Godfrey Roderick Bourne, Ph. D., University of Michigan

Email: icte@umslvma.umsl.edu

Education

B.A. (Zoology) Ohio Wesleyan University, 1971
M.En. (Ecology) Institute of Environmental Sciences, Miami University, 1976
Ph.D. (Behavioral Ecology) SNRE/Rackham School of Graduate Studies, U-M, 1983

Selected Publications

Bourne, G.R. 1992. Lekking behavior in the neotropical frog Ololygon rubra. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 31:173-180.
Austin, D.F. & Bourne, G.R. 1992. Notes on Guyanese medical ethnobotany. Economic Botany 46:293-298.
Bourne, G.R. 1993. Proximate costs and benefits of mate acquisition at leks of the frog Ololygon rubra. Animal Behaviour 45:1051-1059.
Stewart, M.C. Austin, D.F. & Bourne, G.R. 1993. Habitat structure and the dispersion of gopher tortoises on a nature preserve. Florida Scientist 56(2):70-81.
Bourne, G.R. 1993. Differential snail-size selection by Snail Kites and Limpkins. Oikos 68:217-223.

Research Interests

My primary interest is in applying natural selection theory to behavioral and life history strategies in order to predict and explain the interactions of evolutionary forces that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms. Thus, I am concerned with organizing biotic and life history diversity into patterns from which hypotheses can be derived to explain the observed diversity. My focus has been on elucidating theoretical and empirical aspects of decision making strategies in reproductive and foraging behavior, and sexual selection and the evolution of mating systems. I now use mtDNA methods to clarify taxonomic and phylogenetic relationships within closely related taxa of anurans and birds I have previously studied. Applied ecology interests encompass problems of biodiversity erosion in the neotropics, especially the fate of fish communities in small backwater streams damaged by gold mining in Guyana. Recently I have been working on the establishment and survivorship of timber the tree Mora excelsa for reforestation of bottomlands (with K. Kitajima and S. G. Komlos). I am also interested in valuation of forest products and their contribution to Guyanese subsistence economies, and in administrating CEIBA Biological Center as a permanent research, education, and demonstration site in Guyana. Research opportunities for postdoctoral, and graduate students are available (with early planning) in Guyana, Montserrat, and Dominica on a diversity of organisms.

Doctoral Students

Bergquist, T. C. 1998. Effects of gold mining on fish community organization and structure in Guyanaian blackwater streams.
Dallies, C. 1998. Protein and the expression of cooperative breeding in bushy-crested jays.

Graduate Students

Dorsett, C. D. 1996. Survey of secondary compounds in medicinal plants used on coastal Guyana.
Lalime, J. M. 1995. Time-activity allocation in maternal and allomothering behaviors in captive Atlantic bottlenose dolphins.
Polster, R. A. 1995. Predation risks and parental investment in antipredator behavior by polyandrous wattled jacanas.