses & Presentations

American Association of Geographers

Annual Meeting / Honolulu, HI / April 2023

 

American Geophysical Union

Fall Meeting / Chicago, IL / December 2022

 

UCLA Undergraduate Research Week

UCLA Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology / Los Angeles, CA / 2022
UCLA Institute of Environmental Science / Los Angeles, CA / 2021

Advisors

Dr. Thomas W. Gillespie