UMass Boston

Robert Stevenson, Associate Professor U Of M, Biology

Robert Stevenson

Department:
Biology
Title:
Associate Professor U Of M
Location:
Wheatley Hall Floor 03
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Area of Expertise

Animal Physiology

Degrees

PhD, University of Washington, 1983

MS, University of Washington, 1979

BS, Tufts University, 1974

Professional Publications & Contributions
  • Stevenson, R.D., K. M. Klemow, L.J. Gross. Submitted. Harnessing Bits and Bytes For Ecological Education. Frontiers in Ecology.
  • Schoen, Jerry and R. D. Stevenson. 2011. Gigapan Uses In Formal And Informal Education; Applications In Botany, Phenology Of Riparian Ecosystems, Geology, Community Stories Of Place. Fine International Conference on Gigapixel Imaging for Science Conferences and Events. Carnegie Mellon University 11-1-2010.
  • Santos, A and R.D. Stevenson . 2011. Comparison of macroinvertebrate diversity and community structure among perennial and non-perennial headwater streams . Northeastern Naturalist 18(1):7-26. 2011 doi: 10.1656/045.018.0102
  • Woods, WA; Wood, CAL; Ebersole, J, and Stevenson, R.D. 2010. Metabolic rate variation over adult lifetime in the butterfly Vanessa cardui (Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae): aging, feeding, and repeatability . Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 83 (5): 858-868.
  • Nadkarni, Nalini and R. D. Stevenson. 2009. Symposium 9: Linking Scientists with Nontraditional Public Audiences to Enhance Ecological Thought. Ecological Bulletin 90:134-137.
  • Morris, Robert A., Robert D. Stevenson and William Haber. 2007. Architecture of Electronic Field Guides. Jour. Intelligent Information Systems, vol. , (),DOI - 10.1007/s10844-006-0033-9.
  • Morris, Robert A., Jacob K. Asiedu, William Haber, Fred SaintOurs, Robert D. Stevenson and Hua Tang, 2007. Database-backed decision trees with application to biological informatics", Jour. Intelligent Information Systems, p 10.1007/s10844-006-0029-5.
  • Stevenson, R. D. and William A. Woods, Jr. 2006. Condition indices for conservation: new uses for evolving tools. Integr. Comp. Biol., December 2006; 46: 1169 - 1190.
  • Stevenson, R.D. 2006. Ecophysiology and conservation: The contribution of energetics—introduction to the symposium. Integr. Comp. Biol., December 2006; 46: 1088 - 1092.
  • Orth, J.F., M. Gammon, F. Abdul-Basir, R.D. Stevenson, D. Triselson, J. Ebersole, S. Speak, R. Kesseli. 2006. Natural history, distribution, and management of Lepidium latifolium (Brassicaceae) in New England. Rhodora 108:103-118.

Additional Information

Physiological Ecology; Conservation Biology; Biodiversity Informatics; Instrumentation; Energetics; Temperature Regulation; Muscle Physiology; Allometry; Insect Flight; Invertebrate Conservation; Citizen Science; Biology of Moths and Butterflies. 

Research in Robert Stevenson's laboratory focuses on physiological ecology applied to conservation biology and on biodiversity informatics for citizen science. The physiological work is centered on biomechanics and energetics in butterflies and hawkmoths. Studies currently underway range from behavioral observations on feeding and time budgets to developing instrumentation to record flight patterns in the field. This conservation physiology framework is specifically being applied to migratory butterflies.

The lab's informatics work, in conjunction with Robert Morris in the Computer Science Department, focuses on the construction of electronic field guides. They are producing prototype guides, constructing and testing keys, and making field observations using new GPS and PDA tools. They are using object-oriented databases and XML to produce extensible software and user friendly interfaces.