Research Interests
My core personal research focuses on theoretical and conceptual issues
at the population and community levels of ecological organization,
and on the task of linking ecology with evolutionary biology. In
addition to basic research, I am interested in bringing modern ecological
theory to bear on significant applied problems, particularly in conservation
biology. I have also carried out large-scale experiments on habitat
fragmentation. My students include both theoreticians and empirical,
experimental ecologists. I have historically collaborated with many
faculty at a wide range of institutions, both inside and outside
the USA.
Representative Publications
Knight, T.M., M.W. McCoy, J.M. Chase, K.A. McCoy and R.D. Holt. 2005.
Trophic cascades across ecosystems. Nature 437:880-884 (and electronic
supplement).
Cumming, G. S., G. Barnes, M. Binford, R.D. Holt, S. Perez, M. Schmink,
K. E. Sieving, and J. Southworth. 2005. An exploratory framework for the
empirical measurement of resilience in ecosystems. Ecosystems 8(8): 975-987.
Holt, R.D. 2006. Making a virtue out of a necessity: Hurricanes and the
resilience of island communities. PNAS 103: 2005-2006.
Dennehy, J.J., N.A. Friedenberg, R.D. Holt and P.E. Turner. 2006. Viral
ecology and the maintenance of novel host use. American Naturalist 167(3):
429-439.
Keesing, F, R.D. Holt and R.S. Ostfeld. 2006. Effects of species diversity
on disease risk. Ecology Letters 9(4): 485-498.
Holt, R.D. and A.P. Dobson. 2006. Introduction: Extending the principles
of community ecology to address the epidemiology of host-pathogen communities.
In Disease Ecology: Community Structure and Pathogen Dynamics, S.K. Collinge
and C. Ray, eds. Oxford University Press.
Harding, K.C., J.M. McNamara, and R.D. Holt. 2006. Understanding invasions
in patchy habitats through metapopulation theory. Pages371-403 in Conceptual
ecology and invasion biology: reciprocal approaches to nature, M. Cadotte
and T. Fukami, eds.