Michael Auerbach

Executive Director and Research Professor

Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences

Email: Mike.Auerbach@dri.edu

Full Curriculum Vitae

Education

Professional Interests

Dr. Michael Auerbach is a population and community ecologist with over 20 years of experience in ecological research and monitoring. He has conducted and supervised field research in deserts, the tropics, and the temperate zone within the United States and internationally. Dr. Auerbach's research interests include the determinants of species richness and biodiversity, plant community change along environmental gradients, patterns of endemism, and food-web stability. He has also used diverse insect-plant systems to test various ecological and evolutionary phenomena, including the factors responsible for triggering eruptive densities of herbivorous insects.

Dr. Auerbach currently serves as Executive Director of the Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences with administrative responsibility for over 40 full-time research faculty encompassing diverse aspects of the life and physical sciences. His previous experience in research administration and project supervision includes service as Chair of the Department of Biology, College/University of Charleston (South Carolina), Director of the Grice Marine Laboratory (Charleston, SC), and Director of the Ecology Program at the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Current Research

• Community ecology of phytophagous insects
• Insect population dynamics
• Ecological community structure and stability
• Local and regional determinants of species richness
• Impact of global environmental change on insect-plant interaction

Selected Publications

Auerbach, M., E. Connor, and S. Mopper (1995)

Minor miners and major miners: Population dynamics of latent and irruptive leaf-mining insects. In N. Cappuccino and P. Price (eds.), Population Dynamics of Insect Herbivores, pp. 83 -110. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.

Auerbach, M., and A. Shmida (1993)

Vegetation change along an altitudinal gradient on Mt. Hennon, Israel: No evidence for discrete communities. Journal of Ecology 81:25-33.

Auerbach, M., and R. Fleischer (1992)

Host race formation in a leaf mining moth. In S.B.J. Menken, J.H. Visser, and P. Harrewijn (eds.) Proceedings of the 8^th International Symposium on Insect-Plant Relationships, pp. 201-202 . Lumer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Auerbach, M., and J.D. Alberts. (1992)

Occurrence and performance of the aspen blotch miner, Phyllonorycter salicifoliella, on three host-tree species. Oecologia 89:1-9.

Auerbach, M. (1991)

Relative impact of interactions within and between trophic levels during an insect outbreak. Ecology 72:1599-1608.

Auerbach, M. (1990)

Populations dynamics of a leaf-mining insect at endemic and epidemic densities. Symposia Biologica Hungarica 39:435-436.