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Welcome! » Faculty » Susan E. Riechert


Susan E. Riechert

See Also: Photos | Humorous Version of Riechert's CV

Susan with ranchers at lava bed study area.POSITION

  • 1982 - Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee
  • 1988 - JR Cox Professor and UTK Distinguished Service Professor

EDUCATION

Ph.D., 1973, University of Wisconsin

HONORS AND OFFICES

JR Cox Professorship; Phi Beta Kappa; Motar Board Citation; Board of Directors, American Arachnological Society; Senior International Fellowship in Health and Medicine, NIH; President, American Arachnological Society; Tradition of Excellence Award, UT Commission on Women; UT Science Alliance Faculty Awards; National Lecturer Sigma XI & President of UT Chapter; Program Officer, Animal Behavior Society; Animal Behavior Society Founders Award; Member of Scientific Advisory Boards: NPS Pharmaceuticals and Highlands Biological Station; 3 K-12 Principal's Awards for Outstanding School and Community Service; Smoker's Society Member; Fellow of The Animal Behavior Society of America; President of the Animal Behavior Society; UT Outreach Awards, UT Alexander Award for Excellence in Teaching & Scholarship, Powell TN Woman of the Year, Ijam's Nature Center Board of Directors; Member Board of Directors of Discover Life in America, L.R. Hesler Award for Excellence in Teaching and Service.

RECENT GRANTS

  • 1993-96 NSF: Study of the Interaction Between Gene Flow and Selection in a Test System. $180,000
  • 1989-92 NSF: Sexual Selection VS Natural Selection in the spider, Agelenopsis aperta. $150,828
  • 1997-1999 NSF: Test of a Conflicting Tendency Model of Fitness-Linked Behavioral Traits. $140,000
  • 2001-2002 Dwight D. Eisenhower: Biology In A Box: A Student-Active Learning Project, $52,600
  • 2003-2006 National Science Foundation: Investigation of a Brood Fostering Hypothesis explains variation in levels of Sociality $340,000
  • 2003-2004 THEC Improving Teacher Quality: Biology In A Box: A Student-Active Learning Project, $70,000
  • 2003-2006 National Science Foundation: Investigation of the Influence of Social Interactions on the Genetics and Joint Evolution of Aggressiveness and Body Size, $252,999 with J. B. Wolf.

MAJOR RESEARCH INTERESTS

Most of Dr. Riechert's work is at the interface between behavior, ecology and evolutionary biology. Her work in the desert southwest USA concerns the extent to which populations are at adaptive equilibria with respect to their physical and biotic environments. She pursues these studies through genetic analyses of fitness-linked traits, through species optimum and game theoretic analyses and simulations, and through field experimentation. In East Tennessee, Dr. Riechert's work centers on the potential role of spiders as biocontrol agents. Her interest here is in the extent to which generalist feeders can limit the growth of associated prey populations. Again, field experimentation and computer simulations are used to evaluate the predator-prey system that encompasses an assemblage of prey species being preyed upon by an assemblage of predators. In west Africa, Riechert studies the evolution of social behavior in an animal group that is generally highly territorial and even cannibalistic. The current interest in this system is in the extent to which the inbreeding that has led to sociality in spiders limits both individual viability (inbreeding depression) and population ability to adapt to changing environments (reduced genetic variability).

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS BY TOPIC

Biological Control in Agroecosystems

  • Riechert, S. E. 1998. The role of spiders and their conservation in the agroecosystem. In: Enhancing Biological Control (eds. C.H. Pickett and R.L. Bugg), Univ. Cal. Press. Pp. 211-237. PDF Version
  • Riechert , S. E. & K. Lawrence. 1997. Test for predation effects of single versus multiple species of generalist predators: spiders and their insect prey. Entomologia Experimentalis et applicata. 84: 147-155. PDF Version
  • Provencher, L. & S. E. Riechert. 1995. Theoretical comparisons of individual success between phenotypically pure and mixed generalist predator populations. Ecol. Model. 82: 175-191.
  • Riechert, S. E. 1992. Spiders as Representative Sit-and-Wait Predators. In: Biology of Natural Enemies (ed. M.J. Crawley), Blackwell, London, pp. 313-328. PDF Version
  • Riechert, S. E. and L. Bishop. 1990. Prey control by an assemblage of generalist predators in a garden test system. Ecology 71: 1441-1450.
  • Riechert, S. E., Provencher, L. and K. Lawrence. 1999. The potential of spiders to exhibit stable equilibrium point control of prey: Tests of two criteria. Ecological Applications 9: 365-377. PDF Version
  • Riechert, S. E. 1999. The hows and whys of successful pest suppression by spiders: Insights from case studies. J. Arachn. 27: 387-396. PDF Version

Animal Adaptation and Evolutionary Processes

  • Maupin, J. L. & S. E. Riechert. 2001. Superfluous killing in spiders: A consequence of adaptation to food-limited environments? Behavioral Ecology 12: 569-576. PDF Version
  • Riechert, S. E., F. D. Singer, and T. C. Jones. 2001. High gene flow levels lead to gamete wastage in a desert spider system. Genetica 112/113:297-319. Microevolution: Rate, pattern, process A., P. Hendry and M. T. Kinnison, ed Kluwer Academic. V8 of Contemporary Issues in Genetics and Evolution 2001. PDF Version
  • Riechert, S. E. 1999. The Use of Behavioral Ecotypes in the Study of Evolutionary Processes. In: 1999 Geographic Variation in Behavior: Perspectives on Evolutionary Mechanisms. Eds. S.A. Foster & J.A. Endler. Oxford Univ. Press. 314 pp. PDF Version
  • Riechert, S. E. 1993. A Test for Phylogenetic Constraints on Behavioral Adaptation in a Spider System. Behav. Ecol. & Sociobiol. 32:343-348.
  • Riechert, S. E. 1993. Investigation of potential gene flow limitation of behavioral adaptation in an aridlands spider. Behav. Ecol. & Sociob. 32:355-363.
  • Riechert, S. E. & J. L. Maupin. 1998. Spider effects on prey: Tests for superfluous killing in five web-builders. pp. 203-210 in P. A. Selden ed. Proc. of 17th European Colloquium of Arachnology, Edinburgh. Bull. Brit. Arachn. Soc. PDF Version
  • Riechert, S. E. 1991. Prey abundance versus diet breadth in a spider test system. Evol. Ecol. 5:327-338.
  • Riechert, S.E. 1985. Decision problems in multiple goal contexts: Spider habitat selection. Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychol. 70: 53-69.
  • Riechert, S. E. and R. F. Hall. 2000. Local population success in heterogeneous habitats: reciprocal transplant experiments completed on a desert spider. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 13: 1-10. PDF Version

Evolutionary Game Theory

  • Riechert, S. E. 1998. Game theory and animal contests. In L.A. Dugatkin & H. K. Reeve eds. Game Theory and Animal Behavior. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 64-92. PDF Version
  • Hammerstein, P. and S. E. Riechert. 1988. Payoffs and strategies in spider territorial contests: ESS-analyses of two ecotypes. Evol. Ecol. 2:115-138.
  • Riechert, S.E. and P. Hammerstein. 1983. Game Theory in an ecological context. Ann. Rev. Ecol. and System. 14: 377-409.

Behavioral Genetics

  • Riechert, S. E. 2005. Patterns of inheritance of traits associated with predator foraging behavior. In: Ecology of Predator-Prey Interactions (eds. P. Barbosa and I. Castellanos). Oxford University Press. pp. 55-71. PDF Version.
  • Riechert, S. E. and P. Johns. 2003. Do female spiders select heavier males for the genes for behavioral aggressiveness they offer their offspring? Evolution 57: 1367-1373. PDF Version
  • Riechert S. E. and A. V. Hedrick. 1993. A test for correlations among fitness-linked behavioural traits in the spider Agelenopsis aperta (Araneae, Agelenidae). Anim. Behav. 46: 669-675.
  • Riechert, S. E. and Ann V. Hedrick 1990. Levels of predation and genetically based anti-predatory behavior in the spider, Agelenopsis aperta. Animal Behav. 40: 679-687.
  • Riechert, S. E. and J. Maynard Smith. 1989. Genetic analyses of two behavioural traits linked to individual fitness in the desert spider, Agelenopsis aperta. Anim. Behav. 37: 624-637.
  • Maynard Smith, J. and S. E. Riechert. 1984. A conflicting tendency model of spider agonistic behaviour: Hybrid-pure population line comparisons. Anim. Behav. 32:564-578.

Sexual Selection

  • Becker, E., S. Riechert and F. Singer. 2004. Male induction of female quiescence/catalepsis during courtship in the spider, Agelenopsis aperta. Behaviour 142: 57-70. PDF Version
  • Riechert, S. E. and P. Johns. 2003. Do female spiders select heavier males for the genes for behavioral aggressiveness they offer their offspring? Evolution 57: 1367-1373.
  • Riechert, S. E. & F. Singer 1995 Investigation of potential male mate choice in a monogamous spider. Anim. Behav. 49: 715-723.
  • Singer, F. & S. E. Riechert 1995. Tests for sex differences in fitness-linked traits in the spider Agelenopsis aperta. J. Insect Behav. 7: 517-532.
  • Singer, F., S. E. Riechert, H. Xu, A. W. Morris, E. Becker, J. A. Hale, and M. A. Nouveddine. 2000. Analysis of courtship success in the funnel-web spider, Agelenopsis aperta. Behavior 137:93-117.

Sociality

  • Riechert, S. E. and Rose Marie Roeloffs. 1993. Inbreeding and its consequences in the social spiders. In: The Natural History of inbreeding and outbreeding, (ed. N. Thornhill), Chicago Press.
  • Riechert, S.E. 1985. Why do some spiders cooperate?: Agelena consociata, a case study. Behav. Ecol. Symp. Flor. Ent. Soc. 68: 106-116.
  • Riechert, S.E., Roeloffs, R. and A.C. Echternacht. 1986. The ecology of the social spider Agelena consociata in equatorial Africa. J. Arachnol., 14(2): 175-192.