Biography Education Academic Positions Research Interests Present Research Courses Taught Memberships Grants Received Publications Back to Faculty

Joseph S. Davis, Ph.D.

Professor of Botany

• Phycology
• 3177 McCarty Hall A
• (352) 392-1094 (Voice)
• (352) 392-3993 (Fax)
• jsd@botany.ufl.edu

Biography

I was born 18 July 1929 in Philadelphia, PA, and grew up in Iowa and the Black Hills of South Dakota. Pursuing a degree in science education at the University of Iowa, I became interested in plants while taking a course in botany. After marrying a zoology major, I began teaching general botany and algology at Southern Illinois University Gravitating toward marine botany, I received a National Science Foundation scholarship to study marine algae at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey, California. After accepting a teaching and research position at the University of Florida, I was invited to evaluate the biology of solar salt ponds at Diamond Crystal Salt Company on Long Island, Bahamas, where I began working with biological management of brine ecosystems for the production of sodium chloride from seawater. My research also includes several aspects of airborne and soil algae. Work with brine ecosystems in commercial solar saltworks has led me to locations in Argentina, Australia, Baja California, Bonaire, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Greece, Namibia, South Africa, Turkey, Venezuela, and Yucatan. My outside interests include theatre, Roman ruins, fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, and amateur radio (K4ERF).

Education

• Ph.D., University of Iowa (Botany), 1960
• M.S., University of Iowa (Science Education), 1956
• A.B., University of Iowa (Zoology), 1951

Academic Positions

• Instructor, Southern Illinois University
• Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University
• Co-Chairman, biology faculty, Southern Illinois University
• Assistant Professor, University of Florida
• Associate Professor, University of Florida
• Professor, University of Florida

Research Interests / Major Research Achievements:

• Freshwater algae--morphology and ecology
• Marine algae--physiology and ecology
• Airborne algae--taxonomy and ecology
• Endolithic algae in coquina rock
• Biology, taxonomy and nitrogen-fixation in soil algae in field and forest environments
• Biology, chemistry, and ecology of organisms associated with tufa deposits
• Biological management of hypersaline ecosystems
• Taxonomy, ecology, and physiology of algae in extreme environments

Present Research

Regulation and kinetics of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase. CO2 concentrating mechanisms in aquatic plants and algae. Regulation of inducible C4-like photosynthetic systems. Effects of rising atmospheric CO2 on photosynthesis and growth. Ecophysiology of aquatic plants, especially weed species.

Courses Taught:

• Applied Biology
• Bio-Science Integrated Sequence
• Algology
• Participant in Integrated Marine Biology
• General Botany
• Seaweeds and Algae of Florida

Membership in Professional Organizations:

• Florida Academy of Science
• Phycological Society of America
• Global NEST (Editorial Board)
• International Journal of Salt Lake Research (Editorial Board)

Grants received

• National Science Foundation scholarship for post doctoral study of marine algae at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove, California, 1961
• Presidential Research Grant (Pres. Delyte Morris, Southern Illinois University) for research resulting in publication of "The Life Cycle of Pediastrum simplex," 1966.
• Sponsored Research Grant (UF) for the purchase of laboratory equipment, 1966.
• Diamond Crystal Salt Company Grant to study the hypersaline ecosystem at Long Island, Bahamas, 1967-1969.
• OCO contest winner for funds to obtain literature for review article "Survival records in the algae and the survival value of fat, pigments and mucilaginous substances."
• Sponsored Research Grant (UF) to lead a team of ecologists to Long Island, Bahamas, for the gathering of productivity data from brine ponds, 1971.
• Hatch Project Grant for study of soil algae as nitrogen sources for cropping systems, 1975.
• Growers Association Grant for soil algae study of potato farms at Homestead, Florida during fallow seasons, 1981.
• Anderson Scholar Faculty Honoree in recognition of teaching achievements, 1996.
• UNESCO Grant to present a paper on biological management of salinas at Araya, Venezuela, 1996

Selected Publications

1978 Fifth International Symposium on Salt. Biological Management in Solar Salt Works, Hamburg, Germany.

1979 Artemia Symposium. Experiences with Artemia at Solar Salt Works., Corpus Cristi, Texas.

1984 A new cave alga from Missouri. Biomineralization Conference, Birmingham, England.

1987 American Society of Plant Physiology. Marine macroalgal photosynthesis is carbon limited in seawater. St. Louis, Missouri.

1988 Tenth Southeastern Phycological Colloquy. A new tropical lichen from Missouri.

1990 American Society of Plant Physiologists. Inorganic carbon acquisition in tropical marine macroalgae.

1991 American Society of Plant Physiology. Response of Dunaliella salina grown at high and low CO2 to different sources of nitrogen.

1992 Biological management for a new generation of solar saltworks. Seventh International Symposium on Salt, Kyoto, Japan.

1992 Biological management for existing solar saltworks. Seventh International Symposium on Salt.

1993 A new tropical lichen from Missouri. Sixteenth Southeastern Phycological Colloquy.

1994 Morphology of the lichen Caloplaca cinnabarina from South Africa. Sixteenth Southeastern Phycological Colloquy.

1995 The effects of organic matter in saltworks. Seventeenth Southeastern Phycological Colloquy.

1995 Temporal variations in biomass of the algal epiphytes associated with the dominant submersed macrophytes in Lake Okeechobee, Florida, (U.S.A.)

1996 Algae on University of Florida campus buildings and structures. Eighteenth Annual Southeastern Phycological Colloquy, Cumana, Venezuela.

1996 Biological Management For The Caribbean Solar Saltworks. Primer Taller Internacional De CultivoY Biotechnologia De Algas Marinas.

1997 Some effects of fire on soil algae in a Florida pine forest. Nineteenth Annual Southeastern Phycological Colloquy.

1998 Endolithic algae on beach coquina of North Central Florida. Twentieth Annual Southeastern Phycological Colloquy.

1999 The brine biological system and its management in the seasonal solar saltworks. 6th Conference on Environmental Science and Technology.

2000 Giordano, M ., Mobili, F., Pezzoni, V., Hein, M. K., Davis, J. S. Photosynthesis in the caves of Frassassi (Italy). Phycologia 39:384-389.

2000 Campbell, E. E . and J. S. Davis. Diatoms as indicators of pond condition in solar saltworks. Proc. 8 th World Salt Symposium, Volume 2, R. M. Geertman (Ed.), Elsevier, pp. 855-860.

2000  Davis, J. S. Ten commandments for biological management of solar saltworks. Proc. 8 th World Salt Symposium, volume 2, R. M. Geertman (Ed.), Elsevier, pp. 511-516.

2002  Giordano, M ., Davis, J.S., Mobili, F., Pezzoni, V. Fiat Lux: fotosintesi nelle alghe di Frassassi. Le grotte d'Italia 2:1+4

2002  Davis, J.S. Comments on Coenogonium missouriense, a unique microlichen from a cave in central Missouri. Trans. Missouri Academy of Science 36:63-65.

2002 Davis, J. S. Salt production. In: Encyclopedia of Environmental Microbiology, pp. 2802-2809, Gabriel Bitton, Editor-In-Chief, Wiley-Interscience, N.Y.

2003  Myers , P. E. and Davis, J. S. Recolonization of soils by algae in a northcentral Florida pine forest after controlled fire and soil sterilization. Nova Hedwigia 76:1-13.

2003 Comments on Coenogonium missouriense , a unique microlichen from a cave in central Missouri. Trans. Missouri Academy of Science 36:63-65.

2005 Magana, Gimer Y.; Lopez, Julio Cesar; Ortiz, Sergio Manuel; Roche, Eduardo; and Joseph Steven Davis. . Recovery of a commercial solar saltworks damaged by a hurricane: role of biological management.  Proc. 9th Internat. Conf. on Environmental Science and Technology. A:903-912.

2006 Cai, T.T., Montague, C.L., and J.S. Davis. The maximum power principle: an empirical investigation. Ecological Modelling 190:317-335.

2006 Davis, J.S. Biological management of solar saltworks with special emphasis on Aphanothece halophytica and Dunaliella salina . Souvenir Volume, International Conference on Salt 2006, pp. 118-119. Nirma University, Ahmedabad, India.

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