David Mortensen

David Mortensen

I studied Ecology at Duke University at a time (the late 70’s and early 80’s) when asking applied questions was considered a lower form of science. I remember squatting in my field site on the north slope of the Brooks Range contemplating the political implications of a positive feedback in an environment with elevated CO2. Political implications were out of bounds in those days. Our work was to assess the impact of elevated carbon dioxide concentrations on the carbon source/sink dynamics in the tundra and taiga of Alaska. Of course the political implications were profound, increasing carbon dioxide concentrations resulted in warmer artic temperatures which in turn increased the depth of thaw of the permafrost which exposed an extensive carbon-rich peat reserve to decomposition…in short a positive feedback. I am delighted to say that our discipline has come a long way since those days. So long in fact that our most widely cited journal is the Journal of Applied Ecology. In fact, the application of ecological theory to solve largely human induced problems is where much of the action lies.

Today my research addresses applied plant ecology questions using the latest in empirical methods and mathematical models. My title, weed ecologist, indicates I do so working with weedy plants as my study system species. I have a strong commitment to conducting fundamental sustainable resource use research then extending those insights to enhance ecologically enlightened management. Most of my work couches questions in a population dynamics framework, often a spatially explicit population dynamics framework. By the way, I am a strong believer in group chemistry, from here on “my” research will appropriately be written as “our” research. The “our” changes over time but right now consists of four graduate students (three doctoral students and one Masters student) and three post-doctoral scientists. Research underway in our lab is conducted in one of the following three study systems: ecological compensation of agricultural landscapes, invasion dynamics of plants in northeastern forests, and ecologically-based weed management.

Professional Service

I currently serve as the USDA AFRI panel chair of the Weedy and Invasive Organisms national competitive grants program. Over the past five years I have chaired the USDA National Research Initiative Biology and Invasive and Chaired the USDA-RAMP and CAR IPM competitive grants program (2003–2004); served on a congressionally appointed panel charged with Preventing the Introduction of Plant Pathogens into the United States: The Role and Application of the “Systems Approach” (2000–2002), panel member of the National Academy of Sciences panel and author of the Precision Agriculture in the 21st Century: Geospatial and Information Technologies in Crop Management report. Chaired the Weed Biology Committee in the Weed Science Society of America and of the North Central Integrated Pest Management Regional Research Program. Recipient of the Outstanding Paper in Weed Science (2006, 1989), the Outstanding Teacher by the Weed Science Society of America, the Distinguished Young Scientist by the North Central Weed Science Society. Recipient of the Edward Bellis Award for contributions to the Ecology IGDP at Penn State (2007).

Contact Dave.

Publications

Selected Relevent Papers