| Gary
E. Belovsky
Professor,
Gillen Chair and Director of UNDERC
M.F.S. Yale University
Ph.D. Harvard University
Postdoctoral, Harvard Society of Fellows and University
of Washington |
|
I have studied a variety
of animals and habitats: mammals, birds, grasshoppers,
spiders and brine shrimp in grasslands (Montana), desert
shrubland (Australia), boreal forest (Michigan), rainforest
(Puerto Rico), tundra (Alaska) and saline lakes (Utah).
Results have furthered conservation and sustainable harvesting.
 |
| National
Bison Range and some of its inhabitants, herbivores
from grasshoppers to bison and predators from birds
to mountain lions. |
My students and I
have been conducting long-term studies in grasslands at
the National Bison Range in Montana (23 years) and at
Great Salt Lake in Utah (6 years). Newer projects
are in Puerto Rican rainforest and in forests at the University
of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (Michigan).
My
research philosophy has several major themes. First,
I construct theories and test them by conducting observational
and experimental field studies. Second, I apply
a reductionist approach to understand higher level processes,
e.g., can community ecology be understood by population
processes and can population processes in turn be understood
by behavioral/physiological processes. Finally,
I attempt to employ my studies of ecological principles
to address applied problems (e.g., conservation) and provide
insights in other disciplines (e.g., anthropology/archeology).
 |
| Great
Salt Lake and some of its inhabitants
Brine
shrimp and the birds that consume them.
|
I have particularly
focused on foraging theory as it relates to population
dynamics, interspecific competition, predator-prey dynamics
and nutrient cycling in ecosystems. In these studies,
herbivores as large as bison and moose and as small as
grasshoppers and brine shrimp have been employed.
In turn, predators as large as mountain lions and as small
as birds and spiders are studied. With this diversity
of herbivores and predators, ecological patterns related
to body mass have been explored. Findings from these
studies have been applied to examine population viability
for conservation, pest control programs of herbivores
that may be reducing nutrient cycling and thereby, plant
production in ecosystems, and prehistoric human hunter-gatherers
and how they influenced their environment.
 |
| Puerto
Rican Rainforest |
The combination of
fieldwork and theory in ecology is not only intellectually
challenging and addresses issues that are relevant to
society; it is also great fun.
Selected
Recent and Often Cited Publications:
Belovsky, G.E., Mellison, C., Larson, C., and Van Zandt,
P.A. 2001. How good are PVA models: testing
their predictions with experimental data. In: Population
Viability Analysis: Assessing Models for Recovering Endangered
Species (S. R. Beissinger and D. R. McCullough, eds),
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. In press.
Belovsky, G.E. 2001. Ecological stability:
Reality, misconceptions and implications for risk assessment.
Health and Ecological Risk Assessment. In press.
Belovsky, G.E., and J.B. Slade. 2000. Insect
herbivory accelerates nutrient cycling and increases plant
production. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sciences. 97(26):14412-14417.
Belovsky, G.E., C. Mellison, C. Larson, and P.A. Van Zandt.
1999. Experimental studies of extinction dynamics.
Science 286:1175-1177.
Belovsky, G.E., Fryxell, J., and Schmitz, O. J.
1999. Natural selection and herbivore nutrition:
optimal foraging theory and what it tells us about the
structure of ecological communities. Pp. 1-70. In:
Nutritional Ecology of Herbivores: Proceedings of the
Vth International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores
(H.-J. G. Jung and G. C. Fahey, Jr., Eds.) American
Society of Animal Science, Savoy, IL. 836 pp.
Belovsky, G.E. 1997. Optimal foraging and community
structure: the allometry of herbivore food selection
and competition. Evolutionary Ecology 11:641-672.
Belovsky, G.E., J.B. Slade, and J.M. Chase. 1996.
Mating strategies based on foraging ability: an
experiment with grasshoppers. Behavioral Ecology
7:438-444.
Belovsky, G. E., and A. Joern. 1995. The dominance
of different regulating factors for rangeland grasshoppers.
Pages 359-386. In: Population Dynamics:
New Approaches and Synthesis (N. Cappuccino and P. Price,
eds.), Academic Press, New York.
Belovsky, G.E., and J.B. Slade. 1995. Dynamics
of some Montana grasshopper populations: relationships
among weather, food abundance and intraspecific competition.
Oecologia 101:383-396.
Belovsky, G. E., and O.J. Schmitz. 1994. Plant
defenses and optimal foraging by mammalian herbivores.
J. Mamm. 75(4):816-832.
Chase, J. M., and G.E. Belovsky. 1994. Experimental
evidence for the included niche. Amer. Nat. 143:514-527.
Belovsky, G.E., J.A. Bissonette, R.D. Dueser, T.C. Edwards,
Jr., C.M. Luecke, M.E. Ritchie, J.B. Slade, and F.H. Wagner.
1994. Management of small populations: concepts
affecting the recovery of endangered species. Wildlife
Society Bulletin 22(2):307-316.
Belovsky, G.E., and J.B. Slade. 1993. The
role of vertebrate and invertebrate predators in a
grasshopper community. Oikos 68:193-201.
Belovsky, G.E., O.J. Schmitz, J.B. Slade, and T.J. Dawson.
1991. Effects of spines and thorns on Australian
arid zone herbivores of different body masses. Oecologia
(Berlin) 88:521-528.
Belovsky, G.E. 1988. An optimal foraging-based
model of population growth in hunter-gatherers.
J. Anthro. Arch. 7(4):329-372.
Belovsky, G.E. 1987. Extinction models and
mammalian persistence. In: Soule, M. (ed.), Viable
Population for Conservation. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, England. Chapter 3, pp. 35-57.
Belovsky, G.E. 1986. Generalist herbivore
foraging and its role in competitive interactions.
Amer. Zool. 25:51-69.
Belovsky, G.E. 1986. Optimal foraging and
community structure: implications for a guild of generalist
grassland herbivores. Oecologia (Berlin) 70:35-52.
Belovsky, G.E. 1984. Snowshoe hare optimal
foraging and its implications for population dynamics.
Theor. Pop. Biol. 25(3):235-264.
Belovsky, G.E. 1978. Diet optimization in
a generalist herbivore: the moose. Theor. Pop. Biol.
14(1):105-134.
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