Matthew D. Potts

Assistant Professor
PhD  Applied Mathematics    Harvard University, 2001
B.S.   Mathematics    University of Michigan, 1996

213 Mulford Hall
Berkeley, California 94720-3114
mdpotts@nature.berkeley.edu
office: 510-642-5580   lab: 510-642-5580   fax:  510-643-5438

     Recent publications     

My research interests are the maintenance of high tropical tree diversity, the design of biological reserves, and the spatial aspects of resource management and epidemiology. I am also interested in how human actions, values, and ethics affect biodiversity conservation. Focal study areas include the sustainable management of tropical forests and the control of vector born diseases in urban environments. I tackle my research using a multitude of approaches including theoretical models and empirical field based studies. The work involves close collaboration with anthropologists, economists, geographers, ecologists, epidemiologists, and mathematicians.

Impoinvil, D.E., J. Keating, C. M. Mbogo, M. D. Potts , R. Roy Chowdhury, and J.C. Beier. 2008. Abundance of immature Anopheles and culicines (Diptera: Culicidae) in different water body types in the urban environment of Malindi, Kenya. Journal of Vector Ecology 33:1-10.

Potts, M. D. and J.R. Vincent. 2008. Harvest And Extinction In Multi-Species Ecosystems. Ecological Economics 65:336-447.

Potts, M. D. and J.R. Vincent. 2008. Spatial Distribution of Species Populations, Relative Economic Values, and the Optimal Size and Number of Reserves. Environmental and Resource Economics 39:91-112.

Muchhala, N. and M. D. Potts . 2007. Character displacement among bat-pollinated flowers of the genus Burmeistera: analysis of mechanism, process and pattern. Proc. R. Soc. B. 474: 2731-2737.

Russo, S.E., M. D. Potts , S.J. Davies, and S. Tan. 2007. Determinants of tree species distributions: Comparing the roles of dispersal, seed size, and soil specialization in a Bornean rain forest. In : (A. Dennis, E. W. Schupp, R. Green, and D. Wescott, eds.). Seed Dispersal: Theory and its Application in a Changing World. CAB International, New York.

Potts, M. D. , A. R. Kassim, M.N. Nur Supardi, S. Tan, and W.H. Bossert. 2005. Sampling tree diversity in Malaysian tropical forests: an evaluation of a pre-felling inventory. Forest Ecology and Management 205: 385-395.

Davies, S.J., S. Tan, J.V. LaFrankie and M. D. Potts . 2005. Soil-related floristic variation in the hyperdiverse dipterocarp forest in Lambir Hills, Sarawak. Pp. 22-34. In : (D. Roubik, S. Sakai, and A.A. Hamid Karim, eds.). Pollination Ecology and the Rain Forest (Sarawak Studies). Springer, New York.

Vincent, J.V. and M. D. Potts . 2004. Nonlinearities, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable forest management. Pp. 207-222. In: (S. Kant and R. A. Berry, eds.). Sustainability, Economics, and Natural Resources, Economics of Sustainable Forest Management. Springer, Netherlands.

Potts, M. D. , S.J. Davies, W.H. Bossert, S. Tan, and M.N. Nur Supardi. 2004. Habitat Heterogeneity and Niche Structure of Trees in Two Tropical Rain Forests. Oecologia 139: 446-474.

Potts, M. D. 2003. Drought effects in a Bornean everwet rainforest. Journal of Ecology 91: 467-474.

Potts, M. D. , P. S. Ashton, J. B. Plotkin, and L. S. Kaufman 2002. Habitat patterns in tropical rainforests: a comparison of 105 plots in Northwest Borneo. Ecology 83: 2782-2797.

Potts, M. D. , J.B. Plotkin, H.S. Lee, N. Manokaran, P.S. Ashton, and W.H. Bossert. 2001. Sampling Biodiversity: Effects of Plot Shape. The Malaysian Forester 64: 29-34.

Cavender-Bares, J., M. D. Potts , E. Zacharias, and F.A. Bazzaz. 2000. Consequences of CO2 and light interactions for leaf phenology, growth, and senescence in Quercus rubra. Global Change Biology 6: 877-887.

Plotkin, J. B., M. D. Potts , N. Leslie, N. Manokaran, J.V. LaFrankie, and P.S. Ashton. 2000. Species-area curves, spatial aggregation, and habitat specialization in tropical forests. Journal of Theoretical Biology 207: 81-99.

Plotkin, J. B., M. D. Potts , D W. Yu, S. Bunyavejchewin, R. Condit, R. Foster, S. Hubbell, J.V. LaFrankie, N. Manokaran, H.L. Seng, R. Sukumar, M.A. Nowak, P.S. Ashton. 2000. Predicting species diversity in tropical forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 97: 10850-10854.

Kubo, T., T. Kohyama, M. D. Potts , and P.S. Ashton. 2000. Mortality rate estimation when inter-census intervals vary. Journal of Tropical Ecology 16: 753-756.

Yu, D.W., J.W. Terborgh, and M. D. Potts . 1998. Can high tree species richness be explained by Hubbell’s null model? Ecology Letters 1: 193-199.

Potts, M. D. , W.C. Parkinson, and L.D. Nooden. 1997. Raphanus sativus and electromagnetic fields. Bioelectrochemistry and Bioenergetics 44: 131-140.