G. David Tilman
| David Tilman | |
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David Tilman in 2017.
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| Born |
George David Titman July 22, 1949 |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Awards | |
| Website | cbs |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions |
University of Minnesota University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Thesis | Interspecific competition for resources: An experimental and theoretical study (1976) |
George David Tilman (born July 22, 1949) is an American ecologist. He is Regents Professor and McKnight Presidential Chair in Ecology at the University of Minnesota, as well as an instructor in Conservation Biology; Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; and Microbial Ecology. He is director of the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve long-term ecological research station. Tilman is also a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.
Tilman (born Titman) was born in Aurora, Illinois in 1949. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in zoology in 1971 and his PhD in ecology in 1976 at the University of Michigan. Some of his doctoral research was published in the journal Science.
In an August 2001 interview, Tilman states that his passion with ecology stems from his love for both math and biology, and ecology is a field that allows him to express both together along with his love for the outdoors. His work explores how both natural and managed ecosystems can be used to meet the needs of humans, whether it be for food, energy, or ecosystem services. Tilman has performed several studies to further determine the usefulness of grasslands for utilization in biofuel.
Tilman is best known for his work on the role of resource competition in community structure and on the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning. One of his most cited articles is the 1994 Nature article on the Biodiversity and stability in grasslands which provided data regarding an experiment that began in 1982 with more than 200 plots in a grassland field in the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in Minnesota. Each of these plots was continuously monitored for 20 years for factors such as species richness and biomass created by the community. Tilman’s article looked at data both prior to and following a drought on the grassland plots in 1988, which provided surprising results. The drought provided substantial disturbance and the biomass data showed a strong positive correlation between the plant diversity within the community and the stability of the community as a whole supporting the diversity-stability hypothesis.
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