Research and Professional Interests:

My long-term interest in geographic variation in the size and shape of birds led to transplant experiments with red-winged blackbirds in the 1980's (James, 1983) and then to tests of the theoretical assumptions underlying selection models (James et al., 1991).  A review article (James, 1991) summarizes my view that the similarities in patterns of geographic size variation among different species of birds are best explained by both genetically based and environmentally induced physiological adaptations to a combination of the temperature and moisture regimes of the environments of their respective populations.  The article provides a statistical test of this idea for North American passerines.  It does not bother me that the genetically based patterns are not apparent in the mitochondrial DNA of the blackbirds (Ball et al., 1988).

My interest in data analysis has led to a series of papers with statisticians, on whom I am totally dependent for statistical advice.  The most recent examples are papers with Charles McCulloch like the review of multivariate analysis in ecology and systematics (James and McCulloch, 1990), a paper about the strength of inferences about the causes of trends in bird populations (James and McCulloch, 1995), one with my former student David Wiedenfeld as an additional author (James et al., 1996), and a reply to a complaint (McCulloch et al., 1997).  We have developed methods for the analysis of data from the Breeding Bird Survey.  The results reveal patterns not identified by others, such as declines in several species of warblers in highland areas of the central and eastern United States in the last 25 years, even species that are stable or increasing elsewhere in their geographic ranges.

Concurrently with the above themes, I have become increasingly interested in conservation biology, a commitment shared with my collaborators and my three current graduate students. Ant specialist Walter Tschinkel (FSU), soil ecologist Paul Hendrix (Univ. Georgia), and I have just completed a five-year NSF-supported experiment in fire ecology in the longleaf pine flatwoods ecosystem of the Apalachicola National Forest.  We tracked a random sample of 60 social groups of banded Red-cockaded Woodpeckers to see what environmental factors seem to be limiting this largest remaining population of a federally listed endangered species.  The candidate causes are the availability of suitable cavity trees, nutrient limitation as affected by the history of fire, and competition with the Red-bellied Woodpecker.  My former student Charles Hess discovered that adult Red-cockaded Woodpeckers are ant specialists (Hess and James, 1998)--an annual average of 58% of the biomass of their stomach contents consists of eggs, larvae, pupae, or adult ants.

2003 "FranFare" Symposium

Field Guide to the Ground Cover
of the Apalachicola National Forest

Selected Publications:

James, F. C. 1983. The environmental component of geographic variation in the size and shape of birds: transplant experiments with blackbirds. Science 221: 184-186.

Ball, R. M., Jr., S. Freeman, F. C. James, E. Birmingham, and J. C. Avise. 1988. Phylogeographic population structure of Red-winged Blackbirds assessed by mitochondrial DNA. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85: 1558-1562.

James, F. C., and C. E. McCulloch. 1990. Multivariate analysis in ecology and systematics: panacea or Pandora's box? Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 21: 129-166.

James, F. C. 1991. Complementary descriptive and experimental studies of clinal variation in birds. Am. Zool. 31: 694-706.

James, F. C., C. NeSmith, and R. Laybourne. 1991. Geographic differentiation in the Red-winged Blackbird: a check on one of Lande's assumptions. In Acta XX Congressus Internationalis Ornithologici, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2-9 December 1990. 2454-2461.

Conroy, M. J., Y. Cohen, F. C. James, Y. G. Matsinos, and B. A. Maurer. 1995. Parameter estimation, reliability and model improvement for spatially explicit models of animal populations. Ecol. Appl. 5: 17-19.

Martin-Mora, E., and F. C. James. 1995. Developmental plasticity in the shell of the queen conch Strombus gigas. Ecology 76: 981-994.

James, F. C., and C. E. McCulloch. 1995. The strength of inferences about causes of trends in populations. Pp. 40-51 in T. E. Martin and D. M. Finch, eds. Ecology and Management of Neotropical Migratory Birds. Oxford University Press, New York.

James, F. C. 1995. Status of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker in 1990 and prospect for recovery. Pp. 439-451 in D. Kulhavy, R. G. Hooper, and R. Costa, eds. Red-cockaded Woodpecker: Recovery, Ecology, and Management. Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas.

James, F. C., C. E. McCulloch, and D. A. Wiedenfeld. 1996. Special Feature: New approaches to the analysis of population trends in land birds. Ecology 77: 13-27.

James, F. C., C. A. Hess, and D. Kufrin. 1997. Indirect effects of the recent history of fire on a red-cockaded woodpecker population: evidence from species-centered environmental analysis. Ecol. Appl. 7: 118-129.

James, F. C. 1997. Nonindigenous birds. Pp. 139-156 in D. Simberloff, D. C. Schmitz, and T. C. Brown, eds., Strangers in Paradise: Impact and Management of Nonindigenous Species in Florida. Island Press, Washington, D.C.

McCulloch, C. E., F. C. James, and D. A. Wiedenfeld. 1997. New approaches to the analysis of population trends in land birds: reply. Ecology 78: 2635-2637.

National Research Council Committee on the Management of Wolf and Bear Populations in Alaska (F. C. James, member). 1997. Wolves, Bears, and Their Prey in Alaska: Biological and Social Challenges in Wildlife Management. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. 207 pp.

Hess, C. A., and F. C. James. 1998. Diet of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker in the Apalachicola National Forest. J. Wildl. Manage. 62: 509-517.

James, F. C. 1998. The growing pains of avian conservation biology. Pp. 15-23 in J. Marzluff and R. Sallabanks, eds., Avian Conservation: Research and Management. Island Press, Washington, D.C.

James, F. C. 2001. A research program in ecology and ecomorphology: The 1999 Margaret Morse Nice Lecture. Wilson Bull. 113: 140-163.

James, F. C. 2001. Foreword. In R. The Red-cockaded Woodpecker: Surviving in a Fire-maintained Ecosystem. R. N. Conner, D. C. Rudolph, and J. R. Walter, editors. University of Texas Press, Austin. xvii-xix.

James, F.C., C.A. Hess, B.C. Kicklighter, and R.A. Thum. 2001. Ecosystem management and the niche gestalt of the red-cockaded woodpecker in lonleaf pine forests. Ecol. Appl. 11:854-870.

Ransom A. Myers, Simon A. Levin, Russell Lande, Frances C. James, William W. Murdoch, Robert T. Paine, 2004 Hatcheries and Endangered Salmon. Science 303 (5666): 1980 Summary   Full Text

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