Amy L. Downing
Associate Professor
and Department Chair

Office: Rm. 325 CWSC
Phone: (740) 368-3890

Research interests

Courses taught

Curriculum Vitae

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Research interests:

My research explores how biological diversity and the loss of species influence ecosystem processes in freshwater ponds. I focus on how species richness (number), species composition (identity), and functional group (groups of species that share similar traits) diversity and composition influence ecosystem processes. As ecologists strive to predict the consequences
of biodiversity loss for ecosystems, we need to understand the specific mechanisms behind species' effects in ecosystems, and the relative importance of different components of biological diversity for ecosystems. Understanding the consequences of biodiversity loss is critical as humans continue to alter both species richness and species composition at rapid rates in most ecosystems around the world.

I approach these questions experimentally by manipulating the diversity and composition of pond food webs in experimental ponds (cattle tanks). In the experimental ponds, I am able to assemble complex food webs consisting of microbes, macrophytes, phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthic grazers, and invertebrate predators. I experimentally manipulate the diversity and composition of pond food webs and monitor ecosystem responses including productivity and decomposition rates. I have found that both the identity and number of species in food webs influences ecosystems, and that these effects are mediated through complex food web interactions. I have also found that in more diverse communities, ecosystem processes like productivity are more resilient (recover more quickly) after disturbances. I am currently trying to characteize how species richness influences the stability of ecosystem processes by exploring how the population dynamics of component species interact to influence the stability of aggregate properties of ecosystems. Much of my past and current research has been conducted at Michigan State University's W. K. Kellogg Biological Station. www.kbs.msu.edu.

I currently teach Conservation Biology, Marine Biology, Invertebrate Zoolgoy, and Animals and their E1nvironment.

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Courses taught:

Click on an underlined course title to view a brief description of that course.

Downing's interests in biological diversity its preservation are also reflected in her teaching. She currently teaches Conservation Biology, Marine Biology, Invertebrate Zoology, and Animals and their Environment.

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Curriculum Vitae:

Amy L. Downing

Associate Professor
Department of Zoology
Ohio Wesleyan University
Delaware, OH 43015

EDUCATION

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. M.Sc. 1998, Ph.D. in Ecology, 2001.

Lawrence University, Appleton, WI. B.A. in Biology, 1995, Phi Beta Kappa.

Associate Professor, Department of Zoology, Ohio Wesleyan University. 2001-present.

Instructor, University of Chicago Graham School of General Studies, Fall 2000.

Research Associate, Wright State University, 1995 - 1996.

Environmental Challenge Grant granted by NiSource. ‘Management and Monitoring of Invasive Species and Aquatic Habitats in the Ohio Wesleyan Kraus Nature Preserve’. L. Anderson & A. Downing. $10,000. 2006.

NSF REU supplemental grant. $13,000. Summer 2004, Summer 2005.

NSF grant. ‘Collaborative Research: Compensatory vs amplifying effects of community structure on ecological systems in response to environmental fluctuations’. Leibold, M. & A. Downing. $400,000. 2003-2006.

William Rainey Harper Fellow, University of Chicago, 2000–2001. Dissertation
writing fellowship.

PEO Scholar Award, 2000 – 2001. $7,000.

NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant. ‘Biodiversity’s effects on ecosystem function and stability in ponds.’ Awarded to M.A. Leibold and A.L. Downing, 1999-2001. $10,000.

Department of Education Training Grant Fellow (GAAN), U. of Chicago, 1997-2001.

Hinds Fund Research Grant, University of Chicago, 1998-1999. $2500.

*=student author

Srivastava, D. S., B. J. Cardinale, A. L. Downing, J. E. Duffy, C. Jouseau, M. Sankaran, and J. P. Wright. In press. Diversity has stronger top-down than bottom-effect effects on decomposition. Ecology.

Cardinale, B. J., D. S. Srivastava, J. E. Duffy, J. P. Wright, A. L. Downing, M. Sankaran, C. Jouseau, M. W. Cadotte, I. T. Carroll, J. J. Weis, A. a. Hector, and M. Loreau. In press. Effects of biodiversity on the functioning of ecosystems: A summary of 164 experimental manipulations of species richness. Ecology.

Downing, A. L., B. L. Brown, E. M. Perrin*, T. H. Keitt, and M. A. Leibold. 2008. Environmental fluctuations induce scale-dependent compensation and increase stability in plankton ecosystems. Ecology.

Downing, A. L., K. DeVanna*, C. N. Rubeck-Shurtz*, L. Tuhela, and H. Grunkemeyer. 2008. Community and ecosystem responses to a pulsed pesticide disturbance in freshwater ecosystems. Ecotoxicology 17:539-548.

Cardinale, B. J., D. S. Srivastava, J. E. Duffy, J. P. Wright, A.L. Downing, M. Sankaran, and C. Jousseau. 2006. Consistent effects of biodiversity on the functioning of trophic groups and ecosystems. Nature 443:989-992.

Downing, A. L., and J. T. Wootton. 2005. Trophic position, biotic context, and abiotic factors determine species contributions to ecosystem functioning. Pages 295-308 in P. d. Ruiter, J. Moore, and V. Wolters, editors. Dynamic Food Webs: Multispecies assemblages, ecosystem development, and environmental change. Academic Press, Amsterdam.

Downing, A. L. 2005. Relative effects of species composition and richness on pond ecosystem properties in ponds. Ecology 86(3): 701-715.

Raffaelli D, Cardinale BJ, A.L. Downing, K.A.M. Engelhardt , J.L. Ruesink , Solan M, Srivastava DS. 2004. Reinventing the wheel in ecology research? Response. Science. 307(5717): 1875-1876.

Solan, M., B. J. Cardinale, A.L. Downing, K. A. M. Engelhardt, J. L. Ruesink, D. S. Srivastava. 2004. Extinction and ecosystem function in the marine benthos. Science 306: 1177-1180.

Petchey, O., A.L. Downing, G. Mittelbach, L. Persson, C. Steiner, D. Raffaelli, P. Warren, and G. Woodward. 2004. Species loss and the structure and functioning of multitrophic aquatic ecosystems. Oikos 104: 467-478.

Downing, A.L. and M. Leibold. 2002. Ecosystem consequences of species richness and composition in pond food webs. Nature 416: 837-841.

Wootton, T.W. and A. Downing. 2002. Understanding the Effects of Reduced Biodiversity: A Comparison of Two Approaches, eds. P. Kareiva, and S. Levin in The Importance of Species: Perspectives on Expendability and Triage? Princeton University Press. 440 pp.

Loreau, M., A. Downing, M. Emmerson, A. Gonzalez, J. Hughes, P. Inchausti, J. Joshi, and J. Norberg. 2002. A new look at the relationship between diversity and stability, eds. M. Loreau, S. Naeem, and P. Inchausti in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Synthesis and Perspectives. Oxford University Press. 306 p.

Downing, A. L. 2001. The role of biological diversity for the functioning and stability of pond ecosystems. Dissertation. University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

Chase J.M., M. A. Leibold, A. L. Downing, and J. B. Shurin. 2000. The effects of productivity, herbivory, and plant species turnover in grassland food webs. Ecology 81(9): 2485-2497.

Gonzalez, M. and A. Downing. 1999. Mechanisms underlying amphipod responses to the zebra-mussel invasion. Canadian Journal of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences. 56(4): 679-685.

Leibold, M.A.., J.M. Chase, J. B. Shurin, and A. L. Downing. 1997. Species turnover and the regulation of trophic structure. Ann. Rev. of Ecol. and Syst. 28: 467-494.

Pastor, J., A. Downing, and H. Erickson. 1996. Species-area curves and ecosystem properties in beaver meadows of Voyageurs National Park. Oikos 77: 399-406.

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*=student author

Downing, A., L. Woods*, A. Mock*, M. Leibold. August, 2008. Community & ecosystem dynamics: insights from natural and model ponds ecosystems. Oral paper delivered at the Ecological Society of America, Milwaukee, WI.

Downing, A., Leibold, M. and *Perrin, E. 2005. Temporal dynamics of pond food webs and ecosystem functioning in response to disturbance. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America.

Brown, B., M. Leibold and A. Downing. 2005. Multiple types of perturbation lead to compensatory dynamics in replicate experimental zooplankton communities. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America.

Leibold, M., Downing, A. 2005. Environmental fluctuations can stabilize ecosystems. Oral paper presented by M. Leibold at the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography Internationl meeting, Santiago, SPAIN.

Downing A.L. 2000. Species, functional groups, composition, or diversity; What determines ecosystem function and stability? Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America.

Downing A. 1999. Species regulate ecosystem function and stability in pond food webs. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America.

Downing, A. and Leibold, M. 1998. Functional group diversity and composition, but not species diversity, influence ecosystem functioning in pond ecosystems. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America.

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* = student author

*Woods, L. A. Downing, M.Leibold. 2006. Variability of plankton communities in four ponds in southern Michigan. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. Poster presented by Lauren Woods at the ESA meetings in Memphis Tennessee.

*Gullen, A. Downing, A. and Leibold, M. 2005. Environmental determinants of macroinvertebrate diversity and composition in ponds. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. Poster presented by Amy Gullen.

*Rubeck-Schurtz N, *K. DeVanna, L. Tuhela-Reuning, and A. Downing. 2003. The effect of carbaryl on aquatic bacterial communities and biofilm development. American Society for Microbiology Meetings. Washington, D.C.

*DeVanna, K., *N. Rubeck-Schurtz, A. Downing, and L. Tuhela-Reuning. 2003. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America.

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‘Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning - Cross Biome Synthese’s. BioMERGE, 2005, Malaysian Borneo.

‘Experimental Model Systems in Community Ecology’ National Science Foundation Headquarters in Arlington, VA., 2004.

‘Food Web Symposium’, Invited participant. Symposium of food web researchers organized every 10 years to summarize current and future research areas in food web ecology. Giessen, Germany. 2003.

‘The interface between intrinsic and extrinsic drivers.’ Workshop of the NSF sponsored network BioMERGE (Biotic Mechanisms of Ecosystem Regulation in the Global Environment). St. Louis, MO. 2003.

‘ Biotic Mechanisms of Ecosystem Regulation in the Global Environment’. BioMERGE Seattle, WA. 2002.

‘Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching (First II)’. Kellogg Biological Station, Hickory Corners, MI. 2002, 2003.

‘Aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning’, Switzerland. 2002.

‘Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: synthesis and perspectives.’ Paris, France. 2000.

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