Daniel Bunker
Associate Professor, Biological Sciences
973-642-7537
428J CKB
Education
Ph.D. ; University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus ; Biology ; 2004

B.S. ; The Evergreen State College ; Ecology And Evolution ; 1994

2025 Fall Courses
BIOL 725 - INDEPENDENT STUDY I

BIOL 790E - DOCTORAL DISSERTATION

BIOL 700B - MASTER'S PROJECT

BIOL 792B - PRE-DOCTORAL RESEARCH

BIOL 790A - DOCT DISSERTATION & RESRCH

BIOL 492 - RESEARCH & INDEPENDENT STUDY

BIOL 726 - INDEPENDENT STUDY II

BIOL 790C - DOCTORAL DISSERTN & RESRCH

BIOL 790D - DOCT DISSERTATION & RESRCH

BIOL 792C - PRE-DOCTORAL RESEARCH

BIOL 790B - DOCT DISSERTATION & RESRCH

BIOL 491 - SENIOR PROJECT

Teaching Interests
Ecology, Mathematics, Biology
Past Courses
BIOL 206: FOUND OF BIO:ECOL & EVOL LAB

BIOL 222: EVOLUTION

BIOL 328: ORNITHOLOGY - THE LIFE OF BIRDS

BIOL 498: SPECIAL TOPICS IN BIOLOGY

BIOL 630: CRITICAL THINKING FOR LIFE SCI

BIOL 698: ST: ECOLOGY

BIOL 791: BIOLOGY SEMINAR

MATH 373: INTRO TO MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGY

Research Interests
Global change poses a strong challenge to ecologists, environmental scientists, and conservation biologists: even as our natural and managed ecosystems become more stressed by the forces of global change, humans require that they produce both a greater quantity and variety of ecosystem services. For instance, we may expect a forested ecosystem to produce timber, provide clean water, sequester carbon, support wildlife, and provide recreational opportunities, yet at the same time the forest community is being buffeted by climate change, invasive species, and land-use change. In order to ensure that our ecosystems provide the services society demands, we must be able to predict how ecological communities will respond to these global forces, and in turn how changes in community composition will affect ecosystem services. To develop this predictive framework, I employ a mix of observation, experimentation, modeling and synthesis, within a diverse array of biological communities.
In Progress
Augmented reality for ecological data and processes
I am exploring the use of augmented reality as an interface to ecological data and a platform for teaching.

Journal Article
Jelyn Gerkema, Daniel E. Bunker, Andrew M. Cunliffe, Erika Bazzato, Michela Marignani, Tommaso Sitzia, Isabelle Aubin, Stefano Chelli, Julieta A. Rosell, Peter Poschlod, Josep Penuelas, Arildo S. Dias, Christian Rossi, Tanvir A. Shovon, Juan A. Campos, Mark C. Vanderwel, Sharif A. Mukul, Bruno E.L. Cerabolini, Thomas Sibret, Bruno Hérault, Sylvain Schmitt, Pedro Higuchi, James L. Tsakalos, Decky I. Junaedi, Yun-Peng Zhao, Vanessa Minden, Ana Carolina da Silva, Tereza Mašková, Roberto Canullo, Ning Dong, Edwin T. Pos. 2025. "Robustness and limitations of maximum entropy in plant community assembly." Ecological Informatics , vol. 86 , pp. 103031.

Caroline Marie Devan, Daniel E. Bunker, Adania Flemming, Mary Konsolaki, Alex Krohn, Liz Shea, Christine sosiak, Elizabeth Waring, Cecily Bronson, Janice L Krumm, Carly Jordan. 2025. "Morphology CURE: Exploring the Effects of Invasion on Plant Morphology. ." BCEENET- Biological Collections in Ecology & Evolution Network, QUBES Educational Resources. .

Mariasole Calbi, Wolfgang Weisser, Enrica Roccotiello, Gerhard Boenisch, Isabelle Boulangeat, Daniel E. Bunker, Alexandre Changenet, Victoria Culshaw, Arildo Dias, Thomas Hauck, Jens Joschinski, Jens Kattge, Anne Mimet , Marta Pianta , Peter Poschlod. 2024. "A novel framework to generate plant functional groups for ecological modelling." Ecological Indicators , vol. 166 , no. 112370 .

Xueyang Fan, Rui Ma, Changjuan Yue, Jiabin Liu, Bisong Yue, Wanjing Yang, Yunli Li, Jiang Gu, James E. Ayala, Daniel E. Bunker, Xia Yan, Dunwu Qi, Xiaoyan Su, Lin Li, Dongsheng Zhang, Hongwen Zhang, Zhisong Yang, Rong Hou, Songrui Liu, Daniel E. Bunker. 2023. "A snapshot of climate drivers and temporal variation of Ixodes ovatus abundance from a giant panda living in the wild." International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife , vol. 20 , pp. 162-169.

Xueyang Fan, Changlu Wang, Daniel E. Bunker. 2022. "Population Structure of German Cockroaches (Blattodea: Ectobiidae) in an Urban Environment Based on Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms." Journal of Medical Entomology , vol. 49 , no. 4 , pp. 1319–1327.

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Conference Proceeding
"Fluid Dynamics of Hydrophilous Pollination in Ruppia (widgeon grass)"
24th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ICTAM 2016), August, 2016.

"Fluid Dynamics of Two-Dimensional Pollination in Ruppia (widgeon grass)"
ASME Paper Number FEDSM2016-7891, July (3rd Quarter/Summer), 2016.

Other
"Ecosystem services and target-setting for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity"
Ecosystem Services Economics, United Nations Environment Program, November, 2010.

Chapter
Martin Solan, Jasmin A. Godbold, Amy Symstad, Dan F. Flynn, Daniel E. Bunker. "Biodiversity-ecosystem function research and biodiversity futures: early bird catches the worm or a day late and a dollar short?." In Naeem, Bunker, Hector, Loreau, and Perrings, eds., "Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, and Human Wellbeing," pp. 30-46. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Katharina Engelhardt, Amy Symstad, Anne-Helene Prieur-Richard, Matthew Thomas, Daniel E. Bunker. "Opening communities to colonization – the impacts of invaders on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning." In Naeem, Bunker, Hector, Loreau, and Perrings, eds., "Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, and Human Wellbeing," pp. 217-229. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Shahid Naeem, Daniel E. Bunker. "TraitNet: furthering biodiversity research through the curation, discovery, and sharing of species trait data." In Naeem, Bunker, Hector, Loreau, and Perrings, eds., "Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, and Human Wellbeing," pp. 281-289. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Shahid Naeem, Daniel E. Bunker, Andy Hector, Michel Loreau, Charles Perrings. "Can we predict the effects of global change on biodiversity loss and ecosystem functioning? ." In Naeem, Bunker, Hector, Loreau, and Perrings, eds., pp. 290-298. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Shahid Naeem, Daniel E. Bunker, Andy Hector, Michel Loreau, Charles Perrings. "The ecological and social implications of changing biodiversity: An overview of a decade of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning research. ." In Naeem, Bunker, Hector, Loreau, and Perrings, eds., pp. 3-13. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Book
Shahid Naeem, Daniel E. Bunker, Andy Hector, Michel Loreau, Charles Perrings. "Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, and Human Wellbeing: An Ecological and Economic Perspective ." 384 pp. Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 9780199547951.