Robert E. Ricklefs
Curators' Professor of Biology
Department of Biology, University of Missouri at St. Louis,
8001 Natural Bridge Road, St. Louis, MO 63121-4499
Phone: (314) 516-5101
Fax: (314) 516-6233
Email: ricklefs@jinx.umsl.edu
Education
A.B., Stanford University, Biology, 1963
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Biology, 1967
Postdoctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, 1967-68
Research Keywords
Evolutionary ecology; avian life-histories; avian demography; island biogeography; phylogenetics; community ecology; historical ecology.
Research Interests
My interests focus on the diversity of ecological systems, which I approach from several viewpoints. One of these is the evolutionary diversification of the life-histories of birds, emphasizing comparative and theoretical analyses of variation in life tables, including patterns of senescence, and physiological and experimental studies of growth, development, and parental care. On a higher level of ecological organization, I am investigating the historical development of ecological communities and regional species richness, using comparative analyses of diversity patterns and molecular analyses of genetic divergence. Each of these studies seeks to understand how factors that promote diversification, such as selection, speciation, and dispersal, are balanced by constraints of the system that limit response to selection or coexistence of species.
Current Research Projects
Growth and development of shorebirds in Arctic environments
Historical biogeography of Caribbean birds
Mangrove phylogenetics and biogeography
Development and aging in birds
Comparative geographical and ecological analysis of avian life-tables
Organization of tree-caterpillar-parasitoid systems
Development of immune function in birds
Spatial organization of plant communities
Ecomorphological analysis of avian assemblages
Graduate Students and Post-Doctoral Fellows
Jeanne Fair (Ph.D.)
Juan Martinez Gomez (Ph.D.)
Erpur Hansen (Ph.D.)
Shing-Fan Huang (Ph.D.)
Jorge Perez-Eman (Ph.D., coadvised by John Blake)
Antonio Guillen (Post-doc)
Andrea Schwarzbach (Post-doc)
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