MVZ researchers are Principal Investigators on a diverse range of topics, ranging from molecular and behavioral studies to biodiversity informatics. Many of these projects are funded by the National Science Foundation and other sources. Some of the active projects and grants in the Museum are listed here.

• AmphibiaWeb. An online database that draws together all available information on the biology and conservation of amphibians, worldwide.
  http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/aw/
• AmphibiaTree. A community-based research effort to develop an evolutionary tree for all amphibians.
  http://amphibiatree.org/
• Behavioral Ecology of Western Bluebirds. A long-term population study of marked individuals at Hastings Reservation dating back to 1983. The current focus is on winter resources as a form of family wealth that selects for winter sociality, delayed dispersal of sons, and kin-directed cooperative behavior.
  http://www.hastingsreserve.org/...
• Biogeomancer. A project funded by the Moore Foundation that involves worldwide collaboration of natural history and geospatial data experts. The primary goal of this project is to maximize the quality and quantity of biodiversity data that can be mapped in support of scientific research, planning, conservation, and management. The project promotes discussion, manages geospatial data and data standards, and develops software tools in support of this mission.
  http://www.biogeomancer.org/
• Digir-Mapper. Recent developments in distributed networks of natural history collections (MaNIS, HerpNET, ORNIS) have led to an explosion in the availability of georeferenced specimen data, and Digir-Mapper is being developed in anticipation of this deluge. This NSF-funded project will develop a web-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tool for visualization and subsequent analysis of species distributions using the vast store of specimen data housed in natural history collections worldwide.
  http://mvz.berkeley.edu/DiGIR_Mapper.html
• Digital MVZ Project. A NSF-funded project to scan and make available through the internet a large portion of its historical field notes and photographs. Thousands of pages and photos have been scanned, and the website for viewing them is under development.
  http://mvz.berkeley.edu/FieldnotePhotoMap_Collection_Access.html/
• Evolutionary Hotspots Project. This is a partnership between the California State Parks and UC Berkeley, involving investigators from the MVZ. Their work seeks to identify areas of unusually high origination rate in the state of California, so that biodiversity conservation decisions in the state can be made with both the short-term goal of preventing human-caused extinctions and the long-term goal of maximizing ongoing originations.
  http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~daviseb/Hotspots/Hotspots1.htm
• Grinnell Project. The MVZ is working towards a resurvey of its major expeditions prior to 1940, with a goal of comparing faunas from the past with the present.
  http://mvz.berkely.edu/Grinnell/
• HerpNET. A NSF-funded project to develop a distributed database network for 38 herpetological collections.
  http://www.herpnet.org
• Historical demography and diversity of a tropical rainforest fauna. A collaborative project that addresses question-driven research in evolutionary biology, macroecology, phylogeographic methodology, and conservation.
  http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/moritz/research/awt.html
• Lassen Transect Project. This is the second resurvey endeavor of the Grinnell Resurvey Project. The surveys begin in 2006 involving curators, post-docs, graduate students, undergrads and volunteers.
• Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project. With the support of the National Geographic Society Conservation Trust and the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, wildlife specialists are headed to Kenya's Masailand to get a precise measure of the current lion population and attempt to broker a peace between the predators and livestock owners.
  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/07/0716_030716_lions.html
• Laikipia Predator Project. The Laikipia Predator Project in northern Kenya was established in 1998 to explore the ecology and conservation of African predators that conflict with man.
  Time Magazine article about project
  http://wcs.org/sw-around_the_globe/Africa/kenya/laikipiapredatorproject
• MaNIS. A NSF-funded project to create an international network of mammal collections with access to specimen data online. MaNIS is now fully functional.
  http://manisnet.org
• Molecular studies of population structure in subterranean rodents. A molecular analysis of relationships between behavior, demography, and patterns of genetic variation in tuco-tucos (Ctenomys) of South America.
  http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/lacey/research.html
• ORNIS. A distributed database project for avian biodiversity information that currently includes 32 data providers. ORNIS will serve as a portal for querying collection and non-specimen databases, and will develop/utilize a suite of online tools for improving georeferencing and for detecting errors in taxonomy, localities, and collecting events.
  http://ornisnet.org/
• Phylogenetics and the Evolution of Flight Performance in Hummingbirds. A multilocus species-level phylogenetic analysis of hummingbird relationships. The goal is to use this phylogeny to investigate the relationship between body size, flight performance, and elevation across species.
  http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~mcguirej/Research.html
• Yosemite Transect Project. A 3-year project to resurvey early collecting sites that formed the basis for Animal Life in the Yosemite. This work is the first stage of the Grinnell Resurvey Project, and stretches from Mono Lake west through much of Yosemite National Park and down into the Sacramento Valley. 2006: The three year project has now been completed, but some follow up work is presently being done.
  http://mvz.berkeley.edu/Grinnell/Yosemite_main.html