Daniel Simberloff

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Daniel Simberloff is a biologist and ecologist who earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1969.

Simberloff started his studies in ecology as a student of the biologist E. O. Wilson, one of the co-authors of the theory of Island biogeography (by R. MacArthur and E. O. Wilson). For his Ph.D. dissertation he was the first to test this theory experimentally in Floridian Mangrove systems producing studies such as the 1969 paper: Experimental Zoogeography of Islands: The Colonization of Empty Islands which is considered a seminal paper. In the 1970s Simberloff started a big controversy in the field when he put in doubt the importance of competition as the most important force structuring biological communities. He did so using computer-generated models that proved that many of the patterns that were generally explained by competition did not differ from those created in a random fashion. This new approach notably increased the level of rigor in ecology. During this time, he also criticized the importance of the theory of island biogeography as a tool for planning conservation strategies. He is admired for his thorough statistical approach to ecology.

Simberloff is also very active on the invasive species front, studying the theoretical susceptibility of ecosystems to invasion from exotic species, the practical implications of these invasions and the potential interactions between invasive species including the potential for invasional meltdown — where the introduction exotic species facilitates the establishment and invasion of other exotics.

Daniel Simberloff received several awards, including the Eminent Ecologist Award in 2006 by the Ecological Society of America, he had served in the main board of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and published books and more than 350 articles in scientific journals. He has directed several Masters and Ph.D. dissertations.

Simberloff is the Nancy Gore Hunger Professor of Environmental Studies and director of the Institute for Biological Invasions at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He is a past president of the American Society of Naturalists, and was a member of the National Science Board from 2000 until 2006[1].

[edit] References

Quammen, David. The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions. New York, Scribner, 1996.
Simberloff, Daniel, Don C. Schmitz, and Tom C. Brown, eds. Strangers in Paradise: Impact and Management of Nonindigenous Species in Florida. Washington DC, Island Press, 1997.