Brian J. McGill

Associate Professor, School of Natural Resources

PhD, University of Arizona, 2003

Office: Biological Sciences East, Room 325 [Map]
Phone: (520) 621-7255
Email: mcgillb@email.arizona.edu

Brian McGill studies ecological questions at large scales—large areas, long times, many species. It is often not realized that most of the research in ecology occurs at fairly small scales and that results at small scales do not necessarily generalize to larger scales. Many of the pressing management and environmental questions of our day are inherently large scale such as the design of optimal nature reserves and understanding the effects of global change such as climate change on living organisms. His research focuses on understanding what factors control and drive two central properties of species: their abundance and their distribution (geographic range). He is especially interested in developing a predictive theory of how these might change under the mankind is conducting, known as global change, including global warming and changes to the nutrient cycles and landcover.