Fernbank Science Center Faculty
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Dr. Larry Wilson Ecologist 156 Heaton Park Drive |
Dr. Wilson has worked full-time as an ecologist at Fernbank Science Center for the past 26 years. At Fernbank he teaches classes and manages Fernbank Forest. In addition to working at Fernbank, Dr. Wilson has taught at Perimeter College and worked for the US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. Dr. Wilson also joined the adjunct faculty in the Environmental Studies Department at Emory University in 1994.
Courses Taught
- Advanced Studies - Ecosystems Alive and Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles
- Scientific Tools and Techniques (STT)
Research Interests
Tropical ecology especially in the Amazon rainforest but also including Central America, Africa, Borneo, and Madagascar
Conservation problems in southern Africa: desert lions, black rhinos, cheetahs, desert elephants and hyenas
Herpetology- SE USA amphibians and reptiles and their conservation, Hellbenders, Poison Dart Frogs
Plant defenses against insect herbivory
Ecological succession patterns in the SE USA
Non-native, invasive plants and their impacts on native ecosystem function
Sample Publications
Bauman, Michael L., and Lawrence A. Wilson. 2005. The population status and limiting factors of the eastern Hellbender in the Tennessee River drainage of Georgia. SE Biologist 52(2): 153.
Chher, Linda and Lawrence A. Wilson. 2007. Nonnative invasive plant species in urban forests within the Piedmont region of southeastern USA. SE Biologist 54(3): 309.
Shure, DJ and LA Wilson. 1993. Patch-Size Effects on Plant Phenolics in Successional Openings of the Southern Appalachians. Ecology 74(1):55-67.
Wilson. LA . 1995. A Land Manager's Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of the South. The Nature Conservancy and USDA Forest Service. Chapel Hill, NC.360p.