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B.S. 1980 (Oregon State University)
M.S. 1984 (University of Maryland)
Ph.D. 1990 (University of Maryland)

Alex Flecker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He is a member of the graduate fields of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, International Development, and Conservation and Sustainable Development, and is an Associate Member of the Latin American Studies Program. After receiving his Ph.D. in Zoology (Ecology and Evolution concentration) in 1990, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Otago in New Zealand (1991-1993), and joined the Cornell faculty in 1995. He has worked extensively in the Neotropics, including research sites in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, and Trinidad.  In addition to teaching at Cornell, he has served as an invited course instructor in Costa Rica for the Organization for Tropical Studies and at the University of Coimbra in Portugal.


SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 

 

McIntyre, P.B., L.E. Jones, A.S. Flecker, and M.J. Vanni.   2007.  Fish extinctions alter nutrient recycling in tropical freshwaters.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104: 4461-4466.

 

Taylor, B.W., A.S. Flecker, and R.O. Hall, Jr. 2006.  Loss of a harvested fish species disrupts carbon flow in a diverse tropical river.  Science 313:833-836. pdf

 

McIntyre, P.B. and A.S. Flecker.  2006.   Rapid turnover of tissue nitrogen of primary consumers in tropical freshwaters.  Oecologia 148: 12–21.  pdf

 

Allan, J.D., A.S. Flecker, S. Segnini, D.C. Taphorn, E. Sokal and G.W. Kling.  2006.   Limnology of Andean piedmont rivers of Venezuela.  Journal of the North American Benthological Society 25: 66–81.  pdf

 

Hood, J.M., M.J. Vanni, and A.S. Flecker.  2005.  Nutrient recycling by two phosphorus-rich grazing catfish: the potential for phosphorous limitation of fish growth.  Oecologia 146: 247–257. pdf

 

Templer, P.H., P.M. Groffman, A.S. Flecker, and A.G. Power.  2005.  Land use change and soil nutrient transformations in the Los Haitises region of the Dominican Republic.  Soil Biology & Biochemistry 37: 215–225.  pdf

Solomon, C.T., A.S. Flecker, and B.W. Taylor.  2004. Sediment-mediated interactions between tadpoles and armored catfish in a Neotropical stream.  Copeia 2004:610-616.  pdf

Uriarte, M., L. W.  Rivera, J. K. Zimmerman, T. M. Aide, A.G. Power and A. Flecker.  2004.  Interactions between land use history and hurricane damage in a Neotropical forest.  Plant Ecology 174: 49-58.  pdf

Flecker, A.S. and B.W. Taylor.  2004.  Tropical fishes as biological bulldozers: density effects on resource heterogeneity and species diversity. Ecology 85(8):2267-2278. pdf

McIntyre, P.B., S. Baldwin, and A.S. Flecker.  2004.  Effects of behavioral and morphological plasticity on risk of predation in a Neotropical tadpole.  Oecologia 141:130-138. pdf

Wright, J.P. and A.S. Flecker. 2004. Deforesting the riverscape: The effects of wood removal on fish diversity in a Venezuelan piedmont stream. Biological Conservation 120:443-451. pdf

Riley, R.H., C.R. Townsend,  D.A. Raffaelli, and A.S. Flecker.   2004.  Sources and effects of subsidies along the stream-estuary continuum. pp. 241-260  In: G.A. Polis, M.E. Power, and G.R. Huxel (eds.).  Food webs at the landscape level.  University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL

Wright, J.P., A.S. Flecker, and C.G. Jones.  2003.  Local vs. landscape controls on plant species richness in beaver meadows.  Ecology 84:3162-3173. pdf

Power, A.G. and A.S. Flecker.  2003.  Virus specificity in disease systems: Are species redundant?  pp. 330-346.  In: P. Kareiva and S. A. Levin (eds.). The importance of species: perspectives on expendability and triage. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ pdf

Flecker, A.S., B.W. Taylor, E.S. Bernhardt, J.M. Hood, W.K. Cornwell, S.R. Cassatt, M.J. Vanni, and N.S. Altman. 2002. Interactions between herbivorous fishes and limiting nutrients in a tropical stream ecosystem. Ecology 83:1831-1844. pdf

Vanni, M.J., A.S. Flecker, J.M. Hood, and J.L. Headworth. 2002. Stoichiometry of nutrient recycling by vertebrates in a tropical stream: linking species identity and ecosystem processes. Ecology Letters 5: 285-293 pdf

Wright, J.P., C.G. Jones, and A.S. Flecker. 2002. An ecosystem engineer, the beaver, increases species richness at the landscape scale. Oecologia 132: 96-101 pdf

Flecker, A.S. 1997. Habitat modification by tropical fishes: environmental heterogeneity and the variability of interaction strength. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 16:286-295

Flecker, A.S. 1996. Ecosystem engineering by a dominant detritivore in a diverse tropical ecosystem. Ecology 77: 1845-1854. pdf

Flecker, A. S. and C. R. Townsend. 1994. Community-wide consequences of trout introduction in New Zealand streams. Ecological Applications 4:798-807

Flecker, A. S. and B. P. Feifarek. 1994. Disturbance and the temporal variability of invertebrate assemblages in two Andean streams. Freshwater Biology 31:131-142

Allan, J. D. and A. S. Flecker. 1993. Biodiversity conservation in running waters. BioScience 43:32-43. pdf

Flecker, A. S. 1992. Fish trophic guilds and the structure of a tropical stream: Weak direct versus strong indirect effects. Ecology 73:927-940. pdf

Flecker, A. S. 1992. Fish predation and the evolution of invertebrate drift periodicity: Evidence from neotropical streams. Ecology 73:438-448 pdf