Anton Bekkerman joined the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University as an Assistant Professor of Economics after receiving his Ph.D.
in Economics from North Carolina State University in 2009. His research interests include price analysis in grain markets, the economic impacts of invasive species, and applied
econometrics with a concentration on spatial modeling. Anton’s recent works focus on evaluating market-based risk management of invasive species, modeling grain price
Dr. Travis Belote earned his PhD in Biological Sciences from Virginia Tech in 2008 and serves as a forest ecologist in the Research Department of The Wilderness Society in its Northern Rockies Regional Office in Bozeman, Montana. His research focuses on questions related to how ecological communities are structured and their response to disturbance, land use change, natural resource management, and aspects of global change (including biological invasions).
The primary focus of the research in my lab is on how organisms interact with each other, but we are interested in all aspects of ecology. These interactions include direct interactions, such as competition for resources, allelopathy, and facilitation; and indirect interactions mediated by herbivores, soil microbes, and other competitors. I continue to study facilitative interactions among plants, mostly alpine habitats and in collaboration with the international Alpine Pals research group.
I am a limnologist with interests in both lake and stream ecosystems. I am most interested in understanding the physical, biological and chemical factors that control the distribution and abundance of biota. The focus of my Flathead Lake research is on understanding those factors controlling the production of algae. Of the 300 largest lakes in the world, Flathead Lake is one of the most pristine.
Elizabeth (Liz) Galli-Noble
Director
Center for Invasive Plant Management
Land Resources and Environmental Sciences Department
Montana State University-Bozeman
US Geological Survey, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center
I have been studying habitat relationships and life-history organization of cutthroat trout for more than 35 years. I am currently a research biologist with the USGS Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in Bozeman, Montana, and I am an affiliate assistant professor in the Department of Ecology at Montana State University. My interest in the role of disturbance in shaping the aquatic systems has led to research on the interactions among landscape-scale environmental features, instream habitat characteristics, and cutthroat trout abundance and distribution.
My primary research interests include understanding the effects of abiotic and biotic factors on wildlife communities and populations, studying a diversity of animal taxonomic groups that will best help to answer the questions of interest, and collecting information that can be used to develop practical solutions to ecological problems and guide policy and management.
Dr. Bruce Maxwell is Professor of Aplied Plant Ecology/Agroecology in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Science at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. He was Interim Department Head in 2008 and 2009. Bruce is a native of Montana from Hamilton. He attended MSU for a B.S. Degree in Botany and following a Peace Corps experience, received a M.S. Degree in Agronomy. Bruce returned to Montana State University in 1992 from the University of Minnesota where he was Assistant Professor of Weed Ecology in the Agronomy and Plant Genetics Department.
Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, College of Forestry
The University of Montana - Missoula
My research focuses on three primary areas: 1) effects of large-scale disturbance on understory plants and trees, 2) conceptual basis for restoration ecology, and 3) efficacy and ecological impacts of restoration practices. In addition to my research contributions, I serve as the Director of the College of Forestry and Conservation’s Wildlands Restoration Program and teach its five-course sequence on the science and practice of restoration.
As co-coordinator for the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative, an area extending across 260 million acres, Tom Olliff is taking a broad view of land management and conservation, increasing dialogue across an international landscape, including federal, state, tribal, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and Canadian organization, to inform management of land, water, fish, wildlife, and cultural heritage resources in response to climate change and other landscape-level stressors.
My primary research interest is to advance community ecology through studies of biological invasions and to use this information to improve invasive species management. Biological invasions serve as grand natural experiments that provide unique opportunities to view the processes that structure ecological communities. Even in the most recently assembled natural communities organisms have had hundreds or thousands of years to interact and sort themselves into the modern assemblages we see.
My main interests are in the spatial distribution and dynamics of non-native populations and how to detect, sample and model such populations, both in agricultural and natural systems. I am also very interested in plant dispersal and how we can use this information to improve spread predictions.
My work focuses on planning and coordination of multi disciplinary studies in applied ecology and resource management with emphasis on invasive plant control, invasive aquatic plants, and native plant community restoration. I often examine the impacts of exotic species on biological diversity. Integrated weed management methods (herbicides, burning, biocontrols, revegetation) alter the competitive interactions between the target weeds and non-target natives. Related work includes exotic plant biogeography and GIS applications in weed management.
Montana Cooperative Fishery Research Unit and Ecology
Montana State University - Bozeman
I lead, coordinate, and administer an applied fisheries research program addressing topics and issues of concern to the State of Montana and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Technical areas of special emphasis include restoration of native fishes, whirling disease, thermal ecology, population dynamics and effects of exotic fishes, and effects of environmental degradation on recreational salmonid fisheries. I advise graduate students and teach a graduate level course entitled Human Dimensions of Fish and wildlife Management.