Richard S. Inouye, Ph.D.
Professor of Ecology
inourich@isu.edu
(208) 282-2933
Room 413 Gale Life Sciences Bldg
Inouye Lab
Sagebrush steppe ecology, water quality
Education
BA, 1975, Biology, Reed College, Portland, OR
PhD, 1982, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Biographical Sketch
I did my graduate work at the University of Arizona where I worked, under Jim Brown, on the ecology of desert annual plants. In 1982 I moved to Minnesota where I worked as a post-doc with Dave Tilman on the Cedar Creek LTER site. Most of my research at Cedar Creek focused on successional patterns in old fields, including work on vegetation and plant-animal interactions. I joined the Department at ISU in 1986, first as an Affiliate Faculty member and then in 1989 as a tenure track faculty member. My current research is in two general areas. The first is ecology of the sagebrush steppe ecosystem. I have some long term experimental plots on the Barton Road Ecological Research Area, close to campus, where I am examining effects of increased nitrogen availability and shrub removal on vegetation, soils, and soil moisture. The second area is water quality. I am working on a constructed wetland that treats irrigation return flows and on aspects of water quality in the Portneuf River. I currently have students (undergraduate and graduate) doing research on nutrient limitation in the Portneuf River, bacterial concentrations in the Portneuf River, carbon export from the Portneuf watershed, soil quality and nitrogen mineralization on the Barton Road plots, decomposition and nutrient uptake in the constructed wetland, and habitat use by fish in the Portneuf River.
Teaching
BIOL 209, General Ecology
BIOL 496, Ecology Senior Seminar
Publications
Inouye, R.S., N.J. Huntly, G.D. Tilman, K.Z. Zinnel, M. Stillwell, and J.R. Tester. 1987. Old field succession on a Minnesota sand plain. Ecology 68:12-26.
Inouye, R.S., T.Allison, and N.C. Johnson. 1994. Old field succession on a Minnesota sand plain: effects of deer and other factors on invasion by trees. J. Torrey Bot. Club 121:266-276.
Frank, D.A., and R.S. Inouye. 1994. Temporal variation in actual evapotranspiration of terrestrial ecosystems: patterns and ecological implications. J. Biogeography 21:401-411.
Frank, D.A., R.S. Inouye, N. Huntly, G.W. Minshall, and J.E. Anderson. 1994. The biogeochemistry of a north-temperate grassland with native ungulates: nitrogen dynamics in Yellowstone National Park. Biogeochemistry 26:163-188.
Inouye, R.S. and D. Tilman. 1995. Convergence and divergence of old-field vegetation after 11 years of nitrogen addition. Ecology 76:1872-1887.
Inouye, R.S., N. Huntly, and G.A. Wasley. 1997. Effects of pocket gophers (Geomys bursarius) on microtopographic variation. Journal of Mammalogy 78(4):1144-1148.
Inouye, R.S. 1998. Species-area curves and estimates of total species richness in an old-field chronosequence. Plant Ecology 137:31-40.
Anderson, J.E. and R.S. Inouye. 2001. Long term vegetation dynamics in sagebrush steppe at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Ecological Monographs 71:531-556.
Inouye, R.S. 2001. Sampling effort and vegetative cover estimates in sagebrush steppe. Western North American Naturalist 62:360-364.
Tripler, C.E., C.D. Canham, R.S. Inouye and J.L. Schnurr. 2002. Soil Nitrogen Availability, Plant Luxury Consumption, and Herbivory by White-tailed Deer. Oecologia 133:517-524.
Schnurr, J.L., C.D. Canham, R.S. Ostfeld, and R.S. Inouye. 2004. Neighborhood analyses of small mammal dynamics: Implications for seed predation and seedling establishment. Ecology 85:741-755.
Tripler, C.E., C.D. Canham, R.S. Inouye, and J.L. Schnurr. 2005. Competitive Hierarchies of Temperate Tree Species: Interactions Between Resource Availability and White-Tailed Deer. Ecoscience 12:.494-505.
Reale-Munroe, K. and R.S. Inouye. 2005. Soil Hydrocarbon Concentrations in the South First Street Storm water Runoff Basin, Pocatello, Idaho. Journal of Idaho Academy of Science 41:1-7.
Ray, A. M. and R. S. Inouye. 2006. Effects of water-level fluctuations on the arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization of Typha latifolia L. In press, Aquatic Botany.
Inouye, R.S. 2006. Effects of shrub removal and nitrogen addition on soil moisture in sagebrush steppe. Journal of Arid Environments 65:604-618.
Ray, A. M. and R. S. Inouye. 2006. Effects of water-level fluctuations on the arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization of Typha latifolia L. Aquatic Botany 84:210-216.
Ray, A.M. and R.S. Inouye. 2006. Nutrient pools in above and below ground plant biomass in a constructed wetland receiving irrigation return flows. Journal of Freshwater Ecology 21:593-601.
Cook, L.L., R.S. Inouye, T.P. McGonigle, and G.J. White. 2006. The distribution of stable cesium in soils and plants of the eastern Snake River Plain in southern Idaho. In press. Journal of Arid Environments
Bechtold, H.A. and R.S. Inouye. 2007. Distribution of carbon and nitrogen in sagebrush steppe after six years of nitrogen addition and shrub removal. In press, Journal of Arid Environments.
Ray, A.M. and R.S. Inouye. Development of vegetation in a constructed wetland in southeastern Idaho receiving irrigation return flows. In press. Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment.