James P. Collins
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
J. Collins received his B.S. from Manhattan College in 1969 and his Ph.D. from The University of Michigan in 1975. He then moved to Arizona State University as Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology. Dr. Collins is currently Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment in the School of Life Sciences. From 1989 to 2002 he was Chairman of the Zoology, then Biology Department. In 1983 Dr. Collins was Visiting Professor at Duke University, and served as Director of the Population Biology and Physiological Ecology program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1985-86.
In addition to maintaining his laboratory at ASU he is also currently serving as Director of the Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Collins’ research centers on understanding the origin, maintenance, and reorganization of morphological variation within species. Amphibians, especially salamanders, are used as model organisms for field and laboratory studies of the ecological and evolutionary forces shaping intraspecific variation and how this variation affects population dynamics. A special focus of the research is host-pathogen biology and its relationship to the global decline of amphibians. Collins heads an international team of 26 investigators studying this issue under two grants from NSF’s Integrated Research Challenges in Environmental Biology program. The intellectual and institutional factors that have shaped Ecology's development as a science are also a focus of Dr. Collins’s research as well as Ecological Ethics. NSF, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Department of the Army, Arizona Game and Fish Department, National Geographic Society, and Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology have supported his research.
Dr. Collins teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in ecology, evolutionary biology, statistics, introductory biology, evolutionary ecology, and professional values in science; he has directed 30 graduate students to completion of doctoral or Masters degrees. Collins was founding director of ASU’s Undergraduate Biology Enrichment Program funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and served as co-director of ASU’s Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology and Minority Access to Research Careers programs funded by NSF and NIH, respectively. Dr. Collins has delivered the Pettingill Lecture in Natural History at The University of Michigan Biological Station; the Thomas Hall Lecture at Washington University, St. Louis; the Irving S. Cooper Lecture at Mayo Clinic/Scottsdale; and was a Bonchek Fellow at Franklin and Marshall College. ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences awarded him the Distinguished Faculty Award in 2003 and the Gary Krahenbuhl Difference Maker award in 2005.
Dr. Collins is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a member of AAAS, Ecological Society of America, Society for the Study of Evolution, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Scientific Research Society of North America (Sigma Xi), American Society of Naturalists, Association for Women in Science, American Institute of Biological Sciences, and the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology. He has served on the editorial board of Ecology and Ecological Monographs (1990-1993) and Evolution (1995-1998). Dr. Collins has been a member of numerous review panels for basic research and graduate training programs at NSF. He was a member and chair of the Advisory Committee to NSF’s Assistant Director for Biological Sciences and a member of the Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education, a cross-directorate committee reporting to NSF’s Assistant Director for Geological Sciences.
Selected Publications
Collins, J.P. and T. Halliday. 2005. Forecasting changes in amphibian biodiversity: aiming at a moving target. Philosophical Transactions B, Roy . Soc., London :309-314.
Jancovich, J.K., E.W. Davidson, N. Parameswaran, J. Mao, V.G. Chinchar, J.P. Collins, B.L. Jacobs, and A. Storfer. 2005. Evidence for emergence of an amphibian iridoviral disease because of human-enhanced spread. Molecular Ecology 14:213-224.
Minteer, B.A. and J.P. Collins. 2005. Why we need an "ecological ethics." Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 3:332-337.
Minteer, B.A. and J.P. Collins. 2005. Ecological ethics: Building a new tool kit for ecologists and biodiversity managers. Conservation Biology 19:1803-1812.
Rachowicz, L.J., J-M Hero, R.A. Alford, J.W. Taylor, J.A.T. Morgan, V.T. Vredenburg, J.P. Collins, and C.J. Briggs. 2005. The novel and endemic pathogen hypotheses: Competing explanations for the origin of emerging diseases of wildlife. Conservation Biology 19:1441-1448.
Brunner, J.L., K. Richards, and J.P. Collins. 2005. Dose and host characteristics influence virulence of ranavirus infections. Oecologia 144:399-406.
Parris, M.J., A. Storfer, J.P. Collins, and E.W. Davidson. 2005. Life history responses to pathogens in tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum) larvae. J. Herpetology 39: 366-372.
Collins, J.P., N. Cohen, E.W. Davidson, J.E. Longcore and A. Storfer. 2005. Global amphibian declines: an interdisciplinary research challenge for the twenty-first century. pp. 43 - 52. In: Lannoo, M.J., ed. Declining amphibians: A United States response to the global phenomenon. University of California Press, Berkeley, California.
Brunner, J.L., D.M. Schock, E.W. Davidson, and J.P. Collins. 2004. Intraspecific reservoirs: complex life history and the persistence of a lethal ranavirus. Ecology: 85:560-566.
Collins, J.P., J.L. Brunner, J. Jancovich, and D.M. Schock. 2004. A model host-pathogen system for studying infectious disease dynamics in amphibians: tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum) and Ambystoma tigrinum virus. Herpetological Journal 14: 195- 200.
Storfer, A.S., S.G. Mech, M.W. Reudink, R.E. Ziemba, J.Warren, and J.P. Collins. 2004. Evidence for introgression in the endangered Sonora tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum stebbinsi.(Lowe). Copeia 2004(4):783-796.
Parris, M.J., A. Davis, and J.P. Collins. 2004. Single-host pathogen effects on mortality and behavioral responses to predators in salamanders (Urodela: Ambystomatidae). Can. J. Zool. 82:1477-1483.
Carey, C., D.F. Bradford, J.L. Brunner, J.P. Collins, E.W. Davidson, J.E. Longcore, M. Ouellet, A.P. Pessier, and D.M. Schock. 2003. Biotic factors in amphibian population declines. pp. 153 - 208. In: G.L. Linder, S.K. Krest, and D.W. Sparling, eds. Amphibian decline: An integrated analysis of multiple stressor effects. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), Pensacola , Florida .
Jancovich, J.K., J. Mao, V.G. Chinchar, C. Wyatt, S.T. Case, S. Kumar, G. Valente, S. Subramanian, E.W. Davidson, J.P. Collins, and B.L. Jacobs. 2003. Genomic sequence of a ranavirus (family Iridoviridae) associated with salamander mortalities in North America . Virology 316:90-103.
Davidson, E.W., M. Parris, J.P. Collins, J.E. Longcore, A. Pessier, J. Brunner. 2003. Pathogenicity and host transmission of chytridiomycosis in tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum). Copeia: 2003(3):601-607.
Collins, J.P., J. Brunner, V. Miera, M. Parris, D. Schock, and A. Storfer. 2003. Ecology and evolution of infectious disease: pp. 137-151. In: R.D. Semlitsch, ed. Amphibian conservation. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
Collins, J.P. 2003. What can we learn from community genetics? Ecology 84:574-577.
Collins, J.P. and A. Storfer. 2003. Global amphibian declines: sorting the hypotheses. Diversity and Distributions 9:89-98.
Collins, J.P. 2002. May you live in interesting times: Using multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary programs to cope with change in the life sciences. BioScience 52:75-83.
Jancovich, J.K., E.W. Davidson, A. Seiler, B.L. Jacobs, and J.P. Collins. 2001. Transmission of the Ambystoma tigrinum virus to alternative hosts. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 46:159-163.
Collins, J.P., A.P. Kinzig, N.B. Grimm, W.F. Fagan, D. Hope, J. Wu, and E.T. Borer. 2000. A new urban ecology. American Scientist 88: 416-425.
Ziemba, R.E., M.T. Myers, and J.P. Collins. 2000. Foraging under the risk of cannibalism leads to divergence in body size among tiger salamanders. Oecologia 124:225-231.
Collins, J. P , Cohen, N, Davidson, E.W., Longcore, J., and Storfer, A., 2000.Global amphibian declines and the challenge of how to do science, in Lanoo, M. ed. Status and Conservation of US Amphibians, Vol. 1. Univ. Calif. Press.
Pfennig, D.W., J.P. Collins, and R.E. Ziemba. 1998, in press. A test of alternative hypotheses for kin recognition in cannibalistic salamanders. Behavioral Ecology:40 pp. ms.
Brunkow, P.E. and J.P. Collins. 1998. Group size affects patterns of aggression in larval salamanders. Behavioral Ecology: 508-514.
Maienschein, J., J.P. Collins, and D. Strouse. 1998. Biology and law: Challenges of adjudicating competing claims in a democracy. Jurimetrics 38:151-181.
Jancovich, J.K., E.W. Davidson, J.F. Morado, B.L. Jacobs, and J.P. Collins. 1997. Isolation of a lethal virus from the endangered tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum stebbinsi. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 31:161-167.
Maienschein, J., J.P. Collins, and D. Strouse. 1997. Biology and law: Challenges of adjudicating competing claims in a democracy. Jurimetrics:1-29.
Maret, T.J. and J.P. Collins. 1997. Ecological origin of morphological diversity: A study of alternative trophic phenotypes in larval salamanders. Evolution 51:898-905.
Brunkow, P.B. and J.P. Collins. 1996. Effects of individual variation in size on growth and development of larval salamanders. Ecology 77:1483-1492.
Jones, T.R., E.J. Routman, D. Begun, J.P. Collins. 1995. Ancestry of an isolated subspecies of salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum stebbinsi Lowe: the evolutionary significance of hybridization. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 4:194-202.
Collins, J.P., K.E. Zerba, and M.J. Sredl. 1993. Shaping intraspecific variation: development, ecology and the evolution of morphology and life history variation in tiger salamanders. Genetica 89:167-183.
Pfennig, D.W. and J.P. Collins. 1993. Kinship affects morphogenesis in cannibalistic salamanders. Nature 362:836-838.
Jones, R.J. and J.P. Collins. 1992. Analysis of a hybrid zone between subspecies of the tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum) in central New Mexico. J. Evol. Biol. 5:375-402.
Zerba, K.E. and J.P. Collins. 1992. Spatial heterogeneity and individual variation in diet of an aquatic top predator. Ecology 73:268-279.
Sredl, M.J. and J.P. Collins. 1991. The effect of ontogeny on interspecific interactions in larval amphibians. Ecology 72:2232-2239.
Pfennig, D.W., M.L.G. Loeb, and J.P. Collins. 1991. Pathogens as a factor limiting the spread of cannibalism in tiger salamanders. Oecologia 88:161-166.
Collins, J.P. 1986. Evolutionary Ecology and the use of natural selection in ecological theory. Journal of the History of Biology 19:257-288.
Collins, J.P. and J.E. Cheek. 1983. Effect of food and density on development of typical and cannibalistic salamander larvae in Ambystoma tigrinum nebulosum. American Zoologist 23:77-84.
Collins, J.P. 1981. Distribution, habitats, and life history variation in the tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum, in east-central and southeast Arizona. Copeia 1981(3):666-675.
Collins, J.P. 1979. Intrapopulation variation in the body size at metamorphosis and the timing of metamorphosis in the bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana. Ecology 60:738-749.
Wilbur, H.M., D.W. Tinkle, and J.P. Collins. 1974. Environmental certainty, trophic level, and resource availability in life history evolution. American Naturalist 108: 805-817.
Wilbur, H.M., and J.P. Collins. 1973. Ecological aspects of amphibian metamorphosis. Science 182:1305-1314.