Favorite Tick and Why: Amblyomma americanum because of the lone star

Favorite Tick and Why: Amblyomma americanum because of the lone star

Title: Assistant Professor

Phone: 405-744-7424

Fax: 405-744-7824

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Education:
Ph.D., 2003, Texas A&M University (Entomology)
M.S., 1999, Texas A&M University (Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences)
B.S., 1994, The College of William and Mary (Environmental Science)

Area of Research Expertise: Conservation Biology, Invertebrate Ecology, Landscape Ecology

Research Interests: My general interests center on ecology and conservation issues. More specifically, I am interested in questions related to habitat fragmentation, landscape structure, and animal movement patterns. My research encompasses both applied and theoretical aspects of ecology, which I address using a variety of different study organisms and a variety of different approaches.

Teaching: Animal Biology (ZOOL 1604), Invertebrate Zoology (ZOOL 3104), General Ecology (BIOL 3034), Graduate Seminar: Ecology of Infectious Diseases (ZOOL 5010)

Selected Publications: (Last 3-5 years)

Saenz, D., K.A. Baum, L.A. Fitzgerald, and R.N. Conner. 2006. Abiotic correlates of breeding activity in an anuran community. Herpetological Monographs 20: 64-82.

Baum, K.A., W.L. Rubink, and R.N. Coulson. 2006. Trapping of feral honey bee workers (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in a coastal prairie landscape: effects of season and vegetation type. The Canadian Entomologist 138: 228-234.

Baum, K.A., W.L. Rubink, M.A. Pinto, and R.N. Coulson. 2005. Spatial and temporal distribution and nest site characteristics of feral honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies in a coastal prairie landscape. Environmental Entomology 34: 610-618.

Dayton, G.H., D. Saenz, K.A. Baum, R.B. Langerhans, and T.J. DeWitt. 2005. Body shape, burst speed and escape behavior of larval anurans. Oikos 111: 582-591.

Coulson, R.N., M.A. Pinto, M.D. Tchakerian, K.A. Baum, W.L. Rubink, and J.S. Johnston. 2005. Feral honey bees in pine forest landscapes of East Texas. Forest Ecology and Management 215: 91-102.

Baum, K.A., K.J. Haynes, F.P. Dillemuth, and J.T. Cronin. 2004. The matrix enhances the effectiveness of corridors and stepping stones. Ecology 85: 2671-2676.

Baum, K.A., W.L. Rubink, R.N. Coulson, and V.M. Bryant. 2004. Pollen selection by feral honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies in a coastal prairie landscape. Environmental Entomology 33: 727-739.

Rubink, W.L., K.D. Murray, K.A. Baum, and M.A. Pinto. 2003. Long term preservation of DNA from honey bees (Apis mellifera) collected in aerial pitfall traps. Texas Journal of Science 55: 159-168.

Saenz, D., K.A. Baum, R.N. Conner, D.C. Rudolph, and R. Costa. 2002. Large-scale reintroduction strategies for reintroducing Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. Journal of Wildlife Management 66: 212-221.


My interest in ticks is relatively recent, with my research focusing on the distribution and abundance of ticks and tick-vectored diseases in relation to landscape structure.