Jennifer A Sheridan
Science (Environmental Studies)
Assistant Professor
Email: jasheridan@yale-nus.edu.sg
Email: jasheridan@gmail.com
Website: jasheridan.weebly.com
Dr Sheridan graduated from the University of Chicago, where a teaching assistant first introduced her to the study of frogs in Southeast Asia. She then went on to study the links between health and reproductive success in tropical birds for her MS at the University of Miami. Thereafter, she completed her PhD at the University of California, San Diego, studying reproductive variation in Southeast Asian amphibians. Dr Sheridan taught biology at the University of California Santa Barbara, and a conservation field course in Namibia, Africa, prior to conducting post-doctoral research at the National University of Singapore, exploring long-term changes in amphibian communities and body size responses to climate change. Recently, Dr Sheridan trained in molecular phylogenetics and evolution with Dr Leslie Rissler at the University of Alabama and Dr Bryan Stuart at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
Dr Sheridan’s research focuses on understanding and quantifying threats to biodiversity in order to better focus conservation efforts and mitigate change. To those ends, she is currently examining 1) the effects of habitat alteration on amphibian communities, 2) the effect of climate change on organism size, and 3) integrative responses to land use and climate change.
Fragmentation causes both biotic and abiotic changes in local environments, and she is interested in teasing apart top-down and bottom-up factors influencing responses to human-induced disturbances, and identifying which abiotic factors best predict biodiversity. Additionally, changes in body size due to climate warming can alter predictions of population sizes and dispersal abilities, so understanding physiological responses to climate change can improve predictions of species responses to habitat fragmentation. Dr Sheridan aims to develop integrative models to incorporate both physiological and ecological responses to climate and land use changes.
Understanding how species are separated in ecological space and how species are affected by changes in their environment allow for better predictions of biodiversity losses, and potential mitigation techniques.
Stuart, B. L., S. Phimmachak, S. Seateun, and J. A. Sheridan. 2013. A new Philautus (Anura: Rhacophoridae) from northern Laos allied to P. abditus (Inger, Orlov & Darevsky, 1999). Zootaxa 3745: 73-83.
Sheridan, J.A., S.D. Howard, P. Yambun, J.L. Rice, R. Cadwallader-Staub, A. Karolus, and D. Bickford. 2012. Novel behaviors of Southeast Asian rhacophorid frogs (Anura, Rhacophoridae) with an updated anuran species list for Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Tropical Natural History. 12 (1) 1-8.
Sheridan, J.A. and D. Bickford. 2011. Shrinking body size as an ecological response to climate change. Nature Climate Change. 1 (8) 401-406.
Bickford, D., J.A. Sheridan, and S. Howard. 2011. Climate change responses: Forgetting frogs, ferns, and flies? Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 26 (11) 553-554.
Sheridan, J.A., D. Bickford, K.F.Y. Su, and R. Meier. 2010. An examination of call and genetic variation in three wide-ranging Southeast Asian anuran species. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 58 (2) 197-207.
Bickford, D., S.D. Howard, D.J.J.Ng, and J.A. Sheridan. 2010. Impacts of climate change on the amphibians and reptiles of Southeast Asia. Biodiversity and Conservation. 19 (4) 1043-1062.
Sheridan, J.A. 2009. Reproductive variation corresponding to breeding season length in three tropical frogs. Journal of Tropical Ecology. 25 583-592.
Sheridan, J.A. and J.F. Ocock. 2008. Parental care in Chiromantis hansenae (Anura, Rhacophoridae). Copeia. 2008 (4) 733-736.
Sheridan, J.A. 2008. Ecology and behavior of Polypedates lecuomystax (Anura: Rhacophoridae) in northeast Thailand. Herpetological Review. 39 (2) 165-169.
McLeod, D.S., J.A. Sheridan, W. Jiraungkoorskul, and W. Khonsue. 2008. Survey for chytrid fungus in Thai amphibians. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 56 (1) 191-196.
Sheridan, J.A., S.R. Beissinger, and C.R. Hughes. 2004. Weak association between measures of health and reproductive success in green-rumped parrotlets (Forpus passerinus) in Venezuela. The Auk. 121 (3) 717-725.
Foundations of Science
Environmental Studies (2015)