Professor Emeritus
EBIO

Research Interests

Plant ecology, terrestrial ecosystem science. Major areas of research include the nutritional ecology of alpine plants, resource use by plant communities, abiotic and biotic constraints on primary production and nutrient fluxes in alpine ecosystems, and the role of competition/ facilitation in plant communities. Experimental approaches, both in the field and in laboratory growth chambers, are emphasized in addressing research goals.

Selected Publications

Clark, C.M., Simkin, S.M., E.B. Allen, W.D. Bowman, J. Belnap, M.L. Brooks, S.L. Collins, L.H. Geiser, F.S. Gilliam, S.E. Jovan, L.H. Pardo, B.K. Schulz, C.J. Stevens, K.N. Suding, H.L. Throop, and D.M. Waller.  2019. Potential vulnerability of 348 herbaceous species to atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and sulfur in the U.S. Nature Plants doi.org/10.1038/s41477-019-0442-8

Potter, T.S., W.M. Owens, and W.D. Bowman.  2019. Do plant-microbe interactions and aluminum tolerance influence alpine sedge species’ responses to nitrogen deposition? 10: Ecosphere doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2775

Bowman, W.D., A. Ayad*, C.P. Bueno de Mesquita, N. Fierer, T.S. Potter, and  S. Sternagel. 2018.  Limited ecosystem recovery from simulated chronic nitrogen deposition.  Ecological Applications 28: 1762-1772.

Bowman, W.D. and S. Swatling-Holcomb.  2018.  The roles of stochasticity and biotic interactions in the spatial patterning of plant species in alpine communities. Journal of Vegetation Science 29: 25-33.

Fornwalt, P.J., C.C. Rhoades, R.M. Hubbard, R.L. Harris, A.M. Faist, and W.D. Bowman. Short-term understory plant community responses to salvage logging in beetle-affected lodgepole pine forests, Colorado, USA. 2018, Forest Ecology and Management 409: 84-93.

Langley, J.A., S.K. Chapman, M. Avolio, W.D. Bowman, D.S. Johnson, K.J. La Pierre, F. Isbell, K.R. Wilcox, B.L. Foster, M.J. Hovenden, A.K. Knapp, S. Koerner, C. Lortie, J.P. Megonigal, P. Newton, P.B. Reich, M.D. Smith, B. Suttle, and D. Tilman.  2018.  Ambient changes exceed treatment effects on plant species abundance in global change experiments.  Global Change Biology DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14442

Simkin, S.M., E.B. Allen, W.D. Bowman, C.M. Clark, J. Belnap, M.L. Brooks, B.S. Cade, S.L. Collins, L.H. Geiser, F.S. Gilliam, S.E. Jovan, L.H. Pardo, B.K. Schulz, C.J. Stevens, K.N. Suding, H.L. Throop, and D.M. Waller.  2016.  Conditional vulnerability of plant diversity to atmospheric nitrogen deposition across the USA.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113: 4086-4091.