Robert Shriver

Assistant Professor, Plant Ecology & Population Biology

Department: Dept. of Natural Resources & Environmental Science
Office: (775) 784-4020
Email: rshriver@unr.edu
Building: FA
Room: 217
Mailstop: 186
Website: Quantitative Plant Ecology Lab

Summary

I'm a quantitative ecologist interested in understanding the mechanisms that drive plant population and ecosystem dynamics, from individual plots to landscapes. I use this understanding to anticipate and predict the impacts of environmental change in basic and applied settings. My work relies heavily on inference and statistics to synthesize data and models.

My current research topics include:

Demographic and environmental controls on landscape-scale resilience and restoration
Demographic and population modeling methods
Impacts of environmental variability on population and community dynamics

Education

B.S. University of Wyoming, 2011
Ph.D. Duke University, 2017

Publications

Informational Publications

Ecology of Eriogonum tiehmii, a rare soil specialist: arthropod diversity, soil preferences, and demography

2022

Ecosphere. 13 (2022)

J. McClinton, R. Shriver, E.A. Leger

Journals

Macroscale controls determine the recovery of river ecosystem productivity following flood disturbances.

2024

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(5), e2307065121

Lowman, H. E., Shriver, R. K., Hall, R. O., Harvey, J. W., Savoy, P., Yackulic, C. B., & Blaszczak, J. R

Solar Radiation Drives Potential Demographic Collapse in a Perennial Bunchgrass via Dramatically Reduced Seedling Establishment

2024

Rangeland Ecology & Management, 92, 100-112

Parker, T. H., Gerber, A., Campbell, E., Simonson, M., Shriver, R. K., & Persico, L.

Combining Field Observations and Remote Sensing to Forecast Fine Fuel Loads

2023

Rangeland Ecology & Management, 90, 245-255

Ensley-Field, M., Shriver, R. K., Law, S., & Adler, P. B.

Density-dependent dynamics help explain the simultaneous expansion and decline of woodlands in the western US. Forest

2023

Ecology and Management, 546, 121359

Schultz, E. L., Filippelli, S. K., Vogeler, J. C., & Shriver, R. K.

Models of underlying autotrophic biomass dynamics fit to daily river ecosystem productivity estimates improve understanding of ecosystem disturbance and resilience.

2023

Ecology Letters

Blaszczak, J. R., Yackulic, C. B., Shriver, R. K. & Hall Jr, Robert.

Where can managers effectively resist climate-driven ecological transformation in pinyon–juniper woodlands of the US Southwest?

2023

Global Change Biology, 29(15), 4327-4341

Noel, A. R., Shriver, R. K., Crausbay, S. D., & Bradford, J. B.

Dry forest decline is driven by both declining recruitment and increasing mortality in response to warm, dry conditions

2022

Global Ecology and Biogeography. 31 (2022)

R. Shriver, C. Yackulic, D. Bell, J. Bradford

Mines to forests? Analyzing long-term recovery trends for surface coal mines in Central Appalachia

2022

Restoration Ecology. (2022) e13827

C.J. Thomas, R.K. Shriver, F. Nippgen, M. Hepler, M.R. Ross

Biotic versus abiotic controls on temporal sensitivity of primary production to precipitation across North American drylands.

2021

New Phytologist Volume231, Issue6

Felton, A. J., Shriver, R. K., Bradford, J. B., Suding, K. N., Allred, B. W., & Adler, P. B.

Local landscape position impacts demographic rates in a widespread North American steppe bunchgrass.

2021

Ecosphere Volume12, Issue1

Shriver, R. K., Campbell, E., Dailey, C., Gaya, H., Hill, A., Kuzminski, S., … Parker, T.

Quantifying the demographic vulnerabilities of dry woodlands to climate and competition using range-wide monitoring data.

2021

Ecology, 102(8), e03425

Shriver, R. K., Yackulic, C. B., Bell, D. M., & Bradford, J. B.

The influence of life-history strategy on ecosystem sensitivity to resource fluctuations.

2021

Journal of Ecology, 109(12), 4081–4091

Felton, A. J., Snyder, R. E., Shriver, R. K., Suding, K. N., & Adler, P. B.

Transient population dynamics impede restoration and may promote ecosystem transformation after disturbance.

2019

Ecology Letters 22: 1357:1366

Shriver, R.K., C.A. Andrews, R.S. Arkle, D.M. Barnard, M.C. Duniway, M.J. Germino, D.S. Pilliod, D.A. Pyke, J.L. Welty, J.B. Bradford.

Adapting management to a changing world: Warm temperatures, dry soil, and inter-annual variability limit restoration success of a dominant woody shrub in temperate drylands.

2018

Global Change Biology 24: 4972-4982

Shriver, R.K., C.M. Andrews, D.S. Pilliod, R.S. Arkle, J.L. Welty, M.J. Germino, M.C. Duniway, D.A. Pyke, J.B. Bradford.

Rainfall variability and fine-scale life history tradeoffs help drive niche partitioning in a desert annual plant community.

2017

Ecology Letters 20: 1231-1241

Shriver, R.K.

Quantifying how short-term environmental variation leads to long-term demographic responses to climate change.

2016

Journal of Ecology

Shriver, R.K.

Comparative demography of an epiphytic lichen: support for general life history patterns and solutions to common problems in demographic parameter estimation.

2012

Oecologia 170:137-146

Shriver, R.K., K. Cutler, D.F. Doak.

Late-Holocene response of limber pine (Pinus flexilis) forests to disturbance, in the Pine Forest Range, Nevada.

2012

Quaternary Research 78: 465-473

Shriver, R.K., and T.A. Minckley.