Academics
As a Research Associate in Entomology at the Smithsonian Institution, Mark investigates two fields: the ecology of forest canopies and the behavior of social insects, especially ants.
Mark has served as Associate Curator of Entomology (in charge of the world's largest ant collection) and Research Associate in Entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University (1987-1997), Associate of the Anthropology Department at the Peabody Museum, Harvard University (1997-2000), Visiting Scholar at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley (1998- 2006), and Associate Curator at the Essig Museum, also at the University of California, Berkeley (2001-2007).
Mark is one of a lucky few to have a doctorate under Edward O. Wilson at Harvard University, where he held a National Science Foundation Fellowship. For his dissertation Mark travelled for nearly three years through countries from New Guinea to Sri Lanka to document ant behavior. During his field research Mark discovered that a previously neglected ant group, the marauder ants (Pheidologeton, fi-doe-lo-gee-ton), have independently evolved the swarm raids of army ants.
Mark's undergraduate degree is from Beloit College, where he published five scientific papers and earned a B.A. with a Phi Beta Kappa and high honors.
Research on canopy biology likewise takes Mark around the world, such as on the expeditions of the French canopy raft, Opération Canopée. He lectures on conceptual frameworks for canopy biology, especially the idea that forest experts can learn from studying systems such as coral reefs, kelp forests, algal mats, grasslands and biofilms (bacterial films - the plaque on your teeth or the film that forms after a while on a cold cup of coffee are examples). These ecosystems share the common problem of extracting nutrients from a three-dimensional fluid matrix (air or water) and transferring those nutrients through the food chain.
Early on there were two critical conferences at which Mark addressed these issues. With Berkeley scientist Mimi Koehl, Mark organized the first-ever dialogue between experts on marine and terrestrial canopies at the 2000 meeting of the Western Society of Naturalists; a summary of the symposium appears in the newsletter of ICAN (the International Canopy Network), and is reproduced here: Canopy Biology: The Forest and the Sea. Mark led a session on primates in the canopy in 2002 for the 18th Congress of the International Primatological Society, Adelaide, Australia.
After finishing a book on ants, his academic priority of recent years, he plans to look at rainforests in the Congo occupied by a single tree species. What can the canopy communities of “monodominant forests” teach us about tropical diversity?
"This paper is a
danger to the field."
Scientific review of my
Biotropica review article
This rare amaryllis grows only on a remote mountain slope near Rio de Janiero. The parallels between a forest canopy and a community such as this meadow would be obvious if you could shrink yourself down to mosquito size.
For the past few years Mark has focused on researching a book on ants for University of California Press, due out in 2009. His work has lead to discoveries, such as the skill of Australia's bulldog ant Myrmecia gulosa at catching honey bees in flight (image below) and the capacity of the Nigerian army ant, Dorylus rebellus, to mobilize horrific battles on termite mounds in which hundreds of thousands are slaughtered (reference here).
ACADEMICS
Some of his reviews of canopy biology are now considered essential readings in the field.
Moffett, M.W. 2002. The highs and lows of tropical forest canopies. Journal of Biogeography 29: 1264-1265.
Mark considers some of the confusion stemming from the varied ways scientists talk about canopies and canopy biology. Abstract here.
Moffett, M.W. 2001. Nature and limits of canopy biology. Selbyana 22:155-179.
Mark discuss the merits of treating canopy biology as an independent discipline, including numerous issues relating to this question that are largely ignored, such as the distinctiveness of trees and of forests and relationships between above- and belowground plant parts. Mark promotes the idea of comparative canopy science in which we study the emergent properties of above-substrate parts in a community of sessile organisms, much as human anatomists study the parts of bodies. Click here for a PDF.
Moffett, M.W. 2000. What's "up"? A critical look at basic terms of canopy biology. Biotropica 32: 569-596.
This invited paper examines the varied terminology of canopy biologists with a particular eye to how terms bias ideas about canopies. The word "canopy" for example is applied anthropocentrically to ecosystems that happen to be taller than ourselves such as forests, but the word is equally useful when applied to communities that are shorter, such as prairies. Mark attempts to standardize vocabularies of arborists, ecologists, anthropologists, botanists, zoologists, aerodynamics experts, among others. Click here for a PDF.
Lowman, M.D. and M.W. Moffett. 1993. Ecology of tropical rainforest canopies. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 8: 104-108.
A review of some trends in canopy biology to date. Text Here.
Army ant soldier bites Mark's finger, Panama
