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Geography Colloquium: Apocalyptic Species

Speaker: Dr. Bob Walker Professor Department of Geography University of Florida Thursday, October 12, 2023 3:00-3:50 PM (Period 8) Recorded for YouTube Turlington Hall 3018 and Zoom University of Florida Abstract: “Apocalyptic Species” is a piece of work describing a recent trip I made to Patagonia, visiting Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. It […]

The Amazon is not safe under Brazil’s new president – a roads plan could push it past its breaking point

WALKER – The Amazon is not safe under Brazil’s new president – a roads plan could push it past its breaking point Robert Walker Article first published online: 22 March 2023 URL: https://theconversation.com/the-amazon-is-not-safe-under-brazils-new-president-a-roads-plan-could-push-it-past-its-breaking-point-200691 ABSTRACT: Conservationists breathed a sigh of relief when Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s presidential election in the fall of 2022. His […]

Geography Colloquium: Resilient Socio-Environmental Systems: Indigenous Territories in the Face of Change

Speaker: Dr. Bob Walker Professor Department of Geography University of Florida Co-speakers: Dr. Joel Correia, Dr. Cynthia Simmons, Miguel Acevedo, Michael Esbach Thursday, February 16, 2023 3:00-3:50 PM (Period 8) Recorded for YouTube Turlington Hall 3018 and Zoom University of Florida Abstract: Amazonia’s Indigenous peoples are capable of conserving their natural environments in the face of […]

Spatial analysis of human and livestock anthrax in Dien Bien province, Vietnam (2010–2019) and the significance of anthrax vaccination in livestock

LUONG, WALKER, BLACKBURN – Spatial analysis of human and livestock anthrax in Dien Bien province, Vietnam (2010–2019) and the significance of anthrax vaccination in livestock Luong Minh Tan, Doan Ngoc Hung, Do Thai My, Morgan A. Walker, Hoang Thi Thu Ha, Pham Quang Thai, Tran Thi Mai Hung, Jason K. Blackburn Article first published online: 20 December 2022 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010942 ABSTRACT: Anthrax […]

Globalized supply chains: Emergent telecouplings in Mexico’s beef economy and environmental leakages

SIMMONS, WALKER, WAYLEN – Globalized supply chains: Emergent tele couplings in Mexico’s beef economy and environmental leakages Yankuic Galvan-Miyoshi, Cynthia Simmons, Robert Walker, Gilberto Aranda Osorio, Petro Martinez Hernandez, Ema Maldonado-Simán, Barney Warf, Marta Astier, Michael Waylen Article first published online: 5 Mar 2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102486 ABSTRACT: This article analyzes how trade liberalization in Mexico, particularly […]

Fragmentation Trajectories as a Review of Existing and Proposed Single-valued Fragmentation Indices

WALKER – Fragmentation Trajectories as a Review of Existing and Proposed Single-valued Fragmentation Indices Dante Gideon K. Vergara, Rodel D. Lasco, Robert T. Walker, Antonio J. Alcantara, Rico C. Ancog, Patricia Ann J. Sanchez, Cristino L. Tiburan, Jr. Article first published online: 4 January 2022 ABSTRACT: Two related single-valued landscape fragmentation indices D and F are proposed, based on patch aggregation, […]

Dr. Walker receives Sauer Distinguished Scholarship Award

Dr. Robert Walker has been selected by the Conference of Latin American Geography as the recipient of the 2021 Carl O. Sauer Distinguished Scholarship Award. This award is granted in recognition for a corpus of important published work or other significant contribution towards Latin American geography. Sauer Distinguished Scholars are leading authorities in specific research […]

Focus Area 4: Geopolitics & The Global Economy

The turbulence of the current times has dramatically transformed the world’s economic and political geographies. The scale and scope of such changes require urgent attention. Important topics in this arena relate to: globalization and its impact on peoples and places; economic inequalities across geographic scales and borders; terrorism and power; the development of the knowledge-based economy; and […]

Collision Course: Development Pushes Amazonia Toward Its Tipping Point

WALKER – Collision Course: Development Pushes Amazonia Toward Its Tipping Point Robert Toovey Walker Article first published online: 23 DEC 2020 Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development DOI: 10.1080/00139157.2021.1842711 ABSTRACT: Shortly after the turn of the millennium, effective envir­onmental policies in Brazil reduced deforestation rates in the Amazon Basin. Unfor­tunately, these policies began to […]

Meet the Geographer: Morgan Walker

Morgan Walker Pronouns: she/her or they/them Spatial Epidemiologist and GIS Lab Manager Spatial Epidemiology & Ecology Research Laboratory (SEER Lab) University of Florida Adviser: Dr. Jason Blackburn Focus Area: Geospatial Analysis and Techniques Medical Geography in Global Health  Research Statement: I am broadly interested in disease ecology and spatial epidemiology. My research focuses on transmission […]

Animal carcasses may increase grazing potential and anthrax transmission risk for elk and bison, but differently

The latest publication led by SEER Lab #MedGeo M.S. Alum, and full-time Spatial Epidemiologist Morgan Walker is available in Royal Society Open Science. In this study, Walker and others examined how ungulates, primarily plains bison and elk, use animal carcasses on the Montana landscape. Working with SEER Lab partners at Turner Enteprises, Inc. (TEI) out […]

Ungulate use of locally infectious zones in a re-emerging anthrax risk area

BLACKBURN, RYAN, URIBASTERRA, WALKER – Ungulate use of locally infectious zones in a re-emerging anthrax risk area Morgan A. Walker, Maria Uribasterra, Valpa Asher, José Miguel Ponciano, Wayne M. Getz, Sadie J. Ryan, and Jason K. Blackburn Article first published online: 21 OCT 2020 Royal Society Open Access DOI: 10.1098/rsos.200246 ABSTRACT: Environmentally mediated indirect pathogen […]

GEA4465 GEA6466: Seminar on Amazonia

Dr. Robert Walker – roberttwalker@ufl.edu What is Bolsonaro up to? How is climate change impacting the Amazon? Is the region on the verge of a Tipping Point catastrophe? Will the fires continue to intensify? Can indigenous resistance save the forest? How do we find a pathway to sustainable development? For the past several decades, world […]

NAFTA’s Cartel Economy

WALKER – NAFTA’s Cartel Economy Robert Toovey Walker Article first published online: 25 JUN 2020 Annals of the American Association of Geographers DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2020.1765727 ABSTRACT: This article combines elements of a personal essay with travel writing, in which geographers have expressed renewed interest. Constructed not through contemplations of the mind but from lived corporeal experience, […]

What Florida Can Learn from the Amazon Fires

Last Fall, Dr. Robert Walker talked with the Florida Museum of Natural History about What Florida Can Learn from the Amazon Fires. Robert Walker, a professor of Latin American geographers and geography in the University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies, grew up in Clearwater, Fla. He remembers driving down long stretches of I-75, peering out at mile after mile […]

Drs. Simmons and Walker Invited Speakers at the Alexander Von Humbolt Seminar 2019

Dr. Cynthia Simmons and Dr. Robert Walker were invited speakers at the Alexander Von Humbolt Seminar 2019 at the Center for Environmental Geography Research (CIGA), National University of Mexico, Michoacan (UNAM). Small rural producers, forests and globalization in Latin America In the first part of the conference the socioeconomic and environmental effects of the entry […]

Post-NAFTA Changes in Peasant Land Use—The Case of the Pátzcuaro Lake Watershed Region in the Central-West México

SIMMONS, WALKER – Post-NAFTA Changes in Peasant Land Use—The Case of the Pátzcuaro Lake Watershed Region in the Central-West México Marta Astier, Quetzalcóatl Orozco-Ramírez, Robert Walker, Yankuic Galván-Miyoshi, Carlos González-Esquivel, Cynthia S. Simmons Article first published online: 5 MAR 2020 Land DOI: 10.3390/land9030075 ABSTRACT: Rural life in México has changed drastically over the past several […]

Indigenous people may be the Amazon’s last hope

CARRARA, IRIGARAY, SIMMONS, WALKER – Indigenous people may be the Amazon’s last hope Robert T. Walker, Aline Carrara, Cynthia Simmons, and Maira Irigaray Article first published online: 27 FEB 2020 The Conversation ABSTRACT: Brazil’s divisive President Jair Bolsonaro has taken another step in his bold plans to develop the Amazon rainforest. A bill he is […]

Catastrophic Amazon tipping point less than 30 years away

Dr. Robert Walker‘s work was recently featured in Catastrophic Amazon tipping point less than 30 years away: study, an article in Mongabay. The present study, led by Robert Walker at the University of Florida, Gainesville, combined projections of future agricultural expansion published by Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) and the Food […]

Agronomic or contentious land change? A longitudinal analysis from the Eastern Brazilian Amazon

SIMMONS, WALKER – Agronomic or contentious land change? A longitudinal analysis from the Eastern Brazilian Amazon Stephen P. Aldrich,Cynthia S. Simmons, Eugenio Arima, Robert T. Walker, Fernando Michelotti, Edna Castro Article first published online: 27 JAN 2020 PLOS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0227378 ABSTRACT: Since 1984, nearly 1,000 people have been killed in the Brazilian Amazon due […]

Announcing The Navi-Gator, Issue 3!

University of Florida Department of Geography The Navi-Gator January 2020, ISSUE 3 (Download PDF) Evening of excellence John & Fawn Dunkle Award for Graduate Student Travel: Ryan Good & Guoqian Yan David L. Niddrie Excellence Fund: Tierney Shimansky & Shreejana Bhattarai Little Family Student Fellowship Award: Caroline Parks Ryan Poehling Award for Top Graduate Student: […]

Geography Colloquium: Avoiding Amazonian Catastrophes – Prospects for Conservation in the 21st Century

Avoiding Amazonian Catastrophes – Prospects for Conservation in the 21st Century Speaker: Dr. Robert Walker Professor, Department of Geography, University of Florida Thursday, March 14, 2019 2:50-3:50 PM (Period 8) Turlington Hall Room 3018 University of Florida All are welcome to attend. New infrastructure threats confront the Amazon. Resulting development could push its forest past […]

Announcing The Navi-Gator, Issue 2!

  University of Florida Department of Geography The Navi-Gator OCTOBER 2019, ISSUE 2 So many new and exciting things have happened… Check out our amazing new grad lab in 1215! Come visit us in the geography office– lounge around in reclining chairs and grab some new GeoGator merch. We have T-shirts and sweatshirts for sale, […]

Avoiding Amazonian Catastrophes: Prospects for Conservation in the 21st Century

ANTUNES, IRIGARAY CASTRO, SIMMONS, WALKER, WAYLEN – Avoiding Amazonian Catastrophes: Prospects for Conservation in the 21st Century Robert Toovey Walker, Cynthia Simmons, Eugenio Arima, Yankuic Galvan-Miyoshi, Aghane Antunes, Michael Waylen, and Maíra Irigaray Article first published online: 25 OCT 2019 One Earth DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2019.09.009 ABSTRACT: A new threat now confronts the Amazon in the form […]

Who pays the bill? The effects of altered brood size on parental and nestling physiology

WALKER– Who pays the bill? The effects of altered brood size on parental and nestling physiology Emily Cornelius Ruhs, François Vézina, Morgan A. Walker, & William H. Karasov Article first published online: 4 OCT 2019 Journal of Ornithology DOI: 10.1007/s10336-019-01715-1 ABSTRACT: Current life history theory suggests that during times of extreme energetic demand, animals may […]

Graduate Student Poster Presentation

This week’s Geography Colloquium featured some of our current Master’s students presenting their research in a poster session:                       Megan Black presented Post-restoration analysis of bed morphology of the Lower Kissimmee River, Florida.                       Michael […]

UF Researchers Forecast Accelerated Deforestation and Displacement of Indigenous Peoples in Brazilian Amazon

GAINESVILLE, FL – Amazonian deforestation continues to concern the world community, especially as the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA) begins to displace indigenous peoples and traditional communities. While the narrative surrounding the loss of Amazonian ecosystems is often framed as the penetration of capitalist relations into a resource […]

A 21st Century Agenda in Support of Amazonian Conservation

Associate Professor Dr. Cynthia Simmons and a team of international scholars – including UF Geography’s Dr. Robert Walker, Mike Waylen, and Aghane Antunes – present a strategy for achieving sustainable development in Amazonia, given global climate change and the massive infrastructure program planned for the region, in their latest paper Science in support of Amazonian […]

Discipline and Develop: Destruction of the Brazil Nut Forest in the Lower Amazon Basin

ANTUNES, SIMMONS, WALKER, WAYLEN – Discipline and Develop: Destruction of the Brazil Nut Forest in the Lower Amazon Basin Cynthia S. Simmons, Robert Walker, Stephen Aldrich, Eugenio Arima, Ritaumaria Pereira, Edna Maria Ramos de Castro, Fernando Michelotti, Michael Waylen, & Aghane Antunes Article first published online: 20 DEC 2018 The Annals of the American Association […]

Science in support of Amazonian conservation in the 21st century: the case of Brazil

ANTUNES, SIMMONS, WALKER, WAYLEN – Science in support of Amazonian conservation in the 21st century: the case of Brazil Cynthia S. Simmons, Lisa Famolare, Marcia N. Macedo, Robert T. Walker, Michael T. Coe, Brett Scheffers, Eugenio Arima, Rafael Munoz-Carpena, Denis Valle, Clyde Fraisse, Paul Moorcroft, Marcelo Diniz, Marcia Diniz, Claudio Szlafsztein, Ritaumaria Pereira, Cesar Ruiz, […]

Endangered Amazon – An Indigenous Tribe Fights Back Against Hydropower Development in the Tapajós Valley

One of Amazonia’s most pristine waterways, the Tapajós River, is under a development threat that holds implications for the entire basin. This threat stems from an infrastructure plan proposed by the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), in coordination with complementary projects on the part of its 12 member states. UNASUR’s Initiative for the Integration […]

Endangered Amazon: An Indigenous Tribe Fights Back Against Hydropower Development in the Tapajós Valley

SIMMONS, WALKER – Endangered Amazon: An Indigenous Tribe Fights Back Against Hydropower Development in the Tapajós Valley Robert Walker and Cynthia Simmons Article first published online: 01 MAR 2018 Environment Magazine ABSTRACT: One of Amazonia’s most pristine waterways, the Tapajós River, is under a development threat that holds implications for the entire basin. This threat […]

Fountain of Youth

WALKER – Fountain of Youth Robert Walker Article first published online: 02 FEB 2017 Kudzu House INTRODUCTION: Upon my unanticipated return to Florida six months ago, I hurried to Silver Springs where I’d spent many a summer day as a child.  To escape the heat of the Tampa Bay area, my parents would load my kid brother […]

To Keep a River Running

WALKER – To Keep a River Running Robert Walker Article first published online: 1 OCT 2016 Earth Island Journal It came in low, guns bristling through the open bay. Such a strange apparition, like a giant insect, almost familiar but for its unnatural sound and fury and the faces staring down at them, striped in the black […]

Spring Course: GEO4938/GEO6938 LAS4935/LAS6938 Environmental Catastrophes, Tipping Points, and Challenges

  Global Warming, Extinction Crises, Ocean Acidification.  The newspapers and magazines are full of environmental doomsday prophecies, and this course will help you make sense of what’s happening to our planet.  We start with an overview of recent academic articles that have identified critical components of the earth’s climate system that are on the verge […]

Dr. Robert Walker receives NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences award

Dr. Robert Walker has received an NSF award from the Geography and Spatial Sciences program, to fund a project entitled “International Trade Agreements, Globalization, Land Change, and Agricultural Food Networks” with a budget of $375,000. The research, to be conducted in Mexico, investigates links between spatial shifts in that country’s forest biomes, and neoliberal reforms […]

Smallholders, Agrarian Reform, and Globalization in the Brazilian Amazon: Cattle versus the Environment

SIMMONS, WALKER – Smallholders, Agrarian Reform, and Globalization in the Brazilian Amazon: Cattle versus the Environment Ritaumaria Pereira, Cynthia S. Simmons, and Robert Walker Article first published online: 7 JUL 2016 Land DOI: 10.3390/land5030024 ABSTRACT: Smallholder farming in the Brazilian Amazon has changed markedly over the last few decades, following a pervasive swing to cattle production observed […]

Spatial Patterns of Frontier Settlement: Balancing Conservation and Development

SIMMONS, WALKER – Spatial Patterns of Frontier Settlement: Balancing Conservation and Development Cynthia Simmons, Robert Walker, Stephen Perz, Eugenio Arima, Stephen Aldrich, Marcellus Caldas Article first published online: MAR 2016 Journal of Latin American Geography DOI: 10.1353/lag.2016.0011 ABSTRACT: Amazonian deforestation has declined recently, but Brazil’s infrastructure plans continue to target the region. In the interest of […]

Response to Corridors for people, corridors for nature

WALKER – Response to Corridors for people, corridors for nature Robert Walker, Eugenio Arima, Stephen Perz, Carlos Souza eLetter first published online: 3 FEB 2016 Science ABSTRACT: An article in Science by Haddad points to the positive and negative impacts of building roads in developing regions. Transportation investments promote development, but they can also cause environmental degradation. We agree […]

Biothreat Reduction and Economic Development: The Case of Animal Husbandry in Central Asia

BLACKBURN, WALKER – Biothreat Reduction and Economic Development: The Case of Animal Husbandry in Central Asia Robert Walker and Jason Blackburn Article first published online: 23 DEC 2015 Frontiers in Public Health DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2015.00270 ABSTRACT: Improving human welfare is a critical global concern, but not always easy to achieve. Complications in this regard have been faced […]