Rate My Professor Thomas Crist

A terrestrial ecologist, Crist's research centers on biodiversity and landscape ecology, investigating how human activities alter landscapes and impact biodiversity, species interactions, and ecosystem services. His work emphasizes insects' roles in ecosystems, including pollination, biological control, and cultural services. Ongoing long-term experiments in Miami University's natural areas examine interactions among white-tailed deer, invasive shrubs like Amur honeysuckle, exotic earthworms, and litter-dwelling invertebrates. Crist utilizes statistical modeling, spatial analysis, and geographic information systems in his quantitative research across scales from experimental plots to landscapes and habitats like grasslands, forests, and agroecosystems. He has been recognized among the top 2% of researchers worldwide based on career-long citation impact. Key publications include "Navigating the multiple meanings of β diversity: a roadmap for the practicing ecologist" (Anderson et al., 2011), "Landscape moderation of biodiversity patterns and processes—eight hypotheses" (Tscharntke et al., 2012), "Partitioning species diversity across landscapes and regions" (Crist et al., 2003), and recent works such as "Differential patterns of taxonomic and functional diversity for two groups of canopy arthropods across spatial scales" (Mahon et al., 2023) and "Indirect effects of deer on insect pests and soybean plants" (VanGorder et al., 2021).