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Faculty & Staff

Areas of Expertise

Animal Physiology

Degrees

PhD, University of Washington, 1983
MS, University of Washington, 1979
BS, Tufts University, 1974

Professional Publications & Contributions

• Stevenson, R.D., K. M. Klemow, L.J. Gross. Submitted. Harnessing Bits and Bytes For Ecological Education. Frontiers in Ecology.
• Schoen, Jerry and R. D. Stevenson. 2011. Gigapan Uses In Formal And Informal Education; Applications In Botany, Phenology Of Riparian Ecosystems, Geology, Community Stories Of Place. Fine International Conference on Gigapixel Imaging for Science Conferences and Events. Carnegie Mellon University 11-1-2010 http://gigapixelscience.gigapan.org/papers-2/gigapanusesinformalandinformaleducationapplicationsinbotanyphenologyofriparianecosystemsgeologycommunitystoriesofplace
• Santos, A and R.D. Stevenson . 2011. Comparison of macroinvertebrate diversity and community structure among perennial and non-perennial headwater streams . Northeastern Naturalist 18(1):7-26. 2011 doi: 10.1656/045.018.0102
• Woods, WA; Wood, CAL; Ebersole, J, and Stevenson, R.D. 2010. Metabolic rate variation over adult lifetime in the butterfly Vanessa cardui (Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae): aging, feeding, and repeatability . Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 83 (5): 858-868.
• Nadkarni, Nalini and R. D. Stevenson. 2009. Symposium 9: Linking Scientists with Nontraditional Public Audiences to Enhance Ecological Thought. Ecological Bulletin 90:134-137.
• Morris, Robert A., Robert D. Stevenson and William Haber. 2007. Architecture of Electronic Field Guides. Jour. Intelligent Information Systems, vol. , (),DOI - 10.1007/s10844-006-0033-9 http://www.springerlink.com/content/6232h120n4758n0u
• Morris, Robert A., Jacob K. Asiedu, William Haber, Fred SaintOurs, Robert D. Stevenson and Hua Tang, 2007. Database-backed decision trees with application to biological informatics", Jour. Intelligent Information Systems, p 10.1007/s10844-006-0029-5, http://www.springerlink.com/content/h190381172563597
• Stevenson, R. D. and William A. Woods, Jr. 2006. Condition indices for conservation: new uses for evolving tools. Integr. Comp. Biol., December 2006; 46: 1169 - 1190.
• Stevenson, R.D. 2006. Ecophysiology and conservation: The contribution of energetics—introduction to the symposium. Integr. Comp. Biol., December 2006; 46: 1088 - 1092.
• Orth, J.F., M. Gammon, F.Abdul-Basir, R.D. Stevenson, D. Triselson, J. Ebersole, S. Speak, R. Kesseli. 2006. Natural history, distribution, and management of Lepidium latifolium (Brassicaceae) in New England. Rhodora 108:103-118.
• Woods, Jr., William A., Bernd Heinrich, and Robert D. Stevenson. 2005. Honeybee flight metabolic rate: does it depend upon air temperature? J. Exp. Biol. 2005 208: 1161-1173.
• Stevenson, R. D., Shea R. Tuberty, Peter L. deFur, John C. Wingfield. 2005. EcoPhysiology and Conservation: The Contribution of Endocrinology and Immunology: Introduction to the Symposium. Integrative and Comparative Biology 45:1-3
• Stevenson, R. D. 2004. Electronic Field Guides and Citizen Science: Steering Society in a More Earth-Friendly Direction. New England Society of Conservation Biology. Conservation Perspectives Winter 2004 http://www.nescb.org/epublications/winter2004/ with a supplementary exercise Electronic Field Guide Image Identification Exercise
• Haber, W.A. and R.D. Stevenson. 2003. Diversity, Migration, and Conservation of Butterflies in Northern Costa Rica. In: Biodiversity Conservation in Costa Rica, Learning the Lesson in the Seasonal Dry Forest. G. Frankie, A. Mata, and S.B. Vinson, editors. University of California Press. Pp. 99-114.
• Stevenson, R.D. 2003. The Dandelion Project, Climate Change and a Framework for Citizen Symposium: Impacts of Climate Change on Horticulture: Developing a Research and Education Agenda. Science Centennial Conference of the American Society for Horticultural Science. Saturday, pgs 32-40. In Wolfe, D.W. (ed) Proceedings: Impacts of Climate Change on Horticulture Symposium; Oct 4, 2003, Providence, RI. Dept. of Horticulture, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; 44 pages. http://www.hort.cornell.edu/department/faculty/wolfe/cchortproc.pdf
• Stevenson, R. D., W. A. Haber, and R. A. Morris. 2003. Electronic field guides and user communities in the eco-informatics revolution. Conservation Ecology 7(1): 3. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol7/iss1/art3
• Morris, R.A., M. Passell & R.D. Stevenson. 2002. "A Software Engineering Perspective on Developing Electronic Field Guides: Lessons Learned For Bioinformatics", Ed. By H. Saarenmaa and E. S. Nielsen.Towards a global biological information infrastructure. Technical report No 70 EEA (European Environment Agency) © EEA, Copenhagen 2001 72 pages http://www.eionet.eu.int/Topic_Areas/Nature_Protection_Biodiversity/Biodiversity/GBII.
• McDonald, Stephen and Robert D. Stevenson. 2002.Visualizing Geo-referenced Data with the Eco Flight Simulator. Digital Government Organization Meeting 4 pp. http://www.diggov.org/archive/library/pdf/mcdonal.jsp
• Stevenson, Robert D. and Robert A. Morris. 2002. Community Science For Biodiversity Monitoring. Digital Government Organization Meeting 4 pp. http://www.diggov.org/archive/library/pdf/steven.jsp

Additional Information

Current Position
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
University of Massachusetts Boston

Research Interests
Physiological ecology, conservation biology, biodiversity informatics, instrumentation, energetics, temperature regulation, muscle physiology, allometry, insect flight, invertebrate conservation, citizen science, biology of moths and butterflies.
Research in my laboratory focuses on physiological ecology applied to conservation biology and on biodiversity informatics for citizen science. Our physiological work is centered on biomechanics and energetics in butterflies and hawkmoths. Studies currently underway range from behavioral observations on feeding and time budgets to developing instrumentation to record flight patterns in the field. This conservation physiology framework is specifically being applied to migratory butterflies.

Our informatics work, in conjuction with Robert Morris in Computer Science, focuses on the construction of Electronic Field Guides (see http://efg.cs.umb.edu/). We are producing prototype guides, constructing and testing keys, and making field observations using new GPS and PDA tools. We are using object oriented databases and XML to produce extensible software and user friendly interfaces.