Areas of Research

Population ecology, mutualism, plant-insect interations, life-history adaptations to stochastic environments, theoretical ecology, conservation ecology

Major Grant Support

Strategic Environmental
Research and Development Program (SERDP - Department of Defense), 2006-2011,
Collaborative project with Aaron Moody (PI, UNC-Chapel Hill), Nick Haddad (NC
State University), Jeff Walters (Virginia Tech), Larry Crowder (Duke), and Jeffery
Priddy (Duke): “Mapping Habitat Connectivity For Multiple Rare, Threatened, And
Endangered Species On And Around Military Installations”; total budget:
$1,585,121; Duke budget: $135,683; Funded.

Professional Service

Major Advisor

Committee Member, Reappointment Review Committee for Chantal Reid, Fall 2006

Chair of Bio116 faculty interest group, January 01, 2006

PreMajor Advisor

Director, University Program in Ecology (Graduate Program), January 01, 2006 - present

Dept Officer

Director of Graduate Studies, Graduate Program, Zoology and Biology Depts., Duke University, 2000-02

Dept Committee

Member, Biology Department Steering Committee, September 1, 2005 - December 1, 2007

Graduate Affairs Committee, September 1, 2004 - December 1, 2007

Committee Chair, Tenure Committee for Kathleen Donohue, April, 2007

Committee Chair, Tenure Track Appointment Committee for Justin Wright, April, 2007

Committee Chair, Ecology/Behavior Faculty Search Committee, September 01, 2005 - May 01, 2006

Member, Biology Teaching Certificate Review Committee, April 1, 2004 - April 30, 2006

Univ Committee

Committee Member, Sarah P Duke Gardens Director Search Committee Member, March, 2007 - May, 2007

Papers Refereed

Member of the Editor Nomination Committee for The American Naturalist, September, 2007 - December, 2007

Panel Member, NSF Ecology Panel, October, 2006 - October, 2007

NSF Reviews And Panels

Science Advisory Board Member, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), NSF-funded center in Santa Barbara, CA, September 1, 2005 - August 31, 2008

Panel Member, NSF Evolutionary and Population Ecology (EPE) Panel, September 1, 2005

Univ Services

Faculty Representative, Organization for Tropical Studies, September 01, 2000 - present

Dept Services

Biology Dept. Teaching and Service Award, May 11, 2008

Editorial Boards

Associate Editor, American Naturalist, December 15, 2004 - December 31, 2007

Service to the Community

Reviewer of Endangered Species Recovery Plans, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Endangered Species Branch, September 1, 2005 - present

Selected Recent Invited Talks

Curvas de Beneficios y Costos para Mutualismos de Polinización "Typicos", Argentine Ecological Society Biannual Meeting (invited symposium talk), San Luis, Argentina, 10 December 2008

Historias de Vida de los Primates Salvajes en un Ambiente Imprevisible, Instituto de Ciéncias Básicas, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina, November 17, 2008

Límites de los Rangos de Distribución de Especies en un Ambiente Variable y Cambiante, Centro Nacional Patagónico, Puerto Madryn, Argentina, November 3, 2008

Benefit and Cost Curves for Typical Pollination Mutualisms, Argentine Entomological Society Biannual Meeting (invited keynote address), Huerta Grande, Argentina, October 24, 2008

Species Range Limits in a Variable and Changing Environment, Universidad de la Punta, San Luis, Argentina, March 24, 2008

Species Range Limits in a Variable and Changing Environment, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina, March 10, 2008

Species Range Limits in a Variable and Changing Environment, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Bariloche, Argentina, February 08, 2008

Population responses to increasing climatic variability, University of North Carolina, Dept. of Biology, March 30, 2006

Life history adaptations of a long-lived alpine plant in a stochastic environment, Evolutionary Demography Conference, Charlottesville, VA, October 28, 2005

Impact of increasing environmental variability on plant and animal populations, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, September 08, 2005

Demography in an increasingly variable world, Biology Dept., Univ. of Montana, March 11, 2005

Doctoral Theses Directed

Tracy Feldman, “Can Pollination Facilitation Mitigate the Allee Effect?”, (2005)

Brian Hudgens, When does migration matter to aphid metapopulations?, (2000)

Christine Damiani, Direct and indirect effects in a hermit crab-hydroid symbiosis, (2000)

Peter Murphy, Uncertain juvenile recruitment and reproductive strategies of the neotropical frog Edalorhina perezi, (1999)

Peter J Murphy, “The Interplay between Uncertain Juvenile Recruitment and Reproductive Strategy in the Neotropical Frog, Edalorhina perezi”, (September 01, 1993 - May 01, 1999)

Publications

Books

1. W.F. Morris and D.F. Doak, Quantitative Conservation Biology: Theory and Practice of Population Viability Analysis (2002), Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA..
2. W.F. Morris, M. Groom, D. Doak, P. Kareiva, J. Fieberg, L. Gerber, P. Murphy, and D. Thomson, A Practical Handbook for Population Viability Analysis (1999), The Nature Conservancy, Washington, DC..

Papers Published

1. Morris, W.F., C.A. Pfister, S. Tuljapurkar, C.V. Haridas, C. Boggs, M.S. Boyce, E.M. Bruna, D.R. Church, T. Coulson, D.F. Doak, S. Forsyth, J.M. Gaillard, C.C. Horvitz, S. Kalisz, B.E. Kendall, T.M. Knight, C.T. Lee, and E.S. Menges, Longevity determines sensitivity of plant and animal populations to changing climatic variability, Ecology, vol. 89 (2008), pp. 19-25.
2. Morales, M.A., W.F. Morris, and W.G. Wilson, Allee dynamics generated by protection mutualisms can drive oscillations in trophic cascades., Theoretical Ecology (2008).
3. Abbott, K.C., W.F. Morris, and K. Gross, Simultaneous effects of food limitation and inducible resistance on herbivore population dynamics., Theoretical Population Biology, vol. 73 (2008), pp. 63-78.
4. Morris, W.F., R.A. Hufbauer, A.A. Agrawal, J.D. Bever, V.A. Borowicz, G.S. Gilbert, J.L. Maron, C.E. Mitchell, I.M. Parker, A.G. Power, M.E. Torchin, and D.P. Vázquez, Direct and interactive effects of enemies and mutualists on plant performance: a meta-analysis, Ecology, vol. 88 (2007), pp. 1021-1029.
5. Mitchell, C.E., A.A. Agrawal, J.D. Bever, G.S. Gilbert, R.A. Hufbauer, J.N. Klironomos, J.L. Maron, W.F. Morris, I.M. Parker, A.G. Power, E.W. Seabloom, M.E. Torchin, and D.P. Vázquez, Beyond enemy release: biotic interactions and plant invasions, Ecology Letters, vol. 9 (2006), pp. 726-740.
6. Parrent, J.L., Morris, W.F., and R. Vilgalys, Effects of a CO2 – enriched atmosphere on community composition and diversity of ectomycorrhizal fungi, Ecology, vol. 87 (2006), pp. 2278-2287.
7. Morris, W.F., S. Tuljapurkar, C.V. Haridas, E.S. Menges, C.C. Horvitz, & C.A. Pfister, Sensitivity of the population growth rate to demographic variability within and between phases of the disturbance cycle, Ecology Letters, vol. 9 (2006), pp. 1331-1341.
8. Ness, J.H., W.F. Morris, and J.L. Bronstein, Integrating quality and quantity of mutualistic service to contrast ant species visiting Ferocactus wislizeni, Ecology, vol. 87 (2006), pp. 912-921.
9. Boyce, M.S., C. Haridas, C. Lee, C.L. Boggs, E.M. Bruna, T. Coulson, D. Doak, J.M. Drake, J.-M. Gaillard, C.C. Horvitz, S. Kalisz, B.E. Kendall, T. Knight, E.S. Menges, W.F. Morris, C.A. Pfister, S.D. Tuljapurkar, Demography in an increasingly variable world., Trends in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 21 (2006), pp. 141-148.
10. Gross, K., W.F. Morris, M.S. Wolosin, and D.F. Doak, Modeling vital rates improves estimation of population projection matrices., Population Ecology, vol. 48 (2006), pp. 79-89.
11. Dwyer, G., and W.F. Morris, Resource-dependent movement and the speed of biological invasions., American Naturalist, vol. 167 (2006), pp. 165-176.
12. Morris, W.F., B. Traw, and J. Bergelson, On testing for a trade-off between constitutive and induced resistance., Oikos, vol. 112 (2006), pp. 102-110.
13. Morris, W.F., W.G. Wilson, J.L. Bronstein, and J.H. Ness, Environmental forcing and the competitive dynamics of a guild of cactus-tending ant mutualists., Ecology, vol. 86 (2005), pp. 3190–3199.
14. Vázquez, D.P., W.F. Morris, and P. Jordano, Interaction frequency as a surrogate of population-level effects of animal mutualists on plants, Ecology Letters, vol. 8 (2005), pp. 1088-1094.
15. Doak, D.F., W.F. Morris, C. Pfister, B. Kendall, E. Bruna, and C. Lee, Correctly estimating how environmental stochasticity influences fitness and population growth, American Naturalist, vol. 166 (2005), pp. E14 (electronic version)..
16. W.F. Morris and D.F. Doak, How general are the determinants of the stochastic population growth rate across nearby sites?, Ecological Monographs, vol. 75 (2005), pp. 119-137.
17. Doak, D.F., K. Gross, and W.F. Morris, Understanding and predicting the effects of sparse data on demographic analyses, Ecology, vol. 86 (2005), pp. 1154-1163.
18. T.S. Feldman, W.F. Morris, and W.G. Wilson, When can two plant species facilitate each other’s pollination?, Oikos, vol. 105 (2004), pp. 197-207.
19. W.F. Morris and D.F. Doak, Buffering of life histories against environmental stochasticity: accounting for a spurious correlation between the variabilities of vital rates and their contributions to fitness, American Naturalist, vol. 163 (2004), pp. 579-590.
20. J.L. Bronstein, W.G. Wilson, and W.F. Morris, Ecological dynamics of mutualist/antagonist communities., American Naturalist, vol. 162 (2003), pp. S24-S39.
21. W.F. Morris, J.L. Bronstein, and W.G. Wilson, Three-way coexistence in obligate mutualist-exploiter interactions: the potential role of competition, American Naturalist, vol. 161 (2003), pp. 860-875.
22. W.G. Wilson, W.F. Morris, and J.L. Bronstein, Coexistence of mutualists and exploiters on spatial landscapes, Ecological Monographs, vol. 73 (2003), pp. 397-413.
23. W.F. Morris, Which mutualists are most essential?: buffering of plant reproduction against the extinction of pollinators, in The Importance of Species: Perspectives on Expendability and Triage, Pages 260-280, edited by P. Kareiva and S. Levin (editors) (2003), Princeton University Press, Princeton..
24. L.C. Moyle, J.R. Stinchcombe, B.R. Hudgens, and W.F. Morris, Conservation genetics in the recovery of endangered animal species: a review of U.S. endangered species recovery plans (1977-1998), Animal Biodiversity and Conservation, vol. 26 no. 2 (2003), pp. 85-95.
25. Morris, W.F., P.L. Bloch, B.R. Hudgens, L.C. Moyle, and J.R. Stinchcombe, Population viability analysis in endangered species recovery planning: Past use and recommendations for future improvement, Ecological Applications (2002).
26. J. Stinchcombe, L. C. Moyle, B. R. Hudgens, P. L. Bloch, S. Chinnadurai, and W.F. Morris, The influence of the academic conservation biology literature on endangered species recovery planning, Conservation Ecology, vol. 6 no. 2 (2002), pp. 15.
27. Underwood, NC, WF Morris, KG Gross, and JR Lockwood, Induced resistance to Mexican bean beetles in soybean: variation among genotypes and correlation with constitutive resistance, Oecologia, vol. 122 (2000), pp. 83-89.
28. D.F. Doak and W.F. Morris, . 1999. Detecting population-level consequences of ongoing environmental change without long-term monitoring, Ecology, vol. 80 (1999), pp. 1537-1551.
29. Doak, D.F. and W.F. Morris, Detecting population-level consequences of ongoing environmental change without long-term monitoring, Ecology, vol. 80 (1999), pp. 1537-1551.

Papers Accepted

1. Ness, J., W.F. Morris, and J. Bronstein, For ant-protected plants, the best defense is a hungry offense, Ecology, in press. (2009).

Book Chapters

1. W.F. Morris, Life History, in S.A. Levin, Ed., Guide to Ecology. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2008).

Other

1. W.F. Morris, Herbivory, in McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Ninth Edition (2000), McGraw-Hill, New York..