My students and I address a broad range of issues in ecology, especially evolutionary ecology, in an effort to understand the structure and dynamics of ecological populations and communities, life histories, and underlying behavioral mechanisms.  The students conduct mainly empirical studies in a diverse array of systems and organisms (see below) and often collaborate with me in developing related models.  Most of my own work is theoretical, with recent focus on game theory, sex ratios, disease models, and metapopulations.  Students interested in gaining experience with a mix of empirical and modeling work are especially encouraged to apply for graduate study.  Highly motivated undergraduate researchers are also welcomed into the lab, often collaborating with one or more of the graduate students.  Though some of us and some of our individual projects may exclusively use theoretical or empirical approaches, a goal of the group is to help tighten connections between theoretical and empirical work in ecology.

Current Doctoral Students and Projects
(* = jointly advised with another faculty member)

• Diego Cuadros-Rubio*: HIV prevalence and the link to malaria—modeling & statistical analysis
• Mary Hart*: Cooperation and sexual conflict in the mating system of a hermaphroditic seabass
• Nathan Klar: Size distributions, spatial structure and the flexibility of social systems (crayfish)
• Deric Miller*: Spatially distributed genetics of a clonal plant (a liverwort)
• Megan Poulette*: Local ecosystem dynamics and effects of shrub invaders on savanna trees
• Yoriko Saeki*: Sex differences and the size-number tradeoff in broods of a polyembryonic wasp
• Tim Sesterhenn: The ecological and life-history implications of injury (a damselfly)
• Kausalya Shenoy: Effects of endocrine disruptors on male signaling and mating success(guppies)
• Christopher Stieha*: Metapopulation dynamics and maintenance of sex in a tropical bryophyte
• John Treanor: Brucellosis dynamics and Yellowstone bison

• Crowley, P.H., and D.N. McLetchie. 2002. Tradeoffs and spatial life-history strategies in classical metapopulations. Amer. Nat.159: 190-208.
• Crumrine*, P.W., and P.H. Crowley. 2003. Partitioning components of risk reduction in a dragonfly-fish intraguild predation system. Ecology 84: 1588-1597.
• Crowley, P.H. 2003. Origins of behavioral variability: Categorical and discriminative assessment in serial contests.  Anim. Behav. 66: 427-440.
• Crowley, P.H., H.M. Davis*, A.L. Ensminger*, L. Fuselier*, J.K. Jackson*, and D.N. McLetchie. 2005. A general model of local competition for space.  Ecology Letters 8: 176-188.
• Crowley, P.H., C. Stieha*, and D.N. McLetchie. 2005. Overgrowth competition, fragmentation, and sex-ratio dynamics: a spatially explicit, sub-individual based model. J. Theor. Biol. 233: 25-42.
• Treanor*, J.J., R.L. Wallen, D.S. Maehr, and P.H. Crowley. 2007. Brucellosis in Yellowstone bison. Yellowstone Science 15: 20-24 (invited article).
• Ensminger*, A.L., and P.H. Crowley. 2007. Strangers and brothers: a paternity game between house mice. Anim. Behav 74: 23-32. (featured article)
• Crowley, P.H., and M.K. Hart*. 2007. Evolutionary stability of egg trading and parceling in simultaneous hermaphrodites: the chalk bass revisited. J.Theor. Biol. 246: 420-429.
• Crowley, P.H., Y. Saeki*, and P.V. Switzer. 2008. Evolutionarily stable oviposition and sex ratio in polyembryonic wasps. Ecological Entomology, in press.