G. David Tilman
{{short description| American ecologist (born 1949)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
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| name =G. David Tilman
| honorific_suffix =
| birth_name = George David Titman
| image = David Tilman Royal Society.jpg
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| caption = Tilman in 2017
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1949|07|22}}
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| workplaces = University of Minnesota
University of California, Santa Barbara
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| alma_mater = University of Michigan
| thesis_title = Interspecific competition for resources: An experimental and theoretical study
| thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/302806650
| thesis_year = 1976
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- BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award {{small|(2014)}}
- Foreign Member of the Royal Society {{small|(2017)}}{{cite web|url=https://royalsociety.org/people/david-tilman-13430/|publisher=Royal Society|location=London|author=Anon|website=royalsociety.org|year=2017|title=Professor David Tilman ForMemRS}}}}
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| website = {{URL|https://cbs.umn.edu/contacts/g-david-tilman}}
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George David Tilman{{Cite book|last=Tilman|first=George David|url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/2058.html|title=Resource competition and community structure|date=1982|series=Monographs in Population Biology|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-08302-5|volume=17|pages=1–296|pmid=7162524}} (born Titman; July 22, 1949), ForMemRS, is an American ecologist. He is Regents Professor and McKnight Presidential Chair in Ecology at the University of Minnesota, as well as an instructor in Conservation Biology; Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; and Microbial Ecology. He is director of the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve long-term ecological research station. Tilman is also a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.{{Cite web |title=David Tilman |url=https://bren.ucsb.edu/people/david-tilman |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science & Management |language=en-US}}{{Google scholar id}}
Early life and education
Tilman (born Titman) was born in Aurora, Illinois in 1949. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in zoology in 1971 and his PhD in ecology in 1976 at the University of Michigan.{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=George David|last=Titman |title=Interspecific competition for resources: An experimental and theoretical study |publisher=University of Michigan |date=1968 |oclc=68285554|id={{ProQuest|302806650}}}} {{subscription required}} Some of his doctoral research was published in the journal Science.{{cite journal|last1=Titman|first1=George David|title=Ecological Competition Between Algae: Experimental Confirmation of Resource-Based Competition Theory|journal=Science|volume=192|issue=4238|year=1976|pages=463–465|issn=0036-8075|doi=10.1126/science.192.4238.463|pmid=17731084|bibcode=1976Sci...192..463T|s2cid=30492089}}
Career and research
In an August 2001 interview, Tilman states that his passion with ecology stems from his love for both math and biology, and ecology is a field that allows him to express both together along with his love for the outdoors.{{Cite web |url=http://www.in-cites.com/scientists/dr-david-tilman.html |website=in-cites |title= An Interview with Dr. David Tilman |year = 1991}} His work explores how both natural and managed ecosystems can be used to meet the needs of humans, whether it be for food, energy, or ecosystem services. Tilman has performed several studies to further determine the usefulness of grasslands for utilization in biofuel.
= Resource competition =
Tilman is best known for his work on the role of resource competition in community structure and on the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning. One of his most cited articles is the 1994 Nature article on the Biodiversity and stability in grasslands which provided data regarding an experiment that began in 1982 with more than 200 plots in a grassland field in the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in Minnesota.{{cite journal|last1=Tilman|first1=David|last2=Downing|first2=John A.|title=Biodiversity and stability in grasslands|journal=Nature|volume=367|issue=6461|year=1994|pages=363–365|issn=0028-0836|doi=10.1038/367363a0|bibcode=1994Natur.367..363T|s2cid=4324145}} Each of these plots was continuously monitored for 20 years for factors such as species richness and biomass created by the community. Tilman's article looked at data both prior to and following a drought on the grassland plots in 1988, which provided surprising results. The drought provided substantial disturbance and the biomass data showed a strong positive correlation between the plant diversity within the community and the stability of the community as a whole supporting the diversity-stability hypothesis.
"The level to which the soil solution concentration of a limiting resource is reduced by an equilibrial monoculture of a species is called R*. R* is the resource concentration a species requires for it to be able to persist in a habitat. A comparable concept, that of threshold density, exists for host-microparasite inter-actions. The species with the lowest R* for a limiting soil resource is predicted to be the superior competitor for that resource."{{cite journal|last1=Tilman|first1=David|s2cid=13924571|title=Constraints and Tradeoffs: Toward a Predictive Theory of Competition and Succession|journal=Oikos|volume=58|issue=1|year=1990|pages=3–15|issn=0030-1299|doi=10.2307/3565355|jstor=3565355|bibcode=1990Oikos..58....3T }}
With regards to succession he focuses on resource ratios, particularly between light and nitrogen. After a big disturbance, the pattern of succession is from high light/low nitrogen towards high nitrogen/low light environment.{{cite book|last=Bazzaz|first=F. A.|title=Plants in Changing Environments|year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=UK|isbn=978-0-521-39843-5|page=16}}
= Competition and biodiversity =
Another article by Tilman that has received substantial citation is his 1994 Ecology article that encompasses the idea that large numbers of species can coexist in a small habitat even when they require the same limiting nutrient (such as nitrogen), as long as there is a tradeoff between the species. Basically it means that they can coexist because species that are good competitors are not as good at colonizing or reproducing.{{Cite journal | url = http://www.cedarcreek.umn.edu/biblio/fulltext/t1180.pdf | last1 = Tilman | first1 = David | title = Competition and Biodiversity in Spatially Structured Habitats | journal = Ecology | volume = 75 | issue = 1 | year = 1994 | pages = 2–16 | doi = 10.2307/1939377 | jstor = 1939377 | bibcode = 1994Ecol...75....2T | access-date = December 4, 2014 | archive-date = March 3, 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303185620/http://www.cedarcreek.umn.edu/biblio/fulltext/t1180.pdf | url-status = dead }} In a related paper, Tilman used this model to demonstrate the phenomenon of "extinction debt," which refers to the time delay between habitat destruction and the extinction of species.{{Cite journal | last1 = Tilman | first1 = D. | last2 = May | first2 = R. M. |authorlink2=Robert May, Baron May of Oxford| last3 = Lehman | first3 = C. L. | last4 = Nowak | first4 = M. A.|authorlink4=Martin Nowak | title = Habitat destruction and the extinction debt | doi = 10.1038/371065a0 | journal = Nature | volume = 371 | pages = 65 | year = 1994 |bibcode = 1994Natur.371...65T | issue=6492| s2cid = 4308409 }}
= Awards and honors =
In 2014, he received the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology category, for scientifically establishing the value of biodiversity, quantifying, for the first time, how it contributes to make ecosystems more productive, more resilient to invasions, and more stable in the face of perturbations such as drought.{{Cite web|url=http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/2014/ecologia.jsp|title=BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards|website=www.fbbva.es|access-date=July 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122081843/http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/2014/ecologia.jsp|archive-date=January 22, 2017|url-status=dead}} He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.{{cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=T.H. |title=Biography of David Tilman |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |year=2004 |volume=101 |number=30 |pages=10851–10853 |bibcode=2004PNAS..10110851D |doi=10.1073/pnas.0404605101 |pmid=15263082|pmc=503709|doi-access=free }} In 2000 Tilman was designated the Most Highly Cited Environmental Scientist of the Decade by Essential Science Indicators.
- 1996: Robert H. MacArthur Award{{ cite journal | title=MacArthur Award - David Tilman - 1996-1997 | journal=Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America | volume=78 | issue=1 | date= January 1997 | url=https://www.esa.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/94/2022/02/macarthur1996.pdf | access-date=6 January 2025| pages=23-24 }}
- 2013: Alexander von Humboldt Medal{{cite web | title=Alexander von Humboldt Medal | website=International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS) | url=https://www.iavs.org/page/awards_alexander-von-humboldt-medal | access-date=6 January 2025}}
- 2014: Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology{{cite web | title=American David Tilman wins tenth Ramon Margalef Award for Ecology | website=Biocat | date=19 October 2023 | url=https://www.biocat.cat/en/current-news/news/american-david-tilman-wins-tenth-ramon-margalef-award-ecology | access-date=6 January 2025}}
- 2014: BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award
- 2017: Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS)
- 2025: National Medal of Science.{{cite web | author=The White House | title=President Biden Honors Nation’s Leading Scientists, Technologists, and Innovators | website=The White House | date=3 January 2025 | url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2025/01/03/president-biden-honors-nations-leading-scientists-technologists-and-innovators/ | access-date=4 January 2025}}
References
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External links
- {{google scholar id|xlfT8vcAAAAJ}}
{{FRS 2017}}
{{Heineken Prizes}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tilman, George David}}
Category:Mathematical ecologists
Category:American environmental scientists
Category:People from Aurora, Illinois
Category:University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
Category:University of Minnesota faculty
Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Category:Winners of the Heineken Prize
Category:Winners of the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology