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Dr. David G. Jenkins The James and Annie Ying Eminent Scholar in Biology Ph.D., Virginia Tech, 1990 Phone: 407-823-1660 Office: BIO 402B Email: dgjenkin@mail.ucf.edu Website: http://biology.ucf.edu/~djenkins/

Research Interests

Dr. Jenkins is interested in the processes that determine ecological community structure and function, especially the interplay between regional (dispersal, colonization, invasion, community assembly, etc.) and local (competition, predation, abiotic factors) processes. Aquatic ecology has historically focused on the latter processes; so he has focused more on regional processes. He and his students study these topics in wetlands, especially the small isolated wetlands that used to dot the landscape before humans drained and filled the low spots in the landscape. These wetlands serve as upside-down islands: habitats that are essential to a surprising variety of organisms, but that are embedded in an inhospitable "sea" of dry land. They use field sampling and experiments, as well as molecular methods. In addition, they work on other topics, such as ecosystem dynamics (nutrients, energetics), ecotoxicology (exposure and hazard assessment), and symbioses.

Selected, Recent Publications

Jenkins, DG, CR Brescacin, CV Duxbury, JA Elliott, JA Evans, KR Grablow, M Hillegass, BN Lyon, GA Metzger, ML Olandese, D Pepe, GA Silvers, HN Suresch, TN Thompson, CM Trexler, GE Williams, NC Williams and SE Williams. 2007. Does size matter for dispersal distance? Global Ecology and Biogeography 16:415-425.

Jenkins, DG. 2006. In search of quorum effects in metacommunity structure: species co-occurrence analyses. Ecology 87:1523-1531.

McCauley, LA and DG Jenkins. 2005. GIS-based estimates of former and current depressional wetlands in an agricultural landscape. Ecological Applications 15:1199-1208.

Bohonak, A. and DG Jenkins. 2003. Ecological and evolutionary significance of dispersal by freshwater aquatic invertebrates. Ecology Letters 6:783-796.

Jenkins, DG, S Grissom, K Miller. 2003. Consequences of prairie wetland drainage for crustacean biodiversity and metapopulations. Conservation Biology 17:158-167.