Thomas E. Miller

Professor, Biological Science
Florida State Universtiy

BS Ecology and Evol., University of Arizona 1978

Ph.D. Zoology, Michigan Sate University (Kellogg Biological Station, 1985)

miller@bio.fsu.edu

Tom Miller's C.V. (pdf)

850-644-9823

I am interested in a variety of questions that deal with the ecology and evolution of diversity. What determines how many species are in a given habitat -- why aren't there more, or fewer? I take a very broad view of questions in this area, including field, lab, and theoretical approaches. I am currently most interested in multispecies patterns of evolution among competitors and what this might tell us about extant patterns of diversity. My lab has been using the protozoa communities inside the water-filled leaves of carnivorous pitcher plants to explore these questions. I am also very interested in effects of disturbance on plant communities on barrier islands.

 

Current Graduate Students

Casey terHorst

terHorst@bio.fsu.edu

Casey balances himself between the Levitan and Miller labs. His historical interests lie in detecting alternate stable states in marine fouling communities. Now, he is interested in how species evolve in a community context. He focuses on how multiple species (predators, prey, and competitors) evolve in response to direct and indirect ecological effects. He is testing these ideas using protozoa, rotifers, and mosquito larvae that constitute the inquiline community of carnivorous pitcher plants. He is also interested in how considering evolutionary changes affects our view of how communities are organized, particularly in regard to differentiating between niche and neutral ecological processes. Casey pretends to still be a marine biologist and continues to work on a number of marine projects, just to keep his feet wet.

Ben

Ben Nomann

bnomann@bio.fsu.edu

Ben is shared by the Inouye and Miller labs, and has started a large project on plant demography in fragmented landscapes in Brazil. He is using a ginger species to understand how populations in undistured forest and secondary growth areas may affect one another. He also occasionally considers completely different ideas on the evolution of specialists and generalists.

Elise Gornish

egornish@bio.fsu.edu

Elise is interested in identifying mechanisms that drive range shifts as a result of climate change. Through field experiments she is investigating the relationship between climate factors and each stage of the colonization pathway.
She also works on a project looking at dune vegetation responses to increased storm intensity and frequency on St. George Island on the Gulf of Mexico and is currently thinking about the evolution of climate change response, allee effects in invasion speed and competitive hierarchies. Elise firmly believes that punning is the highest form of humor.

Erin Simmons

esimmons@bio.fsu.edu


Erin is interested in theoretical population ecology, focusing on conservation and management methods. Specifically, she focuses on marine reserve dynamics and the conditions under which they are effective. Erin is currently working on an Individual Based Model in Java for gag grouper in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico as an extension of her internship for the Marine Certificate Program at FSU. Gag are susceptible to overfishing for a variety of reasons and research is needed now to make this fishery sustainable. Since adult gag form spawning aggregations in designated areas, no take marine reserves may be very effective for this species. For this reason, Erin is concerned with mapping the movement of larval, juvenile, and adult gag and incorporating this spatial component into her model.

Other Lab Members

Heather Wells

John Mola

Jack Miller

Jackie Monge

 

Visitors to the Lab

Casie Reed. Research Experience for Undergraduates scholar from College of the Atlantic, Maine. Casie is working on a project on phenotypic plasticity

 

Former Lab Members



Emma Moran. Lab Queen has gone to start a new kingdom at Washington University. But not forgotten
. . .

 

Jean Burns

CPB Postdoctoral Fellow
UC Davis


Nicholas Mouquet

Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution - University of Montpellier II
Montpellier FRANCE

Justina Dacey

Pablo Munguia

Marine Science Institute
University of Texas at Austin

Sara Davis


 

Kim Pachura

Zoo Atlanta!



Jessica Eich


Michael Plastini



Sarah Gray

Department of Ecology and Evolution
Stony Brook University

http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/~sgray/index.html

Amber Roman

Fani Gruber

Chris Saliba

Jamie Kneitel

Department of Biological Sciences
California State University

Christina Stokes