Faculty & Staff
J. Wilson White, Assistant Professor
Ph.D.,
Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 2007
B.S., Biology, Davidson College, Davidson, NC, 2000
Friday Hall 2061 | (910) 962-3058 | whitejw@uncw.edu | http://people.uncw.edu/whitejw/
Our lab uses a variety of quantitative and empirical tools to investigate the dynamics of marine populations and communities across a range of spatial and temporal scales.
The primary focus of the lab is the influence of ocean currents and larval dispersal on connectivity and source-sink dynamics in metapopulations and metacommunities. This work follows two main avenues. First, we use spatially realistic models to simulate the consequences of no-take marine protected areas on fished species. We then compare model outputs to field monitoring data to guide adaptive management. Second, we use a combination of field observations and multispecies models to study the influence of larval dispersal patterns on predator-prey dynamics in reef fishes.
Other projects ongoing in our lab include investigating how the behavior and foraging decisions of individual predators and prey scales up to influence reef fish population dynamics. Additionally, we are involved in a variety of collaborations to develop models and statistical tools to facilitate empirical studies of larval dispersal and recruitment.
White JW, Botsford LW, Moffitt EA, Fischer DT (2010) Decision analysis for designing marine protected areas for multiple species with uncertain fishery status. Ecological Applications in press. http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/09-0962.1
White JW (2010) Can inverse density dependence at small spatial scales produce dynamic instability in animal populations? Theoretical Ecology in press. DOI: 10.1007/s12080-010-0083-z
White JW, Samhouri JF, Stier AC, Wormald CL, Hamilton SL, Sandin SA (2010) Synthesizing mechanisms of density dependence in reef fishes: behavior, habitat configuration, and observational scale. Ecology 91:1949-1961.
http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/09-0298.1
White JW, Botsford LW, Hastings A, Largier, JL (2010) Population persistence in marine reserve networks: incorporating spatial heterogeneities in larval dispersal. Marine Ecology Progress Series 398:49-67. http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v398/p49-67/
White JW, Standish JD, Thorrold SR, Warner RR (2008) Markov chain – Monte Carlo methods for assigning larvae to natal sites using natural geochemical tags. Ecological Applications 18:1901-1913. http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/07-1792.1
White JW, Caselle JE (2008) Scale-dependent changes in the importance of larval supply and habitat to abundance of a reef fish. Ecology 89:1323-1333 http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/07-0840.1
White JW (2008) Spatially coupled larval supply of marine predators and their prey alters the predictions of metapopulation models. American Naturalist 171:E179-E194. DOI: 10.1086/587079
White JW, Warner RR (2007) Safety in numbers and the spatial scaling of density-dependent mortality in a coral reef fish. Ecology 88:3044-3054. http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/06-1949.1
White JW (2007) Spatially correlated recruitment of a marine predator and its prey shapes the large-scale pattern of prey mortality. Ecology Letters 10:1054-1065. DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01098.x
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