Research Scientists and Post-Doctoral Staff
Joseph F. Merritt
Senior Research Scientist
Physiological ecology of small mammals; Cold adaptation
Ph.D., University of Colorado
Research Interests: physiological ecology of small mammals.
Joseph F. Merritt is senior mammalogist with the Illinois Natural History Survey. He is the former Director of Powdermill Biological Station of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and served as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO during academic year 2004 to 2005. Dr. Merritt is a physiological ecologist and functional morphologist specializing in adaptations of mammals to cold. He is the author of Guide to the Mammals of Pennsylvania, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press and co-author of the college textbook, Mammalogy: Adaptation, Diversity, and Ecology, published by McGraw-Hill Companies. Dr. Merritt is also editor of several technical monographs on specific taxa of mammals and the upcoming book, Biology of Small Mammals to be published by Johns Hopkins University Press. He has served on the Publications Committee of the American Society of Mammalogists since 1990 and is currently the Editor for Special Publications for the Society. He is Editor for the Western Hemisphere for the journal, Acta Theriologica published by the Polish Academy of Sciences. Dr. Merritt instructs mammalogy at the University of Colorado Mountain Research Station and courses in mammalian ecology and winter ecology at Antioch New England Graduate School and at the Adirondack Ecological Center, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
The emphasis of my research is physiological ecology of small mammals; specifically elucidation of behavioral, anatomical, and physiological mechanisms employed in coping with cold. At Indiana State University, we are presently employing oxygen consumption and radiotelemetry techniques to evaluate energy expenditure and time budgets of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) residing in hibernacula during winter. We are interested in the role of seasonal changes in resting metabolic rate, nonshivering thermogenesis, timing of arousal, and clustering behavior in enhancing overwinter survivorship. How do bats hibernating in cold environments, such as caves and tunnels, allocate energy compared to individuals hibernating in ameliorating environments found in heated buildings?
Personal Websites
- University of Pittsburgh: http://www.pitt.edu/~biohome/faculty/merritt.html
- Illinois Natural History Survey: http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/
- University of Colorado: http://www.colorado.edu/mrs/course.html
Selected Research Publications
Merritt, J.F., D.A. Zegers, and L.R. Rose. 2001. Seasonal thermogenesis of southern flying squirrels (Glaucomys volans). Journal of Mammalogy, 82: 51-64.
Merritt, J.F., M.Lima, and F. Bozinovic. 2001. Seasonal regulation in fluctuating small mammal populations: feedback structure and climate. Oikos, 94: 505-514.
Lima, M., J.F. Merritt, and F. Bozinovic. 2002. Numerical fluctuations in the northern short-tailed shrew: evidence of non-linear feedback signatures on population dynamics and demography. Journal of Animal Ecology, 71: 159-172.
Merritt, J.F., and D.A. Zegers. 2003. Maximizing survivorship in cold: thermogenic profiles of non-hibernating mammals. Acta Theriologica 47, Suppl. 1:221-234.
Feldhamer, G., L. Drickamer, S.H. Vessey, and J.F. Merritt. 2004. Mammalogy: Adaptation, Diversity, and Ecology. Second Edition, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Dubuque, IA, 550 pp.
Tchabovsky, A., J.F. Merritt, and D.Y. Aleksandrov. 2004. Ranging patterns of two syntopic gerbillid rodents: a radiotelemetry and trapping study in semi-desert habitat of Kalmykia, Russia. Acta
Theriologica 49:17-31.
? Jaffe, G., D.A. Zegers, M.A. Steele, and J.F. Merritt. 2005. Long term effects of botfly parasitism on Peromyscus maniculatus, P. leucopus, and Tamias striatus. Journal of Mammalogy, 86: 39-45.
Peles, J.D., and J.F. Merritt. 2005. Allozyme heterozygosity and metabolic rate in Blarina brevicauda. Pp. 367-372, in Advances in the biology of shrews II (J.F. Merritt, S.Churchfield, R. Hutterer, and B.I. Sheftel, eds.) Special Publication, International Society of Shrew Biologists, No. 01: 1-468.
Merritt, J.F., S. Churchfield, R. Hutterer, and B. Sheftel (eds.). 2005. Advances in the biology of shrews II. Special Publication, International Society of Shrew Biologists, No 01: 1-468.
