Benjamin Bolker

personal site

Associate Professor
Ph.D.  Cambridge University, 1993

620 BAR
Box 118525
Gainesville, FL
32611-8525
Voice: (352)392-5697
Fax: (352)392-3704
bolker@zoology.ufl.edu

Research Interests

My general interests range widely in spatial, theoretical, mathematical, computational and statistical ecology; plant community, ecosystem, and epidemic dynamics.

Spatial dynamics of competition: I build theoretical models to study spatial pattern formation and its effects on population and community dynamics in continuous landscapes through the dynamics of spatial correlations. My work in the past has been largely theoretical, working to gain a general understanding of the mechanisms (competition-colonization tradeoffs, successional niches, habitat association) that allow coexistence of plant species in heterogeneous spatial settings. Now I am working on methods to estimate correlations (and related spatial power spectra) from empirical data and to estimate dispersal functions and other spatial interactions from these data.

Disease dynamics in ecological communities: I am generally interested in disease ecology (my Ph.D. dissertation was on measles dynamics in England and Wales), and I have worked on several other disease systems including a large collaborative project to understand the dynamics of two pathogens, iridoviruses and chytrid fungi, in a range of amphibian communities around the world (Costa Rica, Arizona, Colorado, western Australia).

Statistical ecology: Many of my research projects focus on bringing together ecological data (especially spatial data on animal movement or plant distribution) with sophisticated modern approaches to parameter estimation.

Students Currently Supervised

Mollie Brooks (PhD)
Theoretical ecology; predator-prey dynamics; effects of individual variation on population and community dynamics.

John Poulsen (PhD, co-chair with Colin Chapman, McGill University)
Plant-animal interactions and forest dynamics, in particular understanding how seed dispersal affects the fitness of canopy trees. Fieldwork in Republic of the Congo.

Zy Biesinger (PhD, co-chair with Bill Lindberg, Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences)
Combining theoretical model and field observations on gag grouper to understand the interplay of behavior, spatial structure, and population dynamics on artificial reefs. Fieldwork in the Gulf of Mexico.

Jada White (PhD, co-chair with Gustav Paulay)
Direct and indirect effects of a marine ecosystem engineer, Stegastes nigricans, on the dynamics of a coral reef community. Fieldwork in Moorea, French Polynesia.

Fernanda Melo (PhD, on leave)
Mathematical epidemiology; integrating within- and between-host dynamics.

Representative Publications

Bolker, B.M., Okuyama, T., Bjorndal, K.A., and Bolten, A.B. 2007. Incorporating multiple mixed stocks in mixed stock analysis: 'many-to-many' analyses. Molecular Ecology 16:685-695.

Seabloom, E., Bjørnstad, O., Bolker, B., and Reichman, O.J.. 2005. The spatial signature of environmental heterogeneity, dispersal, and competition in successional grasslands. Ecological Monographs 75: 199-214.

Levey, D.J., Bolker, B.M., Tewksbury, J.J., Sargent, S., and Haddad, N.M. 2005. Effects of landscape corridors on seed dispersal by birds. Science 309:146-148.

de Castro, F. and Bolker, B. 2005. Mechanisms of disease-induced extinction. Ecology Letters 8:117-126.

Earn D.J.D, Rohani, P.M., Bolker, B.M., and Grenfell, B.T. 2000. A simple model for complex dynamical transitions in epidemics. Science 287:667-670.

Link to full bibliography: http://www.zoology.ufl.edu/bolker/bb-bib.html. Please e-mail for username and password.