G. David Tilman | |
|---|---|
 Tilman in 2017 | |
| Born | George David Titman (1949-07-22)July 22, 1949 (age 76) |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Awards | |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Minnesota University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Thesis | Interspecific competition for resources: An experimental and theoretical study (1976) |
| Doctoral students | |
| Website | cbs |
George David Tilman[2] (bornTitman;[3] July 22, 1949),ForMemRS, is an Americanecologist. He is Regents Professor and McKnight Presidential Chair in Ecology at theUniversity of Minnesota, as well as an instructor inConservation Biology; Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; andMicrobial Ecology. He is director of theCedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve long-term ecological research station. Tilman is also a professor atUniversity of California, Santa Barbara'sBren School of Environmental Science & Management.[4][5]
Tilman (born Titman)[3] was born inAurora, Illinois in 1949. He earned hisBachelor of Science degree inzoology in 1971 and hisPhD in ecology in 1976 at theUniversity of Michigan.[6][3] Some of his doctoral research was published in the journalScience.[7]
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.[8] His work explores how both natural and managed ecosystems can be used to meet the needs of humans, whether it be for food, energy, orecosystem services. Tilman has performed several studies to further determine the usefulness of grasslands for utilization inbiofuel.[5]
Tilman is best known for his work on the role of resourcecompetition in community structure and on the role ofbiodiversity in ecosystem functioning.[2] One of his most cited articles is the 1994Nature article on theBiodiversity and stability in grasslands which provided data regarding an experiment that began in 1982 with more than 200 plots in a grassland field in theCedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve inMinnesota.[9] Each of these plots was continuously monitored for 20 years for factors such asspecies richness andbiomass 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 substantialdisturbance and the biomass data showed a strong positivecorrelation between the plant diversity within the community and the stability of the community as a whole supporting thediversity-stability hypothesis.[10]
"The level to which the soil solution concentration of a limiting resource is reduced by an equilibrial monoculture of a species is calledR*. R* is the resource concentration a species requires for it to be able to persist in a habitat. A comparable concept, that of threshold density, exists for host-microparasite inter-actions. The species with the lowest R* for a limiting soil resource is predicted to be the superior competitor for that resource."[10]
With regards tosuccession he focuses on resource ratios, particularly between light and nitrogen. After a big disturbance, the pattern of succession is from high light/low nitrogen towards high nitrogen/low light environment.[11]
Another article by Tilman that has received substantial citation[12] is his 1994Ecology article that encompasses the idea that large numbers of species can coexist in a small habitat even when they require the samelimiting nutrient (such as nitrogen), as long as there is a tradeoff between the species. Basically it means that they can coexist because species that are goodcompetitors are not as good at colonizing or reproducing.[8][12] In a related paper, Tilman used this model to demonstrate the phenomenon of "extinction debt," which refers to the time delay betweenhabitat destruction and the extinction of species.[13]
In 2014, he received theBBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology category, for scientifically establishing the value of biodiversity, quantifying, for the first time, how it contributes to make ecosystems more productive, more resilient to invasions, and more stable in the face of perturbations such as drought.[14] He has been aGuggenheim Fellow, is a Fellow of theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science and of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a member of theNational Academy of Sciences.[6] In 2000 Tilman was designated theMost Highly Cited Environmental Scientist of the Decade by Essential Science Indicators.[6]
