The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) promotes the professional development of students working in tropical biology and conservation by providing Seed Grants that support graduate research projects across the tropics.
With generous support from the Maxwell-Hanrahan Foundation, ATBC awarded 15 Seed Grants in 2025, enabling promising research that advances our understanding of tropical ecosystems and conservation challenges. We extend our sincere appreciation to the Foundation for making this program possible.
ATBC also acknowledges the dedicated members of the Grants and Awards Committee, who volunteered their time and expertise to review this year’s applications.
Here are the recipients of the 2025 Seed Grant Awards:
University of Cape Town “Breeding Status Modulates Physiological but Not Behavioral Responses to Human Disturbance in Urban Red-Winged Starlings”
University of Washington "Phenotypic plasticity of bats living in unpredictable environments”
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) "Sensitivity of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Biogeochemical Cycles in Yucatán's Tropical Dry Forests: Biogeochemical Responses to Global Change-induced Drought"
State University of Paraíba “Colors and Songs of the City: How Urbanization Patterns Affect the Structure and Composition of the Bird Community in the Northeastern Semiarid Region”
University of Illinois “Riverscape Connectivity in Northern Central America”
University of Miami “Herbivory in a Hotter World: How Temperature Shapes Plant Defense in Tropical Rainforests”
Ashoka University "Investigating the causes and consequences of winter breeding under changing climates in the Indian Goldenback Frog (Hylarana indica)"
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco “Drivers of fern species richness and endemism in the Andean mountains”
Bangor University “Microbial Conservation: The Role of Skin Bacteria as a Barrier to Lethal Emerging Diseases in Neotropical Amphibians”
University of the Philippines “Detecting changes in reproductive phenology in a largely aseasonal tropical forest amid climate shifts”
Fergusson College, Pune, India “The recovery of tropical savanna biodiversity following agricultural abandonment in India”
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur “Threads of Life: Orchid-Euglossini interactions networks and the challenge of habitat degradation in a Mexican rainforest”
University of Antananarivo “Urban bryophytes as bioindicators: factor influencing species diversity and community assembly along a rural-urban gradient Madagascar’s capital city.
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) “The spatiotemporal variation of the arboreal mammals in Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve as a response to environmental heterogeneity”
Manipal Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India “Navigating concrete jungles: understanding the species richness, functional and phylogenetic diversity of amphibians from a tropical mega-city, Bengaluru, India.”
