Mark D. Bertness (born July 13, 1949) is an American ecologist, known for his work on the community assembly of marine shoreline communities.[1]
Among his important work are the Stress Gradient Hypothesis (Bertness and Callaway 1994[2]) that predicts that positive species interactions are more important in biologically and physically stressful habitats than in biologically and physically benign habitats, his experimental research in a variety of marine intertidal communities elucidating the roles of biotic interaction across intertidal gradients[3][4] (Bertness and Hacker 1994,[5] Bertness et al. 1999,[6] Bertness 1999[7]), his pioneering of experimental community ecology in salt marsh ecosystems[8][9] and his work on apex predator depletion causing die-offs in salt marshes due to the release of herbivores from predator control [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]
Bertness is the Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and former chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University.[17] He has had visiting distinguished appointments at Groningen University, the Netherlands,[18] the Catholic University of Santiago, Chile[19] and the University of Sassari, Sardinia, Italy.[20]
In 2002 Bertness was designated as an ISI Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in Environmental Science;[21] this indicates that Dr. Bertness was among the 250 most-cited researchers in Environmental Science during a certain period of time.[22] In 2009, Bertness was recognized as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science;[23] this fellowship is a recognition of an individual's meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications.[24] Bertness is also a trustee of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.[25]
^Bertness, M. D.; Leonard, G. H.; Levine, J. M.; Schmidt, P. R.; Ingraham, A. O. (1999). "Testing the Relative Contribution of Positive and Negative Interactions in Rocky Intertidal Communities". Ecology. 80 (8). Ecological Society of America: 2711–2726. doi:10.1890/0012-9658(1999)080[2711:TTRCOP]2.0.CO;2. ISSN0012-9658.
^Bertness, M. D. (1989). "Intraspecific Competition and Facilitation in a Northern Acorn Barnacle Population". Ecology. 70 (1). Ecological Society of America: 257–268. doi:10.2307/1938431. JSTOR1938431.
^Bertness, M. D. (1991). "Zonation of Spartina Patens and Spartina Alterniflora in New England Salt Marsh". Ecology. 72 (1). Ecological Society of America: 138–148. doi:10.2307/1938909. JSTOR1938909.
^Altieri, Andrew H.; Bertness, Mark D.; Coverdale, Tyler C.; Herrmann, Nicholas C.; Angelini, Christine (2012). "A trophic cascade triggers collapse of a salt-marsh ecosystem with intensive recreational fishing". Ecology. 93 (6): 1402–1410. doi:10.1890/11-1314.1. PMID22834380.
^"Welcome!". Brown.edu. Retrieved 13 November 2014.