Charles Kwit - Department of Botany

Charles Kwit
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Wittenburg University
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Botany at Miami University
Ph.D. (2000) Louisiana State University
P.O. Box 720 (for US mail)
Springfield, OH 45501

Phone: (937) 327-6420
Fax: (937) 327-6487
Email:ckwit@wittenberg.edu
kwitc@muohio.edu

Plant ecology, plant-animal interactions

Research Interests:

My research interests include the areas of (1) frugivory and seed dispersal, (2) disturbance ecology, and (3) conservation, restoration, and management. More specifically, I am interested in what drives both spatial and temporal aspects of seed dispersal by frugivores, and the resultant plant population and community consequences. Though I find all types of disturbance fascinating, I am especially interested in quantifying the important role hurricanes play in tree recruitment dynamics, how hurricanes can interact with other disturbances, and how post-hurricane recruitment patterns differ from those predicted by conventional treefall gap models. I am also interested in developing plant conservation and management strategies by using experimental data, long-term data, and simulation modeling.

Currently, I am interested in establishing projects that integrate various aspects of my research interests. For example, I am interested in integrating fruit-frugivore relationships into conservation and management plans, especially within dynamic settings; I am currently pursuing this framework in The Bahamas, where wintering birds such as the endangered Kirtland’s Warbler and other Neotropical migrants, as well as resident birds, consume fruit and disperse seeds in habitats affected by hurricanes.

Selected Publications:

Kwit, C., and B. Collins. 2008. Native grasses as a management alternative on vegetated closure caps. Environmental Management 41: 929-936.

Drewa, P. B., W. J. Platt, C. Kwit, and T. W. Doyle. 2008. Stand structure and dynamics of sand pine differ between the Florida panhandle and peninsula. Plant Ecology 196: 15-25.

Vincent, M. A., and C. Kwit. 2007. Additions to the vascular plant flora of Eleuthera Island, Bahamas. Bahamas Naturalist and Journal of Science 2: 52-54.

Kwit, C., D. J. Levey, S. A. Turner, C. J. Clark, and J. R. Poulsen. 2007. Out of one shadow and into another: causes and consequences of spatially contagious seed dispersal by frugivores. Pages 427-444 in A. J. Dennis, E. W. Schupp, R. J. Green, and D. A. Westcott, eds. Seed dispersal: theory and its application in a changing world. CAB International, Wallingford, U.K.

Holladay, C.-A., C. Kwit, and B. Collins. 2006. Woody regeneration in and around aging southern bottomland hardwood forest gaps: effects of herbivory and gap size. Forest Ecology and Management 223: 218-225.

Kwit, C., D. J. Levey, and C. H. Greenberg. 2004. Contagious seed dispersal beneath heterospecific fruiting trees and its consequences. Oikos 107: 303-308.

Kwit, C., C. C. Horvitz, and W. J. Platt. 2004. Conserving slow-growing, long-lived species: input from the demography of a rare understory conifer, Taxus floridana. Conservation Biology 18: 432-443.

Kwit, C., D. J. Levey, C. H. Greenberg, S. F. Pearson, J. P. McCarty, and S. Sargent. 2004. Cold temperature increases winter fruit removal rate of a bird-dispersed shrub. Oecologia 139: 30-34.

Kwit, C., D. J. Levey, C. H. Greenberg, S. F. Pearson, J. P. McCarty, S. Sargent, and R. L. Mumme. 2004. Fruit abundance and local distribution of wintering hermit thrushes and yellow-rumped warblers in South Carolina. Auk 121: 46-57.

Kwit, C., and W. J. Platt. 2003. Disturbance history influences regeneration of non-pioneer understory trees. Ecology 84: 2575-2581.

Kwit, C., W. J. Platt, and H. H. Slater. 2000. Post-hurricane regeneration of pioneer plant species in south Florida subtropical hardwood hammocks. Biotropica 32: 244-251.

Kwit, C., M. W. Schwartz, W. J. Platt, and J. P. Geaghan. 1998. The distribution of tree species in steepheads of the Apalachicola River Bluffs, Florida. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 125: 309-318.

Dogwood fruit

Charlie and Aralia Charlie and Aralia .jpg - 140853 Bytes

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