Christopher Beck
Senior Lecturer
Department of Biology
Phone: 404-712-9012
FAX:
404-727-2880
Associate Experiments
Editor, Teaching
Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE)
Board, Member-at-Large, Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE)
Research interests
I am interested in questions at the intersection of behavioral ecology, physiological ecology, and life history evolution. I use a combination of field, laboratory, and modeling experiments to address questions in these areas.
Effects of age on mate choice decisions: In collaboration with Dr.
Daniel Promislow at the
Effects of sex ratio on male reproductive allocation: In collaboration with Dr. Larry Blumer, I am looking at the effects of sex ratio on energy allocated to spermatophores in the bean beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus. Because male reproductive investment is high, we predict that males will alter their allocation to spermatophores depending the number of available mates.
Other recent or on-going projects:
• Effects of English ivy on seedbank formation and germination
• Effects of method of English ivy removal and seed bank restoration on regeneration of vegetation in a southeastern Piedmont forest
• Relationship between privet density and bird diversity
• Comparison
of fish and macroinvertebrate based indices of stream water quality
• Relative
importance of body size and dominance on female mate choice in convict cichlids
• Effects
of packing constraints on the relationship between egg size and total
allocation to reproduction
• Environmental
pools of Toxoplasma
• Population
viability analysis of the smalltooth sawfish
Research
Publications
Beck, C. W., and R.E. Beck.
2005. The effect of packing constraints on optimal investment in offspring.
Evolutionary Ecology Research 7:1077-1088.
Martin,
R., C. W. Beck, S. Baker. 2005. Comparison of two bioassessment
protocols in five Georgia streams. Journal Of Freshwater Ecology 20:431-439.
Beck, C. W., and J. D. Congdon. 2003. Energetics of metamorphic climax in the southern toad (Bufo terrestris). Oecologia 137:344-351.
Beck, C. W., B. Shapiro, S. Choksi, and D. E. L. Promislow. 2002. A genetic algorithm approach to study the evolution of female preference based on male age. Evolutionary Ecology Research 4:275-292. PDF
Beck, C. W., and L. A. Powell. 2000. Evolution of female mate choice based on male age: are older males better mates? Evolutionary Ecology Research 2:107-118. PDF
Beck, C. W., and J. D. Congdon. 2000. Effects of age and size at metamorphosis on performance and metabolic rates of southern toad, Bufo terrestris, metamorphs. Functional Ecology 14:32-38.
Nagle, R. D., O. M. Kinney, J. D. Congdon, and C. W. Beck. 2000. Winter survivorship of hatchling painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) in Michigan. Canadian Journal of Zoology 78:226-233.
Beck, C. W., and J. D. Congdon. 1999. Effects of individual variation in age and size at metamorphosis on growth and survival of the southern toad (Bufo terrestris). Canadian Journal of Zoology 77:944-951.
Congdon, J. D., R. D. Nagle, A. E. Dunham, C. W. Beck, O. M. Kinney, and S. R. Yeomans. 1999. The relationship of body size to survivorship of hatchling snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina): an evaluation of the "bigger is better" hypothesis. Oecologia 121:224-235.
Beck, C. W. 1998. Mode of fertilization and parental care in anurans. Animal Behaviour 55:439-449.
Beck, C. W. 1997. Effect of changes in resource level on age and size at metamorphosis in Hyla squirella. Oecologia 112:187-192.
Beck, C. W., and B. D. Watts. 1997. The effect of cover and food on space use by wintering Song Sparrows and Field Sparrows. Canadian Journal of Zoology 75:1636-1641.
Curriculum development
I am working with Dr. Larry Blumer
at Morehouse College on an NSF-funded project to develop the bean beetle Callosobruchus maculatus as a model
system for undergraduate laboratories in ecology, evolution, and animal
behavior (www.beanbeetles.org).
Curriculum
Publications
J. A. Guinan, C. W. Beck, L. S.
Blumer, and R. W. Matthews. 2005.
Competition Within and Between Species of Parasitoid Wasps. Pages
213-232, in Tested studies for laboratory teaching , Volume 26 (M. A.
O”Donnell, Editor). Proceedings of the 26th Workshop/Conference of the
Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), 452 pages.
Beck, C. W., J. A. Guinan, L. S. Blumer, R. W.
Matthews. August 2004, posting date. Exploring the Lotka-Volterra Competition
Model using Two Species of Parasitoid Wasps. Teaching Issues and Experiments in
Ecology, Vol. 2: Experiment #1 [online]. http://tiee.ecoed.net/vol/v2/experiments/wasps/abstract.html
Beck, C. W., L. S. Blumer, T. Brown. 2002. Effects
of salinity on metabolic rate in black mollies. Pages 211-222, in Tested
studies for laboratory teaching , Volume 24 (M. A. O”Donnell, Editor).
Proceedings of the 24th Workshop/Conference of the Association for Biology
Laboratory Education (ABLE), 334 pages. PDF
Courses Taught
• Evolutionary Biology (BIOL 341)
• Ecology with Laboratory (BIOL 347)
• Organismal and Population Biology (BIOL 142)
• Investigative Evolution (BIOL 470)
• Sex (BIOL 470S)