Cindy Bennington
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Biology
B.S. West Virginia University 1984
M.S. West Virginia 1990
Ph.D. West Virginia 1994
Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University 1994-1996
Courses Taught
- General Biology (BY101-102)--The introductory
biology courses usually taken by freshman biology majors.
The entire field of biology is covered in these classes.
- Environmental Biology (BY152)--Survey of the
interrelationships of humans and their environment stressing the basic
knowledge of ecology to understand environmental problems.
- Biostatistical Methods (BY201,202)--An experimental introduction to research methods.
Computing, statistics, experimental design, data collection and analysis,
information retrieval and scientific writing are introduced in a case
study format.
- Flora of Florida (BY305)--Classification, identification, and
evolution of vasular plants with emphasis on the flora of Florida.
- Evolution (BY418)--The study of the forces, including natural
selection, that cause changes in the form of species and the genetic
composition of populations.
- Special Topics in Plant Biology (BY481)--An introduction to
botany with emphasis on the ecological implications of plant form and
function. Plant reproduction, morphology, physiology, and evolution are
discussed relying heavily on recent primary literature to underscore the
relevance of these topics to current ecological study.
Research Interests
I am interested in the broad topic of plant population genetics. My research thus far has focused on the ability of natural selection to result in genetic change in natural populations exposed to stressful environments. In addition, I am interested in tradeoffs among major life history characters (survival and reproduction, for example) and how these may constrain the action of natural selection.
Recent Publications and Presentations
- Bennington, C.C., J.B. McGraw, and M.C. Vavrek. 1991. Ecological genetic variation in seed banks. II. Phenotypic differentiation of plants from young and old subpopulations of Luzula parviflora. Journal of Ecology 79:627-643.
- Bennington, C.C. 1994. Use and misuse of mixed model analysis of variance in ecological studies. Ecology 75:717-722.
- Bennington, C.C. and J.B. McGraw. 1995. Phenotypic selection in an artifical population of Impatiens pallida: the importance of the invisible fraction. Evolution 49:317-324
- Bennington, C.C. and J.B. McGraw. 1995. Natural selection and ecotypic differentiation in Impatiens pallida. Ecological Monographs 65:303-323.
- Bennington, C.C. and J.B. McGraw. 1996. Environment-dependence of quantitative genetic parameters in Impatiens pallida. Evolution 50:1083-1097.
- Bennington, C.C. and D.A. Stratton. 1995. Genetic response of Arabidopsis thaliana to interacting stresses. Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution. July 8 - 12.
- Bennington, C.C. and D.A. Stratton. 1996. Testing for frequency- and density-dependent selection in Erigeron annuus. Annual Meeting for the Ecological Society of America. August 10 - 15.