My primary research emphasis is on the role of habitat fragmentation and landscape heterogeneity on predator-prey spatial and temporal population dynamics. Since 1997, I have been working in the tall-grass prairies of North Dakota studying the interaction between the planthopper Prokelisia crocea and its egg parasitoid Anagrus columbi that coexist among discrete patches of prairie cordgrass. My students and I have experimentally examined how cordgrass patch structure influences host and parasitoid foraging and dispersal behavior, extinction risk, and the distribution of parasitism. More recently, we have broadened our work to include the effect of landscape heterogeneity on patch connectivity and host-parasitoid population dynamics. Currently, our emphasis is on developing behavior-based landscape-level models to understand the effects of habitat heterogeneity on the population dynamics of interacting species. Offshoots of our work have involved the effects of invasive exotic plants on the population dynamics of native fauna, and the use of stepping stones and corridors in promoting connectivity among habitat fragments.
Other projects in my lab involve the landscape ecology of plant resistance to and tolerance of herbivory, and the metacommunity dynamics of insects associated with decaying wood.
I welcome inquiries from prospective graduate students interested in research opportunities in my laboratory. Possible areas of study include all aspects of plant-insect interactions, insect predator-prey interactions, spatial and landscape ecology, conservation biology, and ecological genetics.
Selected Publications (for a complete list and reprints, click here)
Hofstetter, R. W., J. T. Cronin, K. D. Klepzig, M. P. Ayres and J. C. Moser. 2006. Antagonisms, mutualisms and commensalisms affect outbreak dynamics of the southern pine beetle. Oecologia (in press).
Cronin, J. T and J. D. Reeve. 2005. Host-parasitoid spatial dynamics: a plea for a landscape-level synthesis? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B-Biological Sciences 272: 2225-2235.
Cronin, J. T and K. J. Haynes. 2004. An invasive plant promotes unstable host-parasitoid patch dynamics. Ecology 85: 2772-2782.
Cronin, J. T., K. J. Haynes and F. Dillemuth. 2004. Spider effects on planthopper mortality, dispersal and spatial population dynamics. Ecology 85: 2134-2143.
Cronin, J. T. 2004. Host-parasitoid extinction and colonization in a native prairie landscape. Oecologia 139: 503-514.
Baum, K. A., K. J. Haynes, F. Dillemuth and J. T. Cronin. 2004. The matrix enhances the effectiveness of corridors and stepping stones. Ecology 85: 2671-2676.
Cronin, J. T. 2003. Patch structure, oviposition behavior and the distribution of parasitism risk. Ecological Monographs 73: 283-300.
Haynes, K. J. and J. T. Cronin. 2003. Matrix composition and the spatial ecology of a prairie planthopper. Ecology 84: 2856-2866.
Nathan, R., M., G. Perry, J. T. Cronin, A. E. Strand and M. L. Cain. 2003. Methods for estimating long-distance dispersal. Oikos 103: 261-273.
Cronin, J. T., W. G. Abrahamson and T. P. Craig. 2001. Temporal variation in host-plant preference and offspring performance: constraints on host-plant specialization. Oikos 93: 312-320.
Staff
Alyssa Hakes, graduate student, e-mail
Heather Jackson, graduate student, e-mail
Forrest Dillemuth, graduate student, e-mail
Erick Rietschier, research assistant, e-mail
Chantal Miguel, research assistant, e-mail
Brian Thompkins, research assistant (REU), e-mail
