G. David Tilman

Regents' Professor
McKnight Presidential Chair in Ecology
Director of Cedar Creek Natural History Area
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior


On sabbatical for the 2007-08 academic year.

Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1976

Contact Information

Fax: 612-624-6777
E-mail: tilman@umn.edu

 

Graduate Faculty Memberships

Conservation Biology; Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; Microbial Ecology

Research Interests

Ecological effects of human domination of the earth, including effects on ecosystem services of value to society; the ecological mechanisms controlling speciation, community assembly, species invasions and the evolution and maintenance of biodiversity; population ecology and theory of community dynamics and biodiversity; role of resource competition; biodiversity and ecosystem functioning; effects of habitat destruction.

Statement

I am intrigued by the causes of broad, general patterns in the biological diversity, structure and dynamics of ecosystems, in the benefits that society receives from natural and managed ecosystems, and in ways to assure environmental and social sustainability in the face of global increases in human consumption and population. I recently have focused on a related issue - the effects of biodiversity on the stability and functioning of ecosystems, which is scientifically intriguing and of great importance to society. Finally, I am interested in the impacts of human domination of global ecosystems, especially in the impacts of nitrogen deposition, habitat destruction/fragmentation, and invasive exotic species. I study mechanisms of resource competition among terrestrial plants, especially in the grasslands of Minnesota’s Cedar Creek Natural History Area. This work has focused on causes of succession and controls of both diversity and species composition. My approach has been to combine well-replicated field experiments with mathematical theory. Some of the questions we are currently exploring in field experiments are (1) the effects of plant diversity on ecosystem productivity, nutrient retention, and stability; (2) the effects of community diversity on invasibility; (3) effects of diversity on disease dynamics and herbivory, and the feedback effects of these on stability and productivity; (4) effects of nitrogen deposition on diversity, stability and composition of grassland ecosystems; (5) the interactive effects of carbon dioxide, nitrogen deposition and plant diversity on primary productivity and its stability; (6) effects of climate change on ecosystem composition, diversity and functioning; and (7) the role of recruitment limitation in structuring plant communities. These collaborative projects take place at Cedar Creek and are supported by the NSF Long-Term Ecological Research Program or the Bush Foundation.

Books

Tilman, D. 1982. Resource Competition and Community Structure. Monographs in Population Biology, Princeton University Press. 296 pp.

Tilman, D. 1988. Plant Strategies and the Dynamics and Structure of Plant Communities. Monographs in Population Biology, Princeton University Press. 360 pp.

Grace, J. and D. Tilman, Editors. 1990. Perspectives in Plant Competition. Academic Press, New York.

Tilman, D. and P. Karieva, Eds. 1997. Spatial Ecology: The Role of Space in Population Dynamics and Interspecific Interactions. Monographs in Population Biology, Princeton University Press. 368 pp.

Kinzig, A. P., S. W. Pacala and D. Tilman. 2002. Functional Consequences of Biodiversity: Empirical Progress and Theoretical Extensions. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford.

Selected Publications

Tilman, D. and A. El Haddi. 1992. Drought and biodiversity in grasslands. Oecologia 89:257-264.

Tilman, D., R.M. May, C.L. Lehman, and M.A. Nowak. 1994. Habitat destruction and the extinction debt. Nature 371:65-66.

Tilman, D. and J.A. Downing. 1994. Biodiversity and stability in grasslands. Nature 367:363-365.

Cohen, J. E. and D. Tilman. 1996. Biosphere 2 and biodiversity: the lessons so far. Science 274:1150-1151.

Tilman, D. 1996. Biodiversity: Population versus ecosystem stability. Ecology 77(3):350-363.

Tilman, D., D. Wedin and J. Knops. 1996. Productivity and sustainability influenced by biodiversity in grassland ecosystems. Nature 379:718-720.

Wedin, D. A. and D. Tilman. 1996. Influence of nitrogen loading and species composition on the carbon balance of grasslands. Science 274:1720-1723.

Siemann, E., D. Tilman and J. Haarstad. 1996. Insect species diversity, abundance and body size relationships. Nature 380:704-706.

Tilman, D. 1998. The greening of the green revolution. Nature 396:211-212.

Tilman, D. 1999. The ecological consequences of changes in biodiversity: a search for general principles. The Robert H. MacArthur Award Lecture. Ecology 80:1455-1474.

Tilman, D. 2000. Causes, consequences and ethics of biodiversity. Nature 405:208-211.

Tilman, D., J. Fargione, B. Wolff, C. D’Antonio, A. Dobson, R. Howarth, D. Schindler, W. Schlesinger, D. Simberloff, D. Swackhamer. 2001. Forecasting Agriculturally Driven Global Environmental Change. Science 292:281-284.

Tilman, D., K. G. Cassman, P. A. Matson, R. Naylor and S. Polasky. 2002. Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices. Nature 418:671-677.

Tilman, D., P. B. Reich, J. Knops, D. Wedin, T. Mielke and C. Lehman. 2001. Diversity and productivity in a long-term grassland experiment. Science 294:843-845.

Mitchell, C., D. Tilman and J. V. Groth. 2002. Effects of grassland plant species diversity, abundance, and composition on foliar fungal disease. Ecology 83:1713-1726.

Kennedy, T. A., S. Naeem, K. M. Howe, J. M. H. Knops, D. Tilman and P. Reich. 2002. Biodiversity as a barrier to ecological invasion. Nature 417:636-638.

Tilman, D. 2004. Niche tradeoffs, neutrality, and community structure: A stochastic theory of resource competition, invasion, and community assembly. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101:10854-10861.

Additional Links

 

My Biographical Sketch

My CV

 

Cedar Creek Natural History Area

IGERT Training Grant