Biodiversity & Macroevolution

Our research group is focused on large-scale ecological and evolutionary questions that relate to origins, patterns and causes of differences between species. We work mainly on mammals. Our research is synthetic, involving large comparative databases, complete phylogenies ("supertrees") and statistical comparative methods.

Professor John Gittleman, D. Phil. : +1 (706) 542 2968
Patrick Stephens, Ph.D. : +1 (706) 542-6145

Fall 2019

The Macroecology of Infectious Disease RCN (Patrick Stehens PI) is entering it's seventh and final year. RCN news can be found here on the official website. The RCN is hosting a sympoisum at Duke University on Septemebr 26, 2019: Pathogens Gone Global.

2018

The Nature paper "Reductions in biodiversity loss predicted from conservation spending" (John Gittleman, Senior Author) has been featured in a number of news outlets, including Science Daily, EurekAlert, and ZME Science. It is one of the first studies to show definitively that across countries, cultures and ecosystems that conservation spending works.

 

Highlighted Publications 

Fisher, M. A., Vinson, J. E., Gittleman, J. L., & Drake, J. M. 2018. The description and number of undiscovered mammal species. Ecology and Evolution, 8: 3628-3635.

Waldron, A., D. C. Miller, D. Redding, A. Mooers, T. S. Kuhn, N. Nibbelink, J. T. Roberts, J. A. Tobias, J. L. Gittleman, 2017. Reductions in global biodiversity loss predicted from conservation spending. Nature 551: 364-367.

Stephens, P. R., S. Altizer, K. F. Smith, A. Aguirre, J. H. Brown, S. A. Budischack, J. E. Byers, R. Critchlow, J. T. Davies, J. M. Drake, V. O. Ezenwa, M. J. Farrell, J. L. Gittleman, B. A. Han, S. Huang, R. A. Hutchinson, P. Johnson, C. L. Nunn, D. Onstad, A. Park, R. Poulin, G. M. Vazquez-Prokopec, J. P. Schmidt. 2016. The macroecology of infectious disease: a new perspective on global-scale drivers of pathogen distributions and impacts.  Ecology Letters 19: 1159-1171.

Pimm, S., C. Jenkins, R. Abell, T. Brooks, J. Gittleman, L. Joppa, P. Raven, C. Roberts, and J. Sexton (2014) The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection. Science 344:1246752.

Waldron, A., A. O. Mooers, D. C. Miller, N. Nibbelink, D. Redding, T. S. Kuhn, J. T. Roberts, and J. L. Gittleman (2013) Targeting global conservatiom funding to limit immediate biodiversity declines. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 110: 12144-12148.

Evans, A. R., D. Jones, A. G. Boyer, J. H. Brown, D. P. Costa, S. K. Morgan Ernest, E. M. G. Fitzgerald, M. Fortelius, J. L. Gittleman, M. J. Hamilton, L. E. Harding, K. Lintulaakso, S. K. Lyons, J. G. Okie, J. J. Saarinen, R. M. Sibley, F. A. Smith, P. R. Stephens, J. Theodor, and M. D. Uhen (2012) The maximum rate of mammal evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109: 4187-4190.

Huang, S., P. R. Stephens, .and J. L. Gittleman (2012) Traits, trees, and taxa: global dimensions of biodiversity in mammals.  Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279: 4997-5003.

Smith, F. A., A. G. Boyer, J. H. Brown, D. P. Costa, T. Dayan, S. K. Morgan Ernest, A. R. Evans, M. Fortelius, J. L. Gittleman, M. J. Hamilton, L. E. Harding, K. Lintulaakso, S. K. Lyons, C. McCain, J. Okie, J. J. Saarinen, R. M. Sibley, P. R. Stephens, J. Theodor, and M. D. Uhen. (2010) The evolution of maximum body size of terrestrial mammals.  Science 330: 1216-1219.

Jones, K. E., N G. Patel, M. A. Levy, A. Storeygard, D. Balk, J. L. Gittleman, and P. Daszak (2008) Global trends in emerging infectious diseases.  Nature 451: 990-993.

 

Breaking news

2019

Patrick Stephens has been promoted to Associate Research Scientist.

Molly Fisher has completed her PhD, and will be moving on to a position in a commercial banking firm as a data analyst.

 

2013

The RCN proposal Macroecology of Infectious Disease (Patrick Stehens PI) has been approved for funding by NSF. The inaugural meeting will take place in the October 2013.

 

2012

Shan Huang sucessfully defended her dissertation, and has accepted a post doctoral position with David Jablonski at the University of Chicago.

Metabolic Ecology (Wiley-Blackwell, J. H. Brown and R. M. Sibley, eds.) is out.

 

2011

Patrick Stephens has been promoted to Assistant Research Scientist in the Odum School of Ecology.

Our newest graduate student, Sara Heisel has joined the lab. She will be coadvised by John Gittlekman and Vanessa Ezenwa.