University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

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Evan Economo

Evan Economo

Contact information

  • University of Michigan
    0590 Rackham Graduate School
    915 East Washington
    Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070
  • Phone: (734) 615-9428
  • Fax: (734) 763-0544
  • Email: economo@umich.edu

Research Interests

I have research interests in three interrelated areas.  First, I am interested in biodiversity theory, which seeks to mechanistically explain patterns of diversity across geographic space and across the tree of life.  My work in this area has focused on developing spatially explicit metacommunity theory to investigate the role of spatial landscape structure in generating biodiversity patterns.  I am particularly interested in developing network approaches to modeling spatial complexity, and in using process-based metacommunity theory to inform conservation efforts.   

Second, I am interested in the ecology, evolution, and biodiversity of ants in the Pacific islands, a spatially complex network of communities.  With my colleagues, I have been inventorying the ant fauna of Fiji and plan to broaden out to other areas of Melanesia.  We seek to both document the biodiversity of ants in this region, and understand how ecological and evolutionary processes have shaped their communities. 

Finally, I have a longstanding interest in biological scaling, particularly the consequences of allometric scaling of metabolism for populations and ecosystems.  This approach seeks to explore the quantitative links between body size, metabolism, life history, and the rates and times of ecological processes.