Department of Geography & Environmental Systems

Little Fishing Creek

Frederick County, Maryland

U.S.A.

 

Christopher M. Swan

Assistant Professor

I am interested in the ecological mechanisms governing trophic interactions in food webs.  In particular, I seek to understand how characteristics of resources interact with consumer foraging behavior and bioenergetic constraints to alter energy flow and resource dynamics.  I focus on detrital-based food webs since there is an explicit link between detrital chemistry and plant species composition. 

Decay of organic matter is a critical ecosystem process in both terrestrial and aquatic environments, and understanding how plant community structure influences decay rate via interactions between detritivory and plant chemistry is critical to understanding how loss of particular plant species may alter food web dynamics.  In stream ecosystems, this has important conservation implications, as humans have drastically altered patterns in streamside vegetation via both disturbance and restoration efforts.  To date, my specific research foci include:

(1) the role consumers play in mediating synergistic effects of speciose leaf litter on organic matter decomposition in streams,

(2) tri-trophic interactions in agricultural streams receiving transgenic (Bt) corn detritus, and

(3) the implications of loss of Eastern Hemlock by the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid on watershed export of nitrogen and carbon.

Researchers in my lab utilize both laboratory and field techniques to approach these research areas.  Both undergraduate and graduate research opportunities are available in my lab.  Please email me at Stream.Ecology@umbc.edu if you would care to discuss your interests with me.

Christopher M. Swan, Ph.D.
Dept. of Geography & Environmental Systems

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

211 Sondheim Hall

1000 Hilltop Circle

Baltimore, MD 21250

Contact Information:

Phone: 410-455-3957
Lab: 410-455-3035

Fax: 410-455-1056

E-mail: Chris.Swan@umbc.edu