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University Resources

Eric Charnov

Distinguished Professor Emeritus

Ph.D. University of Washington


Email: rlc@unm.edu

Specific Interests
  • Evolutionary ecology: foraging, sex allocation, sex ratio, sexual selection & life-history
  • Metabolic ecology: body size, temperature & biological rates
  • Scaling & allometry in population biology

Selected Publications


  • Charnov,E.L. and W.M. Schaffer. 1973. Life-history consequences of natural selection: Cole's result revisited. American Naturalist 107:791-793.
  • Charnov, E.L., G.H. Orians and K. Hyatt. 1976. Ecological implications of resource depression. American Naturalist 110:247-259.
  • Charnov, E.L. 1976. Optimal foraging: Attack strategy of a mantid. American Naturalist 110:141-151.
  • Charnov, E.L., J. Maynard Smith and J.J. Bull. 1976. Why be an hermaphrodite? Nature 263:125-126.
  • Charnov, E.L. 1976. Optimal foraging, the Marginal Value Theorem. Theoretical Population Biology 9:129-136.
  • Pyke, G.H., H.R. Pulliam and E.L. Charnov. 1977. Optimal foraging: A selective review of theory and tests. Quarterly Review of Biology 52:137-154.
  • Charnov, E.L. and J.J. Bull. 1977. When is sex environmentally determined? Nature 266:828-830.
  • Charnov, E.L. 1979. Simultaneous hermaphroditism and sexual selection. PNAS 76:2480-2484. Gross, M. R. and E.L. Charnov. 1980. Alternative male life histories in Bluegill Sunfish. PNAS 77:6937-6940
  • Charnov, E.L.,et al. 1981. Sex ratio evolution in a variable environment. Nature 289:27-33.
  • Charnov, E.L. 1982. The Theory of Sex Allocation. Princeton, 355 pp.
  • Charnov,E.L. 1991. Evolution of life history variation among female mammals.PNAS 88:1134-7
  • Charnov, E.L. 1993. Life History Invariants. Oxford, 167 pp.
  • Hawkes, K., J. O'Connell, N. Blurton Jones, H. Alvarez, and E.L. Charnov. 1998. Grandmothering, menopause and the evolution of human life histories. PNAS 95: 1336-1339.
  • Enquist, B.J., G.B. West, Charnov, E.L., and J.H. Brown. 1999. Allometric scaling of production and life-history variation in vascular plants. Nature 401:907-911.
  • Gillooly, J.F., J.H. Brown, G.B. West, V.M. Savage and E.L. Charnov. 2001. Effects of size and temperature on metabolic rate. Science 293:2248-2251.
  • Gillooly, J.F., E.L. Charnov, G.B. West, V.M. Savage and J.H. Brown. 2002. Effects of size and temperature on developmental time. Nature 417:70-73.
  • Savage ,V.M., J.F.Gillooly, J.H. Brown, G.B. West and E.L. Charnov 2004. Effects of body size and temperature on population growth. American Naturalist 163:429-441.
  • Charnov, E.L., et al 2007. Lifetime reproductive effort. American Naturalist 170:E129-E142.
  • Charnov, E.L., et al 2013 Evolutionary assembly rules for fish life histories. Fish and Fisheries 14:213-224.