Walter Carson

Walter Carson’s research focuses on experimental and empirical tests of theory in community ecology, specifically theories that hone in on the mechanisms generating community composition, coexistence, complexity, and the maintenance of species diversity.

Walter Carson on the Gigante Peninsula, Panama

Introduction

I received my Ph.D. in 1993 with Richard Root at Cornell University, and performed my postdoctoral studies with David Tilman at the University of Minnesota and Steve Hubbell at Princeton. I retired in 2022 after nearly 30 years as a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. I am currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno. UNR has numerous faculty and graduate students in ecology and evolutionary biology. I typically spend much of the fall semester in Tahoe, an hour from Reno. You can contact me at: walterpagecarson@gmail.com or at wcarson@unr.edu.

My current research interests focus broadly on factors that regulate the distribution, abundance, and diversity of species within the Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome of the U.S. These factors include fire, canopy gap formation, deer browsing, and the spread of invasive plant species. I have also done extensive research on tropical forests in Panama, Costa Rica, and Ecuador, and early in my career, my research focused on the ecology of goldenrod (Solidago spp.) dominated old-fields in the northeast. I am currently collaborating with faculty and graduate students at Chatham University, Youngstown State University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Nevada, Reno, and Michigan State University, among others.

Since 2020, my collaborators and I have published over 20 papers ranging from the processes controlling phytochemical variation in a tropical shrub in Costa Rica (Oecologia 2023), processes regulating seed banks in temperate forests in West Virginia (Journal of Ecology 2025), to how steep slopes provide a refuge from over-browsing across the Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome (Natural Areas Journal 2025). Link to Google Scholar profile.

Of special relevance to students interested in graduate school, please see an article my colleagues and I wrote entitled, “How to apply to graduate school in ecology and evolutionary biology: how to prepare and a step-by-step guide.” Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 2021 [PDF].

Since 2022, I have given talks at the Ohio Prescribed Fire Conference, Cincinnati Wildflower Preservation Society, The Tri-State Green Industry Conference, the University of Nevada, Reno, Huyck Biological Station, central New York, Youngstown State University, Chatham University, Shawnee State University, as well as at numerous universities throughout Nigeria at the invitation of the U.S. Embassy, Abuja and the U.S. State Department. I am currently collaborating with researchers in Ghana and France.

Current CV