Drew Kerkhoff joined Kenyon's faculty in both Mathematics and Biology in 2005, after a postdoc at the University of Arizona. He is a quantitative ecologist whose research interests include scaling theory and allometry, the functional and phylogenetic components of biodiversity, and the evolution, biogeography, and ecology of plant-herbivore interactions. He focuses primarily on plant communities and has been fortunate enough to conduct fieldwork in New Mexico, Arizona, Costa Rica, Colorado, Mexico, and now Ohio. Since arriving at Kenyon, he has developed further interests in the ecology and physiology of caterpillars, and has developed an extensive collaboration with other faculty studying metabolic scaling in the tobacco hornworm. As an educator, he is also interested in improving the mathematical component of education in ecology and evolution, and increasing public understanding of the science behind evolutionary theory and ecological issues.

Areas of Expertise

Scaling and macroecology, plant and insect herbivore communities

Education

Ph. D., Biology, 2002, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
M.S., Biology, 1997, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
B.A., cum laude, English, 1990, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ.

Selected Publications

Kerkhoff, A.J. and B.J. Enquist. 2009. Multiplicative by nature: why logarithmic transformation is necessary in allometry. Journal of Theoretical Biology 257:519-521.

Kerkhoff, A.J., and B.J. Enquist. 2007. Implications of scaling approaches for understanding resilience and reorganization in ecosystems. BioScience 57:489-499.

Kerkhoff, A.J., Enquist, B.J., Fagan, W.F., and Elser, J.J. 2005. Plant allometry, stoichiometry, and the temperature-dependence of primary productivity. Global Ecology and Biogeography 14:585-598.

Economo, E.P., Kerkhoff, A.J., and Enquist, B.J. 2005. Allometric growth, life-history invariants and population energetics. Ecology Letters 8:353-360.

Kay, A.D., Ashton, I.W., Gorokhova, E., Kerkhoff, A.J., Liess, A., and Litchman, E. 2005. Toward a stoichiometric framework for evolutionary biology. Oikos 109:6-17.

Kerkhoff, A.J. 2004. Expectation, explanation, and masting. Evolutionary Ecology Research 6:1003-1020.

Kerkhoff, A.J., and Ballantyne, F. 2003. The scaling of reproductive variability in trees. Ecology Letters 6:850-856.

Courses Taught

BIOL 107 - Biological Scaling: Why Size Matters
BIOL 115 - Energy in Living Systems
BIOL 228-229 - Ecology and Ecology Lab
BIOL 328 - Global Ecology and Biogeography
MATH 106 - Elements of Statistics
MATH 258 - Mathematical Biology