Joe Travis
Robert O. Lawton Distingushed Professor of Biology
Florida State University, Tallahassee
Website
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I fell in love with ecology and evolutionary biology as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, where I met David. He was a first-year graduate student and I was a senior undergraduate and we bonded while taking the inaugural offering of a field biology class taught by three redoubtable Penn faculty members. We have been close friends ever since.
While David built his research program initially on guppies, I built mine, under the tutelage of the great Henry Wilbur, on the effects of population density and predation on tadpoles in temporary ponds. I continued this work when I began faculty life at Florida State University. Within two years at FSU, I discovered poeciliid fishes, specifically, the sailfin molly, Poecilia latipinna, the least killifish, Heterandria formosa, and the eastern mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki. I gradually steered my research program to the population ecology, population genetics, and evolutionary biology of these three species. Of course, David was a great help as I cultivated my intuition and expertise with a set of new empirical study systems. Along the way I also worked with Bob Ricklefs on ecomorphology of bird communities and worked with several students on the reproductive ecology of a perennial lily, Zigadenus muscatoxicus (which was Amianthium muscatoxicum then).
David and I worked together off and on for many years, from writing a comment in 1984 on a paper about the cost of reproduction to producing several book chapters discussing adaptation and how it can be best studied in real time. In 2005, David proposed that I join him in developing the FIBR project. The rest is history, as the saying goes, and we have had the good fortune to work with a large number of extremely talented scientists of all orientations and backgrounds. The success of this project is a tribute to what a lot of talented people can do when they work together well.
Of course, I’ve kept up my work in north Florida. One of the interesting features of this area is the wide abiotic variation in aquatic habitats. The region includes alkaline spring-fed rivers and acidic black-water lakes. I am working with graduate student Ben Pluer and former postdoc Pam MacRae on a paper describing stoichiometric variation in H. formosa. This species, which is a primary consumer, is found in most aquatic habitats, be they springs or lakes. The diatom and algal species on which H. formosa feeds vary between these habitats, with different genera found in each habitat. How the stoichiometry and trophic position of H. formosa may itself vary as a result is the fundamental question we’re examining.
I also have a long-term interest in the history of population biology and, to some extent, in how that history illuminates ideas about the philosophy of science. Many years ago now, Michael Ruse and I assembled an encyclopedia of evolutionary biology (Evolution: The First Four Billion Years, Harvard University Press) that included essays on biological, historical, and philosophical facets of evolution. Tom Miller and I are the editors of Foundations of Ecology, Volume II, from the University of Chicago Press, which includes several essays on the history of ecology in the period 1969-1995. I am also working with Alirio Rosales, a historical and philosopher of science at the University of British Columbia on a paper tracing the history of ideas beneath the topic of so-called eco-evo interactions.
In general, I am interested in how populations adapt to local circumstances and how variation among individuals translates into the birth and death rates that drive numerical dynamics. Guppies, mollies, mosquitofish, and least killifish offer different perspectives on these issues and, for me, being engaged in all of these projects ensures that I keep learning new ideas from very smart students and collaborators and, I hope, do not harden my opinions about how nature works.
Robert O. Lawton Distingushed Professor of Biology
Florida State University, Tallahassee
Website
I fell in love with ecology and evolutionary biology as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, where I met David. He was a first-year graduate student and I was a senior undergraduate and we bonded while taking the inaugural offering of a field biology class taught by three redoubtable Penn faculty members. We have been close friends ever since.
While David built his research program initially on guppies, I built mine, under the tutelage of the great Henry Wilbur, on the effects of population density and predation on tadpoles in temporary ponds. I continued this work when I began faculty life at Florida State University. Within two years at FSU, I discovered poeciliid fishes, specifically, the sailfin molly, Poecilia latipinna, the least killifish, Heterandria formosa, and the eastern mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki. I gradually steered my research program to the population ecology, population genetics, and evolutionary biology of these three species. Of course, David was a great help as I cultivated my intuition and expertise with a set of new empirical study systems. Along the way I also worked with Bob Ricklefs on ecomorphology of bird communities and worked with several students on the reproductive ecology of a perennial lily, Zigadenus muscatoxicus (which was Amianthium muscatoxicum then).
David and I worked together off and on for many years, from writing a comment in 1984 on a paper about the cost of reproduction to producing several book chapters discussing adaptation and how it can be best studied in real time. In 2005, David proposed that I join him in developing the FIBR project. The rest is history, as the saying goes, and we have had the good fortune to work with a large number of extremely talented scientists of all orientations and backgrounds. The success of this project is a tribute to what a lot of talented people can do when they work together well.
Of course, I’ve kept up my work in north Florida. One of the interesting features of this area is the wide abiotic variation in aquatic habitats. The region includes alkaline spring-fed rivers and acidic black-water lakes. I am working with graduate student Ben Pluer and former postdoc Pam MacRae on a paper describing stoichiometric variation in H. formosa. This species, which is a primary consumer, is found in most aquatic habitats, be they springs or lakes. The diatom and algal species on which H. formosa feeds vary between these habitats, with different genera found in each habitat. How the stoichiometry and trophic position of H. formosa may itself vary as a result is the fundamental question we’re examining.
I also have a long-term interest in the history of population biology and, to some extent, in how that history illuminates ideas about the philosophy of science. Many years ago now, Michael Ruse and I assembled an encyclopedia of evolutionary biology (Evolution: The First Four Billion Years, Harvard University Press) that included essays on biological, historical, and philosophical facets of evolution. Tom Miller and I are the editors of Foundations of Ecology, Volume II, from the University of Chicago Press, which includes several essays on the history of ecology in the period 1969-1995. I am also working with Alirio Rosales, a historical and philosopher of science at the University of British Columbia on a paper tracing the history of ideas beneath the topic of so-called eco-evo interactions.
In general, I am interested in how populations adapt to local circumstances and how variation among individuals translates into the birth and death rates that drive numerical dynamics. Guppies, mollies, mosquitofish, and least killifish offer different perspectives on these issues and, for me, being engaged in all of these projects ensures that I keep learning new ideas from very smart students and collaborators and, I hope, do not harden my opinions about how nature works.
