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RESEARCH INTERESTS
Evolutionary ecology, mathematical biology
Spatially explicit models of competition and facilitation
Evolution of cooperation
Evolutionary dynamics of disease
Nothing with the word 'sex' in it
PUBLICATIONS
Posters
Interference competition and limits to biodiversity
Predicting plant water use from plant and soil properties
My current research centers around the development and
testing of mathematical models designed to make sense of
realistically complex ecological systems. For example, we
all know that real ecological interactions, such as
competition, occur at particular locations and that where
something takes place can be as important as what took
place. Without precise theory, however, it is difficult to
know what to do with spatial information. Existing theories
that take space into account range from abstract
mathematical models based on physics to simplified models
based on equally spaced patches to complex computer models
with overwhelming levels of detail. My goal is to help
create models which incorporate enough real spatial
complexity to make sense of data but not so much as to
sacrifice any hope of understanding.
I have been working on models of competition for space from
several angles, including such phenomena as inducible
defenses, territoriality, and spatial foraging. In each
case, the key is to link the local resource dynamics with
fitness by way of a foraging strategy. We are developing
three systems to test this link: the nematode C.
elegans (with T. Hills), seed harvester ants (with D. M.
Gordon), and marine bryozoans (with D. Grunbaum).
This same philosophy can be applied to other complex
systems, such as to communities of interacting organisms. I
have been extending earlier work on mathematical
epidemiology and community ecology to consider the evolution
of strategies of interaction between organisms that share a
resource. The evolution of disease virulence provides a
case study of this problem (recent work with J. Mosquera-
Losada), as do the costs and benefits of inducible defenses
(extending work with R. Karban).
Recently, I have been working to apply these methods to the
genetics of interactions between genes (with K.G. Lark).
Building on our analysis of the soybean, we are developing
methods to study the genetics of trait variation in dogs,
with an eventual goal of applying the methods to natural
populations.
The graduate students in my group work on a wide range of
problems, generally with a combination of theoretical and
empirical methods. Projects include allocation of effort
into different modes of foraging by species of desert ants
(Adam Kay), the foraging behavior of the nematode (C.
elegans) (Thomas Hills), and the joint action of gene
flow and sexual selection in spatially heterogeneous
environments (Stephen Proulx).
Selected publications
Adler, F.R. and M. Kotar. 1999. Departure time versus
departure rate: How to forage optimally when you are stupid.
Evolutionary Ecology Research 11:411-421.
Adler, F.R. 1999. The balance of terror: An alternative
mechanism for competitive tradeoffs and its implications for
invading species. American Naturalist 154:497-509.
Adler, F.R. and D. Grunbaum. 1999. Evolution of forager
responses to inducible defenses. The Ecology and Evolution
of Inducible Defenses, (ed C.D. Harvell and R. Tollrian),
pages 259-285. (Princeton University Press).
Adler, F.R. 1998. Modeling the Dynamics of Life: Calculus
and Probability for Life Scientists. Brooks/Cole Publishing
Co., Pacific Grove.
Mosquera-Losada, J. and F.R. Adler. 1998. Evolution of
virulence: A unified framework for coinfection and
superinfection. Journal of Theoretical Biology 195:293-
313.
Othmer, H.G., F.R. Adler, M.A. Lewis and J.C. Dallon
(editors). 1997. Case Studies in Mathematical Modeling:
Ecology Physiology and Cell Biology. Prentice Hall, Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey.
Losos, J.B. and F.R. Adler. 1995. Stumped by trees? A
generalized null model for patterns of organismal diversity.
American Naturalist 145:329-342.
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