Research Program                                   

I am a community ecologist who is primarily interested in how prey behavior and interactions between predator species influence a prey’s population size.  Most of my work has focused on experiments with aquatic invertebrates and fish, but I have also used non-experimental approaches to study predation as well as patterns of biodiversity in Puerto Rican forests.  In addition, I am very interested in scientific teaching and making science more accessible to all students.

Courses Taught

BIOL 1050, 1051.        General Biology for non-majors.

BIOL 1200.                  Introductory Biology II for majors.

BIOL 2250.                  Ecology.

BIOL 2800.                  Biological Instruction, a training course for biology Undergraduate Assistants.

Recent Publications

Vance-Chalcraft, H.D., M.R. Willig, S.B. Cox, A.E. Lugo, and F.N. Scatena.  Relationship between aboveground biomass and multiple measures of biodiversity in subtropical forest of Puerto Rico.  In review.

Vance-Chalcraft, H.D., J.A. Rosenheim, J.R. Vonesh, C.W. Osenberg, and A. Sih.  2007.  The influence of intraguild predation on prey suppression and prey release:  a meta-analysis.  Ecology 88 (11):2689-2696.

Vance-Chalcraft, H.D. and D.A. Soluk.  2005.  Estimating the prevalence and strength of non-independent predator effects.  Oecologia 146: 452-460.

Vance-Chalcraft, H.D. and D.A. Soluk.  2005.  Multiple predator effects result in risk reduction for the prey across multiple prey densities.  Oecologia 144:472-480. 

Vance-Chalcraft, H.D., D.A. Soluk, and N. Ozburn.  2004.  Is prey predation risk influenced more by increasing predator density or predator species richness in stream enclosures?  Oecologia 139:117-122.