Tomás A. Carlo Joglar Ph.D.

Seed dispersal ecology, foraging behavior, and plant ecology

My research centers on studying interactions between plants and animals (birds mostly) that eat fruit and disperse seeds. Thus, I merge zoological and botanical approaches to formulate questions about the organization and ecology of plant communities and habitats. I strive to understand how the foraging and movement behavior of fruit-eating birds has an impact on the patterning, demography, and migration of plant populations and diversity. In my lab we use stable-isotope methods to track the fate of seeds and trophic interactions. Current projects take place in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico & Dominican Republic), Argentina, Brazil, and Pennsylvania.

Selected publications:

Carlo TA, Morales JM. (2016) Generalist birds promote tropical forest regeneration and increase plant diversity via rare-biased seed dispersal. Ecology 97:1819-1831.

Herrmann J, Carlo TA, Brudvig L, Damschen E, Orrok J, Levey DJ, Haddad N, Tewksbury JJ. (2016) Connectivity from a different perspective: comparing seed dispersal kernels in connected vs. unfragmented landscapes. Ecology 97:1274-1282.

Peters V, Carlo TA, Mello MAR, Rice RA, Tallamy DW, Caudill SA, Fleming TH. (2016) Selection of species for Neotropical tree-based agroecosystems, perspectives for decision-making. Bioscience 66:1046-1056.

González-Castro A, Yang S, Nogales M, Carlo TA (2015) Relative importance of phenotypic trait matching and species’ abundances in determining plant-avian seed dispersal interactions in a small insular community. Annals of Botany Plants 7: plv017; doi: 10.1093/aobpla/plv017.

Carlo TA, Tewksbury JJ (2014) Directness and tempo of avian seed deposition increases emergence of wild chiltepins in desert grasslands. Journal of Ecology 102 (1): 248-255.

Gleditsch JM, Carlo TA (2014) Living with aliens: effects of invasive shrub honeysuckles on avian nesting. PLosOne 9(9): e107120.

Yang S, Albert R, Carlo TA (2013) Transience and constancy of interactions in a plant-frugivore network. Ecosphere 4: Article 147, pp. 1-25.

Fricke EC, Simon MJ, Reagan KM*, Haak DC, Levey DJ, Riffell JA, Carlo TA, Tewksbury JJ (2013) When condition trumps location: seed consumption by fruit-eating birds removes pathogens and attractants to seed predators. Ecology Letters 16: 1031-1036.    

Carlo TA, García D, Martínez D, Gleditsch JM, Morales JM (2013) Where do seeds go when they go far? Integrating distance and directionality of avian seed dispersal in heterogeneous landscapes. Ecology94: 301-307. 

Lugo A, Carlo TA, Wunderle J (2012) Natural mixing of species: novel plant-animal communities in Puerto Rico. Animal Conservation 15: 233–241    

Carlo TA, Yang S (2011) Network models of frugivory and seed dispersal: challenges and opportunities. Acta Oecologica 27(6): 619-624.

Gleditsch JM, Carlo TA (2011) Fruit quantity of invasive shrubs predict the abundance of common avian frugivores in central Pennsylvania. Diversity & Distributions 17: 244-253.  

Carlo TA, Tewksbury JJ, Martínez del Río CM (2009) Tracking the fate of seedlings with a stable isotope. Ecology 90: 3516-3525.