Boston University Department of Biology

Faculty Profiles

Current Research

We are investigating the impact of climate change on the flowering times of plants and the spring arrival of birds in Massachusetts, Japan, and South Korea. We are particularly concerned with ecological mismatches among species in the timing of activity caused by climate change. The main geographical focus is Concord, Massachusetts, due to the availability of extensive flowering records kept by Henry David Thoreau and later naturalists. We are using Concord as a living laboratory to determine the effects of climate change, invasive species, and land use changes on the population dynamics of plants and bird species. In East Asia, the focus is on geographical patterns of climate change response of plants and animals over the past fifty years. Another long-term interest is tropical rain forests, particularly in Malaysian Borneo, and including comparisons across continents and the consequences of human impacts. An ongoing activity involves producing conservation biology textbooks and working with co-authors to produce textbooks in other languages.

Visit my website for more information on the Conservation Biology Translation Project.

Courses Taught

• BI 305 The Biology of Plants
• BI 448/648 Conservation Biology

Selected Publications

• Corlett R, Primack RB (2011). Tropical Rain Forests: An Ecological and Biogeographical Comparison, Second Edition. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
• Ellwood E, Primack RB, Talmadge M (2010). Effects of climate change on spring bird arrival times in Thoreau’s Concord from 1851 to 2007. Condor 112: 754-762.
• Primack RB (2010). Essentials of Conservation Biology, Fifth Edition. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.
• Willis CG, Ruhfel BR, Primack RB, Miller-Rushing AJ , Losos JB, Davis CC (2010). Favorable climate change response explains non-native species' success in Thoreau’s woods. PLoS ONE 5(1): e8878.
• Ibanez I, Primack RB, and 7 others. (2010). Variability in the effects of climate change on spring and autumn phenology and growing season length in East Asia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 365: 3247-3260.
• Primack RB, Ibáñez I, Higuchi H, Lee SD, Miller-Rushing AJ, Wilson A, Silander JA (2009). Spatial and interspecific variability in phenological responses to warming temperatures. Biological Conservation 142: 2569-2577.
• Willis, CG, Ruhfel B, Primack RB, Miller-Rushing AJ, Davis CC. 2008. Phylogenetic patterns of species loss in Thoreau's woods are driven by climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 105: 17029-17033.
• Miller-Rushing AJ, Lloyd-Evans TL, Primack R, Satzinger P. 2008. Bird migration times, climate change, and declining population sizes. Global Change Biology 14: 1-14.