Brian
Assistant Professor Adjunct • Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 2010

Research Interests

My background includes a PhD in Ecology, ten years of experience conducting applied and fundamental research in academic and applied settings, and peer-reviewed papers across a diversity of topics. Areas of expertise include community ecology, experimental design of field and greenhouse studies, species distribution modeling, climate change vulnerability analyses, phylogenetic comparative methods, plant-soil feedback, and statistical modeling.

In 2015, I joined the City of Boulder's Open Space and Mountain Parks department in the role of Science Officer. My job is to oversee the natural resource studies and to serve as a bridge between OSMP and the outside scientific community. My adjunct position at CU formalizes the connection between OSMP and CU, helping students and faculty conduct local, conservation-relevant research while advancing OSMP’s commitment to science.

Publications

Brian Anacker, John Klironomos, Hafiz Maherali, Kurt Reinhart, and Sharon Strauss. In press. Phylogenetic conservatism in plant-soil feedback and its implications for plant abundance. Ecology Letters.

Kurt Reinhart and Brian Anacker. In press. More closely related plants have more distinct mycorrhizal communities. AOB Plants.

Brian Anacker, Sharon Strauss. 2014. The geography and ecology of plant speciation: Range overlap and niche divergence in sister species. Proceedings of the Royal Society-Bhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2980

Brian Anacker. 2014. The nature of serpentine endemism.American Journal of Botany. 101: 219-224.

Brian Anacker, Melanie Gogol-Prokurat, Krystal Leidholm, and Steve Schoenig. 2013. Climate change vulnerability assessment of rare plants in California. Madroo 60: 193-210.

Barbara Fernandez-Going, Susan Harrison, Brian Anacker, Hugh Safford. 2013. Climate interacts with soil to produce beta diversity in Californian plant communities. Ecology 94: 2007-2018.

Brian Anacker, Susan Harrison. 2012. Historical and ecological controls on phylogenetic diversity in California plant communities. American Naturalist 180: 257-269.

Brian Anacker, Susan Harrison. 2012. Climate and the evolution of serpentine endemism in California. Evolutionary Ecology 26: 1011-1023.

Barbara Fernandez-Going, Brian Anacker, and Susan Harrison 2012. Temporal variability in California grasslands: soil fertility and species functional traits mediate response to climate. Ecology 93: 2104-2114.

Ellen Damschen, Susan Harrison, David Ackerly, Barbara Fernandez-Going, and Brian Anacker. 2012. Endemic plants on serpentine soils: Early victims or hardy survivors of climate change? Journal of Ecology 100: 1122-1130.

*Selected as cover story.

Brian Anacker, Justen Whittall, Emma Goldberg, and Susan Harrison. 2011. Origins and consequences of serpentine endemism in the California flora. Evolution 65: 365-376.

Brian Anacker. 2011. Phylogenetic patterns of endemism and diversity, pp 49-79 in Serpentine: The Evolution and Ecology of a Model System, S.P. Harrison and N. Rajakaruna (eds), University of California Press.

Brian Anacker, Nishi Rajakaruna, David Ackerly, Susan Harrison, Jon Keeley, and Mike Vasey. 2011. Ecological strategies in California chaparral: Interacting effects of climate, soils, and fire on specific leaf area. Plant Ecology and Diversity 4: 179-188.

Ellen Damschen, Susan Harrison, Barbara Going, and BrianAnacker. 2011. Climate change and special soil communities, pp 359-383 in Serpentine: The Evolution and Ecology of a Model System, S.P. Harrison and N. Rajakaruna (eds), University of California Press.

Brad Hawkins, Christy McCain, T. Jonathan Davies, Lauren Buckley, Brian Anacker, Howard Cornell, Ellen Damschen, John Grytnes, Susan Harrison, Robert Holt, Nathan Kraft, and Patrick Stephens. 2011. Different evolutionary histories underlie congruent species richness gradients of birds and mammals. Journal of Biogeography 39: 825-841.

John Wiens, David Ackerly, Andrew Allen, Brian Anacker, Lauren Buckley, Howard Cornell, Ellen Damschen, T. Jonathan Davies, John Grytnes, Susan Harrison, Brad Hawkins, Robert Holt, Christy McCain, and Patrick Stephens. 2010Niche conservatism as an emerging principle in ecology and conservation biology. Ecology Letters 13: 1310-1324.

Buckley, Lauren, T. Jonathan Davies, David Ackerly, Nathan Kraft, Susan Harrison, Brian Anacker, Howard Cornell, Ellen Damschen, John Grytnes, Brad Hawkins, Christy McCain, Patrick Stephens, and John Wiens. 2010. Mammalian climate-diversity gradients: an inevitable product of aggregating clades with distinct evolutionary histories? Proceedings of the Royal Society-B 277: 2131-2138.

Brian Anacker, Nathan Rank, Daniel Huberli, Mateo Garbelotto, Sarah Gordon, Tami Harnik, Richard Whitkus, and Ross Meentemeyer. 2008. Susceptibility to Phytophthora ramorum in a key infectious host: landscape variation in host genotype, phenotype, and environmental factors. New Phytologist 177: 756-766.

Ross Meentemeyer, Brian Anacker, Walter Mark, and David Rizzo. 2008. Early detection of emerging forest disease using dispersal estimation and ecological niche modeling. Ecological Applications 18: 377-390.

Ross Meentemeyer, Nathan Rank, Brian Anacker, David Rizzo, and J. Hall Cushman. 2008. Influence of land-cover change on the spread of an invasive forest pathogen. Ecological Applications 18: 159-171.

Brian Anacker and Chad Kirschbaum. 2006. Vascular flora of the Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative, northwestern Pennsylvania, USA. Bartonia 64: 11-29.

Chad Kirschbaum and Brian Anacker. 2005. The utility of Trilliumand Maianthemum as phyto-indicators of deer impact in northwestern Pennsylvania, USA. Forest Ecology and Management 217: 54-66.