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David M. Althoff . Research Assistant Professor
Species interactions, Insect Community Ecology, Molecular Ecology
dmalthof@syr.edu
Office: 440 Life Sciences Complex (LSC)
Phone: 315-443-1096 / fax: 315-443-2012
Education:
• Ph.D.,
Washington State University, 1998
• Postdoc, University of Idaho, Moscow, 2003-2005
• Postdoc, Vanderbilt University, 1999-2000
Courses:
• BIO 100 Technology Inspired by Nature: Learning from the natural world
• BIO 448 Evolutionary Medicine
• BIO 700 How To Be A Successful Graduate Student |
RESEARCH
Althoff Research at Syracuse University: http://plantecology.syr.edu/althoff/
Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF): Host specialization and population differentiation in parasitoids. (Co-PI with Olle Pellmyr, Univ. of Idaho), 2003-2006
Our understanding of biodiversity requires research efforts at two levels: identifying the diversity of species on earth and studying the way these species interact to form communities and ecosystems. I focus on the interactions among plants, insect herbivores, and insect predators to test how communities are structured both in ecological and evolutionary time. I am also interested in how insect populations become differentiated from one another and form new species. My research incorporates molecular ecology, phylogenetics, and behavioral ecology, and takes me throughout the southwestern United States and Florida.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
Althoff, D.M., K.A. Segraves, J. Leebens-Mack, and O. Pellmyr. 2006. Patterns of speciation in the yucca moths: parallel species radiations within the Tegeticula yuccasella species complex. Systematic Biology, 55:398-410.
Althoff D.M., Segraves K.A., Pellmyr O. 2005. The community context of an obligate mutualism: assessing the role of pollinators and florivores in fruit set of Yucca filamentosa. Ecology, 86:905-913.
Althoff D.M., K.A. Segraves, and J.P. Sparks. 2004. Characterizing the interaction between the bogus yucca moths and yuccas: do bogus yucca moths impact yucca reproductive success? Oecologia 140: 321–327.
Althoff, D.M. and J.N. Thompson. 2001. Geographic structure in the searching behavior of a specialist braconid: combining molecular and behavioral approaches. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 14:406-417.
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