Conservation & Science Staff Bios

Joseph L. Simonis, Ph.D.

  Postdoctoral Fellow
Alexander Center for Applied Population Biology

Education

  • Ph.D. – Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University
  • B.S. – Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Areas of Expertise

  • Quantitative and theoretical population biology
  • Dispersal and metapopulation biology
  • Influence of demographic stochasticity on population dynamics
  • Persistence in fragmented landscapes
  • Aquatic ecology

About Joseph Simonis:

Joseph Simonis is a postdoctoral fellow at Lincoln Park Zoo’s Alexander Center for Applied Population Biology. Joe began her position in 2013 and works with Lisa Faust, Ph.D., on projects ranging from modeling the spatial population dynamics of the Hines emerald dragonfly to assessing among-species patterns of population viability in cooperatively managed animals.

Joe received her B.S. (with highest honors) in integrative biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006, conducting research on enzyme production by aquatic fungi and parasite-host dynamics in Daphnia (water flea). Following a year off from school, which she spent as a technician in a plant-insect lab at Florida State University, Joe began her Ph.D. studies at Cornell University in 2007.

Working with Nelson Hairston Jr., Ph.D., in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Joe studied how dispersal and trophic interactions combine to determine the dynamics of populations in spatially fragmented landscapes. Her thesis consisted of observational, experimental and theoretical studies and was focused on a system of freshwater rock pools on Appledore Island, Maine. The rock pools provided a fantastic field system to study how populations and food webs persist in naturally fragmented habitats. While in grad school, Joe also developed and taught a graduate-level course and multiple workshops on statistical programming. Joe completed her dissertation (titled “Food Webs in Space!”) in January 2013 and promptly moved back to Illinois.

A native of northern Illinois who has lived in (nearly) every corner of the country, Joe is happy to now call Chicago home.

Publications

Simonis, J.L, D. Neuharth-Keusch, and I. Hewson. 2012. Aquatic bacterial assemblage variability in the supra littoral zone of Appledore Island, Gulf of Maine. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 80: 501-508.
Simonis, J.L. 2012. Demographic stochasticity reduces the synchronizing effect of dispersal in predator-prey metapopulations. Ecology 93: 1517-1524.
Simonis, J.L. 2012. Prey (Moina macrocopa) population density drives emigration of predator (Trichocorixa verticalis) in a rock-pool metacommunity. Hydrobiologia, DOI: 10.1007/s10750-012-1268-9.
Capps, K.A., M.T. Booth, S.M. Collins, M.A. Davison, J.M. Moslemi, R.W. El-Sabaawi, J.L. Simonis, and A.S. Flecker. 2011. Nutrient diffusing substrata: a field comparison of commonly used methods to assess nutrient limitation. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 30: 522-532.
Hall, S.R., C. Becker, J.L. Simonis, M.A. Duffy, A.J. Tessier, and C.E. Cáceres. 2009. Friendly competition: evidence for a dilution effect among competitors in a planktonic host-parasite system. Ecology: 90 791-801.
Hall, S.R., J.L. Simonis, R.M. Nisbet, A.J. Tessier, and C.E. Cáceres. 2009. Resource ecology of virulence in a planktonic host-parasite system: an explanation using dynamic energy budgets. American Naturalist 174: 149-162.
Simonis, J.L., H.A. Raja, and C.A. Shearer. 2008. Extracellular enzymes and soft-rot decay: are ascomycetes important degraders in freshwater?. Fungal Diversity 31: 135-146.
Bell, R.C., A. Belmaker, J.M. Brown, C. Couch, K. Francisco, M.E. Manuel, K.M. Marchetto, J.L. Simonis, R.Q. Thomas, and J.P. Sparks. . Effectiveness of bio-control in mediating Erythrina gall wasp (Quadrastichus erythrinae) infestations of Wiliwili trees (Erythrina sandwicensis). Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society.