William F. Morris

Professor of Biology

Office:

104 Bio Sci Bldg, Durham, NC 27708

Campus Box:

Duke Box 90325, Durham, NC 27708-0325

Phone:

(919) 684-5257

Email:

wfmorris@duke.edu

Bill Morris studies the population ecology of plants and insects (both herbivores and pollinators). Current projects include: the population dynamic consequences of constitutive and inducible resistance in plants, the maintenance of mutualistic interactions between flowering plants and nectar-robbing pollinators, the use of population-level attributes to detect biotic responses to ongoing environmental changes, and the use of mathematical models to assess viability of threatened and endangered populations. The common thread uniting these projects is that they combine field experiments and mathematical models to study population dynamics in natural and managed systems.

Education

Ph.D., University of Washington 1990
B.S., Cornell University 1983

Morris, WF, and Kareiva, PM. "How insect herbivores find suitable host plants: The interplay between random and nonrandom movement." In Insect-Plant Interactions, 175-208. January 1, 2017. Full Text

Villellas, J, García, MB, and Morris, WF. "Geographic location, local environment, and individual size mediate the effects of climate warming and neighbors on a benefactor plant." Oecologia 189, no. 1 (January 2019): 243-253. Full Text

Peterson, ML, Doak, DF, and Morris, WF. "Incorporating local adaptation into forecasts of species' distribution and abundance under climate change." Global Change Biology (December 29, 2018). (Review) Full Text

Peterson, ML, Doak, DF, and Morris, WF. "Both life-history plasticity and local adaptation will shape range-wide responses to climate warming in the tundra plant Silene acaulis." Global Change Biology 24, no. 4 (April 2018): 1614-1625. Full Text

Himes Boor, GK, Schultz, CB, Crone, EE, and Morris, WF. "Mechanism matters: the cause of fluctuations in boom-bust populations governs optimal habitat restoration strategy." Ecological applications. 28, no. 2 (March 2018): 356-372. Full Text

"Environmental stress effects on reproduction and sexual dimorphism in the gynodioecious species Silene acaulis." Environmental and Experimental Botany 146 (February 1, 2018): 27-33. Full Text

Louthan, AM, Pringle, RM, Goheen, JR, Palmer, TM, Morris, WF, and Doak, DF. "Aridity weakens population-level effects of multiple species interactions on Hibiscus meyeri." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115, no. 3 (January 2018): 543-548. Full Text

Campos, FA, Morris, WF, Alberts, SC, Altmann, J, Brockman, DK, Cords, M, Pusey, A, Stoinski, TS, Strier, KB, and Fedigan, LM. "Does climate variability influence the demography of wild primates? Evidence from long-term life-history data in seven species." Global Change Biology 23, no. 11 (November 2017): 4907-4921. Full Text

Pietrek, AG, Himes Boor, GK, and Morris, WF. "How effective are buffer zones in managing invasive beavers in Patagonia? A simulation study." Biodiversity and Conservation 26, no. 11 (October 1, 2017): 2591-2605. Full Text

Vázquez, DP, Gianoli, E, Morris, WF, and Bozinovic, F. "Ecological and evolutionary impacts of changing climatic variability." Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 92, no. 1 (February 2017): 22-42. (Review) Full Text

Sivakoff, FS, Morris, WF, Aschehoug, ET, Hudgens, BR, and Haddad, NM. "Habitat restoration alters adult butterfly morphology and potential fecundity through effects on host plant quality." Ecosphere 7, no. 11 (November 1, 2016). Full Text