David W. Tonkyn
Phone: 864 656-3588
FAX: 864 656-0435
- Ph.D. Biology, Princeton University
- A.M. Biology, Princeton University
- A.B. Biology, Princeton University
- As a population biologist, I have carried out field, laboratory and theoretical research on a variety of problems in ecology and conservation biology. My experimental work has focused on the ecology of plants, insects, plant-insect interactions, and even plant-insect-microbe interactions. My theoretical analyses have addressed problems in population dynamics, evolution, dispersal, and dispersion. I am always interested in linking these experimental and theoretical studies. My primary interests now are in two areas of conservation ecology. First, I am studying the interacting threats of genetic and demographic changes, and disease, to small (captive or endangered) populations. Second, I am studying the threats of climate change to selected species, particularly those of southern mountains which might be trapped by global climate change. In both areas, I seek to quantify the risks and to develop management responses that best reduce these risks.
- My students have worked on a broad range of projects, mostly of their own choice. Recent studies include the phylogeography of a high-elevation endemic salamander, the influence of soil calcium on land snail diversity, the island biogeography of ground beetles, and the effects of climate change on a threatened butterfly.
- Every year I take students to the northern Rocky Mountains of North America and to India, with other colleagues on the faculty, and I am very interested in students wishing to conduct field conservation studies in these areas.
- O’Grady, J. J., Brook, B. W., Reed, D. H., Ballou, J. D., Tonkyn, D. W. & R. Frankham. 2006. Realistic levels of inbreeding depression strongly affect extinction risk in wild populations. Biological Conservation 133:42-51
- Jones, M. T., Voss, S. R., Ptacek, M. B., Weisrock, D. W. & D. W. Tonkyn. 2006. River drainages and phylogeography: An evolutionary significant lineage of shovel-nosed salamander (Desmognathus marmoratus) in the southern Appalachians. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38: 280-287.
- Westman, A. L., Medel, S., Spira, T. P., Rajapakse, S., Tonkyn, D. W. & A.G. Abbott. 2004. Molecular genetic assessment of the potential for gene escape in strawberry, a model perennial study crop, pp. 75-88 in Introgression from genetically modified plants into wild relatives, H. C. M. den Nijs, D. Bartsch, J. Sweet, eds., CABI Publishing.
- Brook, B. W., Tonkyn, D. W., O'Grady, J. & R. Frankham. 2002. Contribution of inbreeding to extinction risk in threatened species. Conservation Ecology 6:16 (16 pp.) [Online] URL:http://www.consecol.org/vol6/iss1/art16
- Kostreva, M. M., Ogryczak, W. & D. W. Tonkyn. 1999. Relocation problems arising in conservation biology. Computers and Mathematics with Applications 37: 135-150. Special journal volume "Global Optimization, Control and Games III", E. A, Galperin, ed.
- Snyder, W. E., Tonkyn, D. W. & D. A. Kluepfel. 1999. Transmission of a genetically engineered rhizobacterium by grasshoppers in the laboratory and field. Ecological Applications 9: 245-253.
- Snyder, W. E., Tonkyn, D. W. & D. A. Kluepfel. 1998. Insect-mediated dispersal of the rhizobacterium Pseudomonas chlororaphis. Phytopathology 88: 1248-1254.
- Lamb, T. G., D. W. Tonkyn, & D. A. Kluepfel. 1996. Movement of Pseudomonas aureofaciens from the rhizosphere to aerial plant tissue.
Canadian Journal of Microbiology 42: 1112-1120.
- Kluepfel, D. A., Lamb, T., Snyder, B. & D. W. Tonkyn. 1994. Six years of field testing a lacZY modified fluorescent pseudomonad. pp. 169-176 in The Biosafety Results of Field Tests of Genetically Modified Plants and Microorganisms, D. D. Jones, ed., University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Oakland, CA.
- Tonkyn, D. W. 1992. Estimates and bounds on the rate and extent of allele frequency change. Heredity 68:465-471.
- Kulasekera, K. B. & D. W. Tonkyn. 1992. A new discrete distribution, with applications to survival, dispersal and dispersion. Communications in Statistics. Series B. Simulation and Computation 21: 499-518.
- Tonkyn, D. W. & J. H. Plissner. 1991. Models of multiple dispersers from the nest: Predictions and inference. Ecology 72: 1721-1730.
- Tonkyn, D. W. 1986. Predator‑mediated mutualism: theory and tests in the Homoptera. Journal of Theoretical Biology 118: 15‑31.
- Tonkyn, D. W. & B. J. Cole. 1986. The statistical analysis of size ratios. American Naturalist 128: 66‑81.
- Biosc 441/H441/641 - Ecology
- Biosc 445/H445/645 - Ecology Laboratory
- Biosc 803 - Population dynamics
- Biosc 490 - Rocky Mountain field ecology
- Biosc 490 - Biodiversity and conservation in India
- Biosc 494 - Ecoinformatics
- Biosc 871 - Ecology of infectious diseases
- Community ecology
- Conservation biology
- Mathematical modeling in behavioral ecology
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- American Zoo and Aquarium Association
- Conservation Breeding Specialist Group of the IUCN
- International Biogeography Society
- Montana Native Plant Society
- Society for Conservation Biology