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David H. Wise, Ph.D.

Associate Director, IESP
Professor, Biological Sciences
University of Illinois at Chicago, Rm. 3354 SES
EMAIL: dhwise@uic.edu

Education
Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1974
M.S., University of Michigan, 1969
B.A., Swarthmore College, 1967

Previous Positions
2006                Fulbright Scholar, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
1993-2006       Professor of Entomology, University of Kentucky
1981-93           Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC);
                        Affiliate Associate Professor of Zoology, University of Maryland College Park
1985-86           Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow, University of Göttingen, Germany
1976‑81           Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, UMBC
1974‑76           Assistant Professor of Biology, University of New Mexico
1970‑71           Lecturer in Zoology, University of Michigan
1969‑70           Instructor in Biology, Albion College

David Wise joined the University of Illinois at Chicago in November 2006 as Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and affiliated researcher in the Institute of Environmental Science and Policy. Prof. Wise’s research program investigates the causes and implications of food-web complexity and explores how human-induced impacts, such as global climate change and habitat modification, will affect the functioning of terrestrial food webs. Many controversies in ecology continue because we are largely ignorant of the functional consequences of biodiversity. For example: What is the relationship between species diversity and the number, complexity and strength of pathways of direct and indirect effects in food webs?  How do species interactions in complex food webs affect ecosystem processes such as primary production and litter decomposition? Prof. Wise’s research group relies on field experimentation, behavioral experiments in the laboratory, multivariate analyses of field surveys, stable isotope analyses to investigate trophic structure and connections between sub-webs, immunological and molecular techniques to identify predator-prey interactions in the field, meta-analyses of published studies, and mathematical modeling. Additional information is available on his lab website.

Before joining the UIC community, Prof. Wise focused on arthropod-dominated food webs of the forest floor and on small-scale agroecosystems.  He continues his basic research on the ecology of food webs, and also is expanding the scope of his program to include topics central to IESP’s interdisciplinary graduate training program in the ecology, management and restoration of integrated human/natural landscapes --- LEAP (“Landscape, Ecological and Anthropogenic Processes”; www.leap.uic.edu).  In expanding his program, Prof. Wise and his students will be investigating food-web structure and functioning in the context of habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and ecological restoration in diverse Chicagoland landscapes, e.g. forests, prairie, wetlands and urban gardens.

Selected Publications

Castro, A. and D. H. Wise. 2009.  Influence of fine woody debris on spider diversity and community structure in forest leaf litter.  Biodiversity and Conservation.  Pre-publication on line (Biodivers Conserv DOI 10.1007/s10531-009-9674-7)

Rabaneda-Bueno, R., M. A. Rodríguez-Gironés, S. Aguado de la Paz, C. Fernández-Montraveta, D. H. Wise and J. Moya-Laraño. 2008. Sexual cannibalism: High incidence in a natural population with benefits to females. PLoS ONE 3(10): e3484 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003484.

Birkhofer, K., A. Fließbach, D. H. Wise and S. Scheu. 2008. Generalist predators in organically and conventionally managed grass-clover fields: implications for conservation biological control. Annals of Applied Biology 153: 271-280.

Birkhofer, K., S. Scheu and D. H. Wise. 2008. Subsidy from the detrital food web, but not microhabitat complexity, affects the role of generalist predators in an aboveground herbivore food web. Oikos 117: 494-500.

Moya-Laraño, J. and D. H. Wise. 2007. Two simple strategies of analysis to increase the power of experiments with multiple response variables. Basic and Applied Ecology 8: 398-410.

Moya-Laraño, J.  and D. H. Wise. 2007.  Direct and indirect effects of ants on a forest-floor food web.  Ecology 88: 1454-1465.

Harwood, J. D., M. R. Bostrom,  E. E Hladilek, D. H. Wise and J. J. Obrycki.  2007.An order-specific monoclonal antibody to Diptera reveals the impact of alternative prey on spider feeding behavior in a complex food web.  Biological Control 41: 397-407.

Lensing, J. R. and D. H. Wise. 2007. Impact of changes in rainfall amounts predicted by climate-change models on decomposition in a deciduous forest. Applied Soil Ecology 35: 523-534.

Lensing, J. R. and D. H. Wise. 2006. Predicted climate change alters a trophic cascade that affects an ecosystem process. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 103: 15502-15505.

Wise, D. H., D. M. Moldenhauer and J. Halaj. 2006. Using stable isotopes to reveal shifts in prey consumption by generalist predators.Ecological Applications 16: 865-876.

Wise, D. H. 2006. Cannibalism, food limitation, intraspecific competition and the regulation of spider populations. Annual Review of Entomology 51: 441-465.

Wise, D. H.  2004.  Wandering spiders limit densities of a major microbi-detritivore in the forest-floor food web. Pedobiologia 48: 181-188.

Lensing, J. R. and D. H. Wise.  2004.  A test of the hypothesis that a pathway of intraguild predation limits densities of a wolf spider.  Ecological Entomology 29: 294-299.

Moya-Laraño, J., J. M. Orta-Ocaña, J. A. Barrientos, C. Bach and D. H. Wise. 2003. Intriguing compensation by adult female spiders for food limitation experienced as juveniles. Oikos 101: 539-548.

Halaj, J. and D. H. Wise.  2002.  Impact of a detrital subsidy on trophic cascades in a terrestrial grazing food web. Ecology 83:3141-3151.

Moya-Laraño, J., J. M. Orta-Ocaña, J. A. Barrientos, C. Bach and D. H. Wise.  2002.  Territoriality in a cannibalistic burrowing wolf spider. Ecology 83: 356-361.

Snyder, W. E. and D. H. Wise. 2001. Contrasting trophic cascades generated by a community of generalist predators.  Ecology 82: 1571-1583.

Halaj, J. and D. H. Wise. 2001. Terrestrial trophic cascades: how much do they trickle? American Naturalist 157: 262-281.

Wise, D. H. and B. Chen.  1999.   Impact of intraguild predators on survival of a forest-floor wolf spider. Oecologia 121: 129-137.

Snyder, W. E. and D. H. Wise.  1999.  Predator interference and the establishment of generalist predator populations for biocontrol.  Biological Control 15: 283-292.

Toft, S. and D. H. Wise.  1999.  Growth, development and survival of a generalist predator fed single- and mixed-species diets of different quality.  Oecologia 119: 191-197.

Chen, B. and D. H. Wise.  1999.   Bottom-up limitation of predaceous arthropods in a detritus-based terrestrial food web.  Ecology 80: 761-772.

Wise, D. H.  1993.  Spiders in Ecological Webs.  Cambridge Studies in Ecology, Cambridge University Press.  Cambridge (UK).  328 p.  (Paperback Edition, 1995).

Wagner, J. D. and D. H. Wise.  1996.  Cannibalism regulates densities of young wolf spiders: evidence from field and laboratory experiments.  Ecology 77: 639-652.

Wise, D. H. and M. Schaefer.  1994.   Decomposition of leaf litter in a mull beech forest: comparison between canopy and herbaceous species.  Pedobiologia 38: 269-288.

Wise, D. H.  1989.  Modelling of energy flow in forest decomposer communities (Zur Funktion der Fauna in einem Mullbuchenwald 19).  Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft für Ökologie 17: 327-340.