Home   |    Research    |    Publications   |    Curriculum Vitae   |    Data   |   

Curriculum Vitae

Michael D. Weiser

Post-Doctoral Research Associate
North Carolina State University
Department of Biology
381 David Clark Labs
Raleigh, North Carolina 27695
mdweiser@ncsu.edu
Office (919) 513-7681
Mobile (919) 710-1153

Research Interests

Biogeography, Ant Ecology, Botany, Macroecology, Community Ecology, Biodiversity Informatics, Conservation Biology, Functional Morphology, Evolutionary Ecology.

Education

Ph.D. 2007 University of Arizona Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Dissertation-"Latitudinal patterns of New World species diversity and range size"

M.S. 2001 University of Oklahoma Department of Zoology.
Thesis- "Community morphology of New World ant assemblages."

B.S. 1998 University of Oklahoma Department of Zoology.
Senior Thesis- "The effects of agriculture on tropical ant communities."

Research Experience

Post-Doctoral Research Associate August, 2007. to Present. NICCR Department of Energy with Rob Dunn at North Carolina State University and Nate Sanders at the University of Tennessee

Post-Doctoral Research Associate (Adjunct) December, 2007. University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. SALVIAS.

SALVIAS 2003 to Present. Co-founder, database and application manager- SALVIAS network. The SALVIAS network, funded by the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at Conservation International, is a network of biologists, ecologists, biogeographers, and bioinformatics specialists focusing on research and data standardization for studies of global plant diversity and distributions. For more information, please see www.salvias.net

Graduate Research Assistant to Dr. Lawrence Weider. University of Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma Biological Station, Willis, Oklahoma. August 1999 through July 2000. I assisted in operations of laboratory investigating evolution in clonal organisms, specifically performing allozyme analysis of Daphnia pulex collected by Dr. Weider on the Tundra Northwest Expedition 1999.

Graduate Research Assistant to Dr. Michael Kaspari. University of Oklahoma, Department of Zoology. August 1998 to August 1999. Designed and began measurement and analysis of project investigating the ecological morphology of ant communities. Supervised and performed field work in Panama (July 1999).

Undergraduate Field Assistant to Dr. Michael Kaspari. University of Oklahoma, Department of Zoology. Oregon, Panama, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. April 1997 to August 1998. Assisted in field for ecological studies of ants.

Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant to Dr. Michael Kaspari. University of Oklahoma, Department of Zoology, Norman, Oklahoma. May 1996 to May 1998. Assisted in curation of ant specimen as well as assisting with measurement and analysis for use in ecological studies.

Independent Undergraduate Field Research. University of Kansas, Department of Systematics and Ecology, Lawrence, Kansas. Summer 1992 and 1993. Performed independently designed project investigating the population genetics of desert seed harvesting ants.

Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant to Dr. Deborah R. Smith. University of Kansas, Department of Systematics and Ecology, Lawrence, Kansas. October 1991 to May 1993. Assisted in molecular population genetics lab, working specifically on mtDNA and allozymes of Africanized honeybees, other bees, semi-social spiders, and ants.

Undergraduate Field Assistant to Dr. Deborah Gordon. Stanford University (not attended) Department of Biology. Summer 1991. Assisted in field observations of behavioral studies of ants.

Teaching Experience

Graduate Teaching Associate- University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Conservation Biology Internship Program
Introduction to Biology 1 & 2

Graduate Teaching Assistant. University of Oklahoma, Department of Zoology.
Fall 2000 Introduction to Zoology Lab Instructor
Spring 2001 Introduction to Ecology Lab Instructor
Summer 2001 Introduction to Zoology Lab Instructor

Publications

 
IN REVIEW OR REVISION
  1. Weiser, M.D. and B.J. Enquist. In revision . Biological gradients in species richness and a spurious mid-domain effect.

  2. Jenkins, C.N., N.J. Sanders, A.N. Andersen, X. Arnan, C.A.Brühl, X. Cerda, A.M. Ellison, B.L. Fisher, M.C. Fitzpatrick, N.J. Gotelli, A.D. Gove, Benoit Guénard, J.E. Lattke, J.-P. Lessard, T.P. McGlynn, S.B. Menke, C.L. Parr, S.M. Philpott, H.L. Vasconcelos, M.D. Weiser and R.R. Dunn. in review. Exploring the limits to our knowledge of diversity in light of climate change, the case of ants

  3. Weiser, M.D. and B.J. Enquist in revision . Is there a general explanation for the latitudinal gradient in mammal species diversity?

  4. Fitzpatrick, M.C., N.J. Sanders, S. Ferrier, J.T. Longino, M.D. Weiser and R.R. Dunn. In review. Forecasting the future of biodiversity: a test of single- and multi-species models for ants in North America.

  5. Swenson, N.G., B.J. Enquist, J. Pither, A.J. Kerkhoff, B. Boyle, J.J. Elser, W.F. Fagen, A.T. Moles, O.L. Phillips, C.A. Price, P.B. Reich, J.C. Stegen, M.D. Weiser, I.J. Wright, S. Andelman, S. Flynn, C.M. Hulshof, P.M. Jorgensen, T.E. Lacher Jr., A. Monteagudo, M.P. Nunez Vargas, and R. Vasquez. In review. The diversity of woody plant function across the New World.
IN PRESS
  1. Stegen, J.C., N.G. Swenson, B.J. Enquist, E.P. White, O.L. Phillips, P.M. Jorgensen, M.D. Weiser, A. Monteagudo-Mendoza, and P. Núñez Vargas. Variation in above-ground forest biomass across broad climatic gradients. In Press at Global Ecology and Biogeography.
PUBLISHED
  1. S.B. Menke, B. Guénard, J.O. Sexton, M.D. Weiser, R.R. Dunn, and J. Silverman. 2010. Urban areas may serve as habitat and corridors for dry-adapted, heat tolerant species; an example from ants. Urban Ecosystems DOI 10.1007/s11252-010-0150-7 | pdf |

  2. Weiser, M.D., N.J. Sanders, D. Agosti, A.M. Ellison, B.L. Fisher, H. Gibb, N.J. Gotelli, A.D. Gove, B. Guénard, M. Janda, M. Kaspari, J.-P. Lessard, J.T. Longino, J.D Majer, S.B. Menke, T.P. McGlynn, C.L. Parr, S.M. Philpott, J. Retana, A. Suarez, H.L. Vasconcelos, S.P. Yanoviak and R.R. Dunn. 2010. . Ant diversity on the ground and in the canopy: Do similar patterns imply similar drivers of diversity? Biology Letters 6:769-772. | pdf |

  3. Swenson, N.G., and M.D. Weiser. 2010. Plant geography upon the basis of functional traits: an example from eastern North American trees. Ecology 91:2234-2241. | pdf |

  4. Guénard, B., M.D. Weiser and R.R. Dunn. 2010. Global generic diversity and distribution: new maps of the world of ants with examples of their use in the context of Asia. Asian Myrmecology 3:21-28. | pdf |

  5. McGlynn, T.P., M.D. Weiser and R.R.Dunn. 2010. More individuals but fewer species - testing the More Individuals Hypothesis in a diverse tropical fauna. Biology Letters 6: 490-493. | pdf |

  6. Dunn, R.R., D. Agosti, A. Andersen, C. Bruhl, X. Cerda, A. Ellison, B. Fisher, M.C. Fitzpatrick, H. Gibb, N. Gotelli, A. Gove, B. Guénard, M. Janda, M. Kaspari, E. Laurent, J.-P. Lessard, J.T. Longino, J. Majer, T.P. McGlynn, S.B. Menke, C. Parr, S. Philpott, M. Pfeiffer, J. Retana, A. Suarez, H. Vasconcelos, M.D. Weiser and N.J. Sanders. 2009. Climatic drivers of hemispheric asymmetry in global patterns of ant species richness. Ecology Letters 12: 324-333. | pdf |

  7. R.R. Dunn, N.J. Sanders, B. Guénard and M.D. Weiser. 2009. Geographic gradients in the diversity,abundance, size, and ecological consequences of ants. Ant Ecology, L. Lach C. Parr and K. Abbot, editors

  8. M. Kaspari and M.D. Weiser. 2007. The size-grain hypothesis: do macroarthropods see a fractal world? Ecological Entomology 32:279-282. | pdf |

  9. Weiser, M.D.,B. J. Enquist, B. Boyle, T. J. Killeen, P. M. Jørgensen, G. Fonseca, M. Jennings, A. J. Kerkhoff, T. E. Lacher Jr., A. Monteagudo, M.P. Núñez Vargas, O. L. Phillips, N. G. Swenson, R. Vásquez Martínez. 2007. Range size distributions and the latitudinal gradient in New World woody plant species richness. Global Ecology and Biogeography 16(5): 679-688. | pdf |

  10. McGill, B., B. Maurer, and M.D. Weiser. 2006. Empirical evaluation of neutral theory. Ecology 87(6):1411-1423 | pdf |

  11. M.D. Weiser and M. Kaspari. 2006. Ecological morphospace of New World ants. Ecological Entomology 31:131-142. | pdf |

  12. Triantis, K.A., M. Mylonas, M.D. Weiser, K. Lika, and K. Vardinoyannis. 2005 Species richness, environmental heterogeneity and area: A case study based on land snails in Skyros archipelago (Aegean Sea, Greece). Journal of Biogeography 32(10):1727-1736. | pdf |

  13. Cahan, S. H., J.D. Parker, S.W. Rissing, R.A. Johnson, T.S. Polony, M.D. Weiser, and D.R. Smith. 2002. Extreme genetic differences between queens and workers in hybridizing Pogonomyrmex harvester ants. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 269:1871-1877. | pdf |

  14. Enquist, B. J., J. Sanderson, and M.D. Weiser. 2002. Modeling macroscopic patterns in ecology. Science 295:5561-2. | pdf |

  15. Weiser, M.D.. 2002. Removal of Rhododendron macrophyllum petals by Camponotus modoc. Western North American Naturalist 62(4): 498-499 | pdf |

  16. Lomolino, M. V. and M.D. Weiser. 2001. Towards a more general species-area relationship: diversity on all islands, great and small. Journal of Biogeography 28(4) 431-445. | pdf |

  17. Kaspari, M. and M.D. Weiser. 2000. Ant activity along moisture gradients in a Neotropical forest. Biotropica 32(4) 319-325. | pdf |

  18. Kaspari, M. and M.D. Weiser. 1999. Interspecific scaling in ants: the size grain hypothesis. Functional Ecology 13(4):530-538. | pdf |

IN PREPARATION
  1. Weiser, M.D., B. Guénard, N.J. Sanders and R.R. Dunn. Compositional similarity and biogeographic provincialism of ants
  2. Guénard, B., M.D. Weiser and R.R. Dunn. Predicting global hotspots for new discoveries, an example with a new global database for ants
  3. Hulshof, C.M., N.G. Swenson and M.D. Weiser. Variability in height-diameter allometry across the continental United States
  4. Lucky, A., B. Guénard, M.D. Weiser and R.R. Dunn. Tracing the Rise of Ants-Out of the Wet, Hot, Dirt

Talks, Posters, Presentations

  1. Weiser, M.D. 2008.History and latitudinal gradients in mammal species diversity. Ecological Society of America. Milwaukee, WI.
  2. Weiser, M.D., B.J. Enquist and N.G. Swenson 2007. Taxonomic decomposition of latitudinal diversity gradients in New World vascular plants. International Biogeography Society Biennial Meeting, January, 2007. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
  3. Weiser, M.D. and A. Jackson, 2006. SALVIAS: A roadmap for botanical bio-prospecting. University of Arizona Institute for Collaborative Bioresearch IT-BioSciences Internship Program, July, 2006. University of Arizona.
  4. Weiser, M.D., B.J. Enquist and B. Boyle, 2005. An ecoinformatics approach to test continental scale hypotheses: Synthesis and analysis of botanical inventories and collections across scales. An invited presentation that was part of the Emerging Ecoinformatic Tools and Accomplishments for Synthetic Ecological Research Across Scales Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada.
  5. Weiser, M.D., B. Boyle, B. Enquist. 2005. Range size and the latitudinal diversity gradient in New World woody plants. Poster given at International Biogeography Society Biennial Meeting, Shepardstown, West Virginia, January 2005; and The University of Arizona Graduate Studies in Life Sciences Recruitment Poster Session, February 2005.
  6. Weiser, M.D. 2004. Latitudinal distributions and range limits of New World woody plant species. Invited "Ecomunch" Seminar for the University of Oklahoma Department of Zoology
  7. Weiser, M.D. B.J. Enquist, B. Boyle. 2004. Latitudinal distributions and range limits of New World woody plant species. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Portland, OR. August, 2004.
  8. Weiser, M.D. B.J. Enquist, B. Boyle, S. Reddy. 2003. Rapoport's Rule, latitudinal patternsm and the frequency distribution of range size fo New World woody plant species. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Savannah, GA. August, 2003.
  9. Weiser, M.D. B.J. Enquist, B. Boyle, S. Reddy, and C.O. Webb. 2003. Frequency distributions of species' ranges: Estimating the geographic extent of Hubbell's metacommunity for New World plant assemblages. Poster given at International Biogeography Society. Mesquite, NV. January, 2003.
  10. Boyle, B., B.J. Enquist, M.D. Weiser. 2003. Endemism on latitudinal and altitudinal gradients in tropical forests: A test of the climatic variability hypothesis. Poster given at International Biogeography Society. Mesquite, NV. January, 2003.
  11. Weiser, M.D. B.J. Enquist, B. Boyle. 2003. The SALVIAS Project: Linking plant inventories, specimens, and taxonomy. Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation Annual Meeting, Aberdeen, Scotland. July, 2003.
  12. Weiser, M.D., B. Enquist, J. Betancourt, T. Huxman and J.D. Van Dyken. 2002. Quantifying 100 years of assemblage dynamics in a Sonoran Desert plant community: Assessing the role of climate, site specific and biotic interactions. Poster presented at Ecological Society of America meeting August 2002 in Tucson, AZ.
  13. Cable, J. T. Huxman, B. Enquist, and M. D. Weiser. 2002. Long-term plant canopy dynamics in Sonoran Desert perennials over the last 100 years at Tumamoc Hill, AZ. Poster presented at Ecological Society of America meeting August 2002 in Tucson, AZ.
  14. Weiser, M. D. 2000. Morphological Structure in Communities of New World Ants. University of Oklahoma Department of Zoology Association of Graduate Student Retreat.
  15. Weiser, M. D. 1999. A method to detect the Small Island Effect within archipelagos and habitat fragments. University of Oklahoma Department of Zoology Association of Graduate Student Retreat.
  16. Weiser, M. D., D. R. Smith, S. W. Rissing, and R. Hagen. 1993. An anomalous population of Pogonomyrmex rugosus in Southwestern Arizona. Poster presented at the Midwest Conference on Population Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.
  17. Weiser, M. D. 1992. Genetic variability in Pogonomyrmex rugosus and Messor pergandei: effects of ecology and mating system. Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting. Baltimore, MD.
Professional Affiliations
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association for Tropical Biology, Ecological Society of America, Entomological Society of America, International Association for Ecology, International Biogeography Society, International Union for the Study of Social Insects, Oklahoma Academy of Science, Sigma Xi, Society for the Study of Evolution, Southwestern Association of Biologists

Reviewer for:
Biotropica, Ecography, Ecology, Ecological Entomology, Global Ecology and Biogeography, Isreal Journal of Ecology and Evolution, Journal of Animal Conservation, Journal of Biogeography, Journal of Ecology, Journal of Vegetation Science.

Current Collaborators

  • Dr. Rob R. Dunn. North Carolina State University.
  • Benoit Guénard. North Carolina State University.
  • Catherine Hulshof. University of Arizona.
  • Dr. Michael Kaspari. University of Oklahoma.
  • Dr. Andrea Lucky. North Carolina State University.
  • Dr. Nathan J. Sanders. University of Tennessee.
  • Dr. Nathan J. Swenson. Michigan State University.

References

  • Dr. Brian J. Enquist. University of Arizona (Doctoral Advisor).
  • Dr. Michael Kaspari. University of Oklahoma (Master's Advisor).
  • Dr. Rob R. Dunn. North Carolina State University (Post-Doctoral Advisor).
  • Dr. Nathan J. Sanders. University of Tennessee (Post-Doctoral Advisor).