Robert K Swihart

Head/Professor Forestry & Natural Res

Department: Forestry and Natural Resources
Phone: 765.494.3590
Fax: 765.494.9461
Office: PFEN 125
E-mail: rswihart@purdue.edu
Personal Web Page

Area of Expertise: Wiildlife Science
Curriculum Vitae

Research Group	Facilities	Areas of Excellence	Related Centers
Wildlife Science	Animal Care Facility John S. Wright Center Wildlife Ecology Lab	Sustaining Hardwood Ecosystems Partnering for Land Use Sustainability	Center for the Environment Purdue Climate Change Research Center Purdue Interdisciplinary Center for Ecological Sustainability Natural Resources Leadership Development Institute

Robert K. “Rob” Swihart is Professor and Head of the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources (FNR) at Purdue University. Rob received his B.S. in Wildlife Science from Purdue University in 1979, his M.S. in Wildlife from the University of Minnesota in 1981, and his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Kansas in 1985. He worked one year as a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow and, in 1986 accepted a position as a research ecologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. He joined the faculty at Purdue in 1991. Rob has served as Head of FNR since 2004. As Department Head, he is responsible for leadership and oversight of 30 faculty, 37 administrative and professional staff, 11 clerical staff, 255 undergraduate students, and 85 graduate students, and administers a budget of approximately $8.5 million annually.

Rob was the first faculty member in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources to be named a University Faculty Scholar. He has published over 120 scholarly works, many of which are widely cited. His research interests include effects of habitat fragmentation on wildlife, population and community ecology of mammals, spatial ecology, plant-herbivore interactions, and wildlife damage management. He relies on a combination of mathematical, experimental, and comparative approaches to address the importance of spatial structure for behavioral and ecological processes affecting the conservation and management of vertebrates, with a goal of developing quantitative tools for informing policy makers and stakeholders of the consequences of land-use change for biodiversity and species conservation. Rob’s research spans levels of biological organization from individuals to communities and spatial scales ranging from microsites to continents. Many of his interests are inherently interdisciplinary, which has led to strong collaborative ties with mathematicians, statisticians, specialists in remote sensing, botanists, parasitologists, endocrinologists, chemists, hydrologists, economists, demographers, and social scientists.

- Recent Publications

Moore, J. E., & R. K. Swihart (2008). Factors affecting the relationship between seed removal and seed mortality. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 86, 378-385.

Schreiber, L. A., & R. K. Swihart (2008). Selective feeding of pine voles on roots of tree seedlings. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 87.

Feng, Z., R. Liu, D. L. DeAngelis, J. P. Bryant, K. Kielland, F. S. Chapin III, & R. K. Swihart (2008). Plant toxicity, adaptive herbivory, and plant community dynamics. Ecosystems, 12.

Rizkalla, C. R., J. E. Moore, & R. K. Swihart (2008). Modeling patch occupancy: relative performance of ecologically scaled landscape indices. Landscape Ecology, 23.

Martin, B., G. Shao, R. K. Swihart, G. R. Parker, & L. Tang (2008). Implications of shared edge length between land cover types for landscape quality: A case study in Midwestern U.S.A. Landscape Ecology, 23, 391-402.

Duchamp, J. E., & R. K. Swihart (2008). Shifts in bat community structure related to evolved traits and features of human-altered landscapes. Landscape Ecology, 23, 849-860.

Rathfon, R. O., N. I. Lichti, & R. K. Swihart (2008). Disking and mid- and understory removal following an above-average acorn crop in three mature oak forests in southern Indiana. Proceedings of the Central Hardwood Forest Conference (D. F. Jacobs and C. H. Michler, editors) 16:5, 595.

Duchamp, J. E., E. B. Arnett, M. A. Larson, & R. K. Swihart (2006). Ecological considerations for landscape-level management of bats. Conservation and management of bats in forests. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Swihart, R. K., J. J. Lusk, J. E. Duchamp, C. E. Rizkalla, & J. E. Moore (2006). The roles of landscape context, niche breadth, and range boundaries in predicting species responses to habitat alteration. Diversity and Distributions.

Beever, E., B. Bestelmeyer, & R. K. Swihart (2006). Linking the concept of scale to studies of biological diversity: evolving approaches and tools. Diversity and Distributions.