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Profile Dr. Jeffrey D. May	Dr. May's WebPage Dr. Jeffrey D. May Professor of Biological Sciences PhD, University of Rhode Island, 1990
Department Marshall University Department of Biological Sciences	I teach Principles of Ecology (BSC 320), Biostatistics (BSC 417/517), and Living on Earth (an ISC--Integrated Science--course). My research interests include responses of plant nutrient dynamics and ecosystem functions to both natural stresses (e.g., herbivory and soil nutrient limitations) and environmental stresses that have been induced or amplified by human activities (e.g., elevated levels of nitrogen (N) deposition from the atmosphere). My doctoral dissertation research, carried out in Rhode Island from 1984 through 1989, focused on nutrient resorption, the process by which woody plants reclaim foliar nutrients during autumn leaf senescence. That work demonstrated that resorption contributes significantly to the plant nutrient budgets of scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia): plants deprived of resorption grew more slowly and produced fewer acorns than controls permitted to undergo normal resorption. In addition, I found that scrub oak individuals that were defoliated by gypsy moth larvae (Lymantria dispar) exhibited enhanced resorption of some nutrients (zinc and copper), but not of others (most notably two macronutrients, N and phosphorus (P), which commonly limit plant growth). Since my arrival at Marshall University in 1992, I have participated in several studies, including work aimed at optimizing the planting of native woody plant species in created wetlands (funded by the US Army Corps of Engineers); and the study of an endangered plant--the shale-barren rockcress--that grows primarily on shale-barren soils in the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia (funded by the US Navy Legacy Program and administered by the WV Department of Natural Resources). More recently my students and I have engaged in research at the Fernow Experimental Forest (FEF), near Parsons, WV, where we studied the response of foliar nutrients in forest trees to increased levels of nitrogen. This work, funded by a seed grant from the USDA Forest Service, was integrated with ongoing research at the FEF involving annual N fertilization (as ammonium sulfate) of an entire watershed since 1989. Although foliar N and P increased initially in response to fertilization, we found that after 12 years of fertilization leaf N and P either no longer differ from levels in an unfertilized "control" watershed, or are actually lower in leaves of the fertilized watershed. Furthermore, we found that trees on the fertilized watershed are now growing more slowly than those on the reference watershed.
Contact Office: 378 Science Building Phone: (304) 696-3637 Email Me
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eStudy_Hall: Ecology (BSC 320)

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Last updated 16 January 2008