Edward F. Connor

I am broadly interested in population and community ecology, statistical ecology, biogeography, insect-plant interactions, and sampling and monitoring design in ecology and conservation. My field research employs insects communities and insect-host plant systems to answer basic questions about the population dynamics of pest insects and the structure of insect communities. My interests in statistical ecology and biogeography lie in developing probabilistic statistical procedures for the analysis of biogeographic data and in developing a rigorous framework for hypothesis testing and statistical inference using both experimental and non-experimental evidence in ecology. My work on sampling design focuses on questions concerning the optimal design and allocation of effort in monitoring plant, bird, and bee populations and communities.

My recent research has focused on trying to determine the mechanism by which insects induce pall galls (tumors) and its evolution, developing hierarchical models for abundance data, and automating avian population monitoring.

• Dorazio, R.M. and E.F. Connor. 2014. Estimating abundances of interacting species using morphological traits, foraging guilds, and habitat. PLoS ONE 9(4): e94323. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0094323.
• Connor, E.F., M.D. Collins, and D. Simberloff. 2013. The checquered history of checkerboard distributions. Ecology 94: 2403-2414.
• Connor, E.F. and E.D. McCoy. 2013. Species-area relationships. In, S.A. Levin (ed.) Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Second Edition. Volume 6, oo. 640-650. Academic Press: New York.
• LeBuhn, G., S. Droege, E.F. Connor, B. Gemmill-Herren, S.G. Potts, R.L. Minckley, T.Griswold, R. Jean, E. Kula, D.W. Roubik, J. Cane, K. Wetherill, G. Frankie, F. Parker. 2013. Detecting pollinator declines on a regional and global scale. Conservation Biology 27: 113-120.
• Connor, E.F., L. Bartlett, S. O'Toole, S. Byrd, K. Biskar, J. Orozco. 2012. The mechanism of induction makes galls red. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 6: 489-495.
• Connor, E.F., S. Li, and S.J. Li. 2012. Automating identification of avian vocalizations using time-frequency information extracted from the Gabor-Transform. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 132: 507-517.
• Doudna, J. and E.F. Connor. 2012. Response of terrestrial arthropod assemblages to coastal dune restoration. Ecological Restoration 30: 20-26.
• Collins, M.D., D. Simberloff, and E.F. Connor. 2011. Binary matricies and checkerboard distributions of birds in the Bismarck Archipelago. Journal of Biogeography 38: 2373-2383.
• Lindzey, S. and E.F. Connor. 2011. Monitoring butterflies using immature stages: The Mission Blue Butterfly. Journal of Insect Conservation 15: 765-773.