Henry M. Wilbur- PhD
- Professor Emeritus at University of Virginia
Henry M. Wilbur
- PhD
- Professor Emeritus at University of Virginia
About
179
Publications
19,004
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Introduction
I am a population biologist interested in life history evolution, community ecology, and the natural history of the Appalachians. Most of my professional career focused on the role of amphibians in the food webs of temporary ponds using field experiments. My current research is in forest ecology and the flora of Mountain Lake Biological Station. I am now retired and am no longer accepting graduate or post-doctoral students.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
August 1973 - June 1991
June 1991 - May 2012
Publications
Publications (179)
Geographically isolated wetland and surrounding landscape features affect the ecology and life history of amphibian species. We used multistate mark recapture methods and data from over 30,000 captures of adult Ambystoma opacum to explore how survival, breeding, and movement probabilities differed among wetlands surrounded by regenerating 20-year-o...
Local floras are a basis of biogeography, ecology, evolution, and systematics, and they add value to research sites. Mountain Lake Biological Station is located between 1,150 and 1,319 m elevation in southwestern Virginia on infertile, acidic soils supporting a second-growth forest strongly dominated by Quercus rubra about 150 years old. We sampled...
The high abundance of ungulates in temperate zone forests is affecting biodiversity and ecosystem functions worldwide. A randomized, replicated experiment excluded white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, from six 10 × 10 m fenced plots for 10 years; six unfenced plots were maintained as controls. The effects of chronic herbivory were assayed by...
We conducted a meta-analysis of local hunting practices affecting the carnivores of forested Africa and Madagascar to collate the information available on this subject and to assess underlying trends in offtake rates. We located 62 relevant articles in a detailed literature search; the data included taxa reported as hunted, the purpose of hunting a...
Fire history is an important aspect of the natural disturbance pattern of many types of forested ecosystems. Nonetheless, many forests and corresponding management plans lack quantitative information on fire interval, frequency, and seasonality. This project examined the fire history at Price Mountain, Virginia, using fire scar samples and tree-rin...
This study documents 25 y of change in the abundance of Quercus rubra (northern red oak) and Quercus alba (white oak), in a previous chestnut (Castanea castanea)-oak forest in the Southern Appalachians of the eastern U.S.A. Spatially explicit data from 1983–1984 and 2007–2008 of individually mapped trees on two plots in southwestern Virginia were u...
Species with partial migration, where a portion of a population migrates and the other remains residential, provide the opportunity to evaluate conditions for migration and test mechanisms influencing migratory decisions. We conducted a five-year study of two populations of red-spotted newts (Notophthalmus viridescens), composed of individuals that...
Hurricanes are an important part of the natural disturbance regime of the Yucatán Peninsula with the potential to alter forest structure and composition, yet investigations of species-level responses to severe winds are limited in this region. The effect of a category 5 hurricane (Hurricane Dean, 21 August 2007) on dry tropical forests across the s...
Background/Question/Methods
Species with partial migration, where a portion of a population migrates and the other remains residential, provide the opportunity to evaluate conditions for migration and test mechanisms influencing migratory decisions. We conducted a five-year study of two populations of red-spotted newts (Notophthalmus viridescens)...
Background/Question/Methods
Many migratory species have within population variation in migration distance or timing (differential migration), while others vary in the proportion of the population that migrates (partial migration). Species with migrant and resident individuals provide a natural system for testing hypotheses concerning the evolution...
Partial migration, variation in the percentage of a population that completes a migration, can be influenced by the local environment and condition of an individual. We examined the direct and interacting effects of habitat quality and gender on migration decision by manipulating population density and sex ratio in a factorial field experiment usin...
Simultaneous estimation of survival, reproduction, and movement is essential to understanding how species maximize lifetime reproduction in environments that vary across space and time. We conducted a four-year, capture-recapture study of three populations of eastern tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum tigrinum) and used multistate mark-recapture...
Many vertebrates, forest herbs, and trees exhibit both variable age at maturity and iteroparity as adaptations to uncertain environments. We analyze a stochastic model that combines these two life-history adaptations with density-dependent fertility. Results for a model with only iteroparity are consistent with previous work; environmental uncertai...
Many vertebrates, forest herbs, and trees exhibit both variable age at maturity and iteroparity as adaptations to uncertain environments. We analyze a stochastic model that combines these two life‐history adaptations with density‐dependent fertility. Results for a model with only iteroparity are consistent with previous work; environmental uncertai...
Many studies of pond-breeding amphibians involve sampling individuals during migration to and from breeding habitats. Interpreting population processes and dynamics from these studies is difficult because (1) only a proportion of the population is observable each season, while an unknown proportion remains unobservable (e.g., non-breeding adults) a...
Understanding the unique contributions of ecology and history to the distribution of species within communities requires an integrative approach. The Eastern Continental Divide in southwestern Virginia separates river drainages that differ in species composition: the more aquatic, predatory Desmognathus quadramaculatus is present only in the New Ri...
Understanding the unique contributions of ecology and history to the distribution of species within communities requires an integrative approach. The Eastern Continental Divide in southwestern Virginia separates river drainages that differ in species composition: the more aquatic, predatory Desmognathus quadramaculatus is present only in the New Ri...
We examined trade-offs between current reproduction and future reproductive potential in a terrestrial salamander (Plethodon cinereus) in outdoor enclosures. We raised females that differed in brooding status under manipulations of food level and tail condition in two years (1993 and 1994), and measured the effects of our treatments on current repr...
