Dr. David Inouye
Contact Info
Phone: 970.260.6159
Office Address: 4206 Biology-Psychology Bldg
David Inouye
Professor Emeritus

Graduate Program Affiliations

  • Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences (MEES)
  • BISI-Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, & Systematics (BEES)

Research Interests

Dr. Inouye has worked with bumblebees, euglossine bees, pollinating flies, tephritid flies, hummingbirds, and wildflowers, on topics including pollination biology, flowering phenology, plant demography, and plant-animal interactions such as ant-plant mutualisms, nectar robbing, and seed predation. He has worked in Australia, Austria, Central America, and Colorado, where he has spent summer field seasons since 1971 at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL). His long-term studies of flowering phenology and plant demography are supported by the National Science Foundation and are being used now to provide insights into the effects of climate change at high altitudes.

Dr. Inouye taught courses in ecology and conservation biology at the University of Maryland and has also taught at the University of Colorado's Mountain Research Station, the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, and with the Organization for Tropical Studies. He is the founder and moderator for the Ecological Society of America's ECOLOG-L listserv list, and serves on the Board of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign. He is Past-President of the Ecological Society of America, and a Lead Author on the report on pollinators produced by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. 


Education

NATO Postdoc, Botanisches Institut, University of Vienna, 1978
Ph.D., University of North Carolina, 1976
B.A., Swarthmore College, 1971


Book Chapters

  • ​Inouye, D. W. In press. Case Study: Climate Change and Frost Effects in Rocky Mountain Plant Communities. Climate Change and Biodiversity, 2nd edition. T. E. Lovejoy and L. Hannah, eds. Yale University Press.
  • Inouye, D. W. In press. Climate change in other taxa and links to bird studies. Chapter 20 in: Dunn, Peter, and Anders Møller, Editors. Effects of Climate Change on Birds.
  • Inouye, D. W. In press. Effects of climate change on alpine plants and their pollinators. In: The Year in Ecology and Conservation Biology.
  • Chapin, F. S. III, S. T.A. Pickett, M. E. Power, S. L. Collins, J. S. Baron, D. W. Inouye, and M. G. Turner. 2015. Earth Stewardship: An Initiative by the Ecological Society of America to Foster Engagement to Sustain Planet Earth. Volume 2, pages 173-194 in: Earth Stewardship. R. Rozzi, F. S. Chapin III, J. B. Callicott et al., Springer International Publishing.Inouye, D. W. 2013. Pollinators, Role of. Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, 2nd edition. S. A. Levin. Waltham, MA, Academic Press. 6: 140-146.
  • Wielgolaski, F.-E., and D. W. Inouye. 2013. Phenology of high-latitude climates. In: Phenology: An Integrative Environmental Science (M. D. Schwartz, ed.) Kluwer Academic Publishers. Updated revision for new edition.
  • Inouye, D. W., and F.-E. Wielgolaski. 2013. Phenology of high-altitude climates. In: Phenology: An Integrative Environmental Science (M. D. Schwartz, ed.) Kluwer Academic Publishers. Updated revision for new edition.
  • Inouye, D W. 2011. Pollinators, the role of (revised). In: Encyclopedia of Biodiversity. Academic Press, San Diego.
  • Inouye, D. W. 2011. Reflections: Conservation of Plant-Pollinator Mutualisms. Chapter 21 in: Sammataro, D., and J. A. Yoder, Editors. Honey Bee Colony Health: Challenges and Sustainable Solutions. Taylor & Francis Group.
  • Inouye, David and Amy McKinney. 2012. Community Phenology. In Oxford Bibliographies Online: Ecology. Ed. David Gibson. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Inouye, D., and B. Barr. 2006. Consequences of abrupt climate change for hibernating animals and perennial wildflowers at high altitude in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, USA. Pages 166-168 in: Global Change in Mountain Regions (M. F. Price, ed.). Sapiens Publishing, U.K.
  • Inouye, D. W. 2005. Biodiversity and ecological security. Pages 203-215 in: From Resource Scarcity to Ecological Security (D. Pirages and K. Cousins, eds.). MIT Press, Cambridge.
  • Inouye, D. W., and F.-E. Wielgolaski. 2003. Phenology of high-altitude climates. Pages 195-214 in: Phenology: An Integrative Environmental Science (M. D. Schwartz, ed.) Kluwer Academic Publishers.
  • Wielgolaski, F.-E., and D. W. Inouye. 2003. Phenology of high-latitude climates. Pages 175-194 in: Phenology: An Integrative Environmental Science (M. D. Schwartz, ed.) Kluwer Academic Publishers.
  • Morales, M., D. W. Inouye, M. L. Leigh and G. Lowe. 2003. Considering interactions: Incorporating biotic interactions into viability assessment. Pages 267-287 in: Population Viability in Plants (C. A. Brigham and M. W. Schwartz, eds.); Ecological Studies, Volume 165. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
  • Inouye, D. W. 2001. Pollinators, the role of. In: Encyclopedia of Biodiversity 4:723-730. Academic Press, San Diego
  • Inouye, D. W. 1988. Natural variation in plant and animal populations, and its implications for studies of recovering ecosystems. In: Rehabilitating Damaged Ecosystems (Cairns, J., ed.) pp. 39-50. CRC Press, Boca Raton.
  • Inouye, D. W. 1983. The ecology of nectar robbing. In: The Biology of Nectaries (Elias, T. S. and Bentley, B. L., eds.) pp. 153 173. Columbia University Press, NY.
  • Inouye, D. W. 1977. Species structure of bumblebee communities in North America and Europe. In: The Role of Arthropods in Forest Ecosystems (Mattson, W. J., ed.) pp. 35 40. Springer-Verlag, NY.

Book

  • Kearns, C. A. and Inouye, D. W. 1993. Techniques for Pollination Biologists. University Press of Colorado, Niwot, CO. 583 pages. 2nd printing 1994. 3rd printing 2000.

All Publications

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Latest Publications via PubMed

Tie S,He YD,Lázaro A,Inouye DW,Guo YH,Yang CF
Plant Divers. 2023 May;45(3):315-325. doi: 10.1016/j.pld.2022.11.002. Epub 2022 Nov 15
Dunn PO,Ahmed I,Armstrong E,Barlow N,Barnard MA,Bélisle M,Benson TJ,Berzins LL,Boynton CK,Brown TA,Cady M,Cameron K,Chen X,Clark RG,Clotfelter ED,Cromwell K,Dawson RD,Denton E,Forbes A,Fowler K,Fraser KC,Gandhi KJK,Garant D,Hiebert M,Houchen C,Houtz J,Imlay TL,Inouye BD,Inouye DW,Jackson M,Jacobson AP,Jayd K,Juteau C,Kautz A,Killian C,Kinnear E,Komatsu KJ,Larsen K,Laughlin A,Levesque-Beaudin V,Leys R,Long E,Lougheed SC,Mackenzie S,Marangelo J,Miller C,Molano-Flores B,Morrissey CA,Nicholls E,Orlofske JM,Pearse IS,Pelletier F,Pitt AL,Poston JP,Racke DM,Randall JA,Richardson ML,Rooney O,Ruegg AR,Rush S,Ryan SJ,Sadowski M,Schoepf I,Schulz L,Shea B,Sheehan TN,Siefferman L,Sikes D,Stanback M,Styrsky JD,Taff CC,Uehling JJ,Uvino K,Wassmer T,Weglarz K,Weinberger M,Wenzel J,Whittingham LA
Ecology. 2023 May;104(5):e4036. doi: 10.1002/ecy.4036. Epub 2023 Apr 4
Prather RM,Dalton RM,Barr B,Blumstein DT,Boggs CL,Brody AK,Inouye DW,Irwin RE,Martin JGA,Smith RJ,Van Vuren DH,Wells CP,Whiteman HH,Inouye BD,Underwood N
Proc Biol Sci. 2023 Jan 11;290(1990):20222181. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2022.2181. Epub 2023 Jan 11
Stemkovski M,Dickson RG,Griffin SR,Inouye BD,Inouye DW,Pardee GL,Underwood N,Irwin RE
Ecology. 2023 Jan;104(1):e3890. doi: 10.1002/ecy.3890. Epub 2022 Nov 30
Pardee GL,Griffin SR,Stemkovski M,Harrison T,Portman ZM,Kazenel MR,Lynn JS,Inouye DW,Irwin RE
Proc Biol Sci. 2022 Apr 27;289(1973):20212697. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2697. Epub 2022 Apr 20
Evers SM,Knight TM,Inouye DW,Miller TEX,Salguero-Gómez R,Iler AM,Compagnoni A
Glob Chang Biol. 2021 May;27(9):1927-1941. doi: 10.1111/gcb.15519. Epub 2021 Feb 15
Stemkovski M,Pearse WD,Griffin SR,Pardee GL,Gibbs J,Griswold T,Neff JL,Oram R,Rightmyer MG,Sheffield CS,Wright K,Inouye BD,Inouye DW,Irwin RE
Ecol Lett. 2020 Nov;23(11):1589-1598. doi: 10.1111/ele.13583. Epub 2020 Aug 19
Inouye DW,Ehrlich PR
Science. 2020 Aug 14;369(6505):777. doi: 10.1126/science.abd6925. Epub
Stoddard MC,Eyster HN,Hogan BG,Morris DH,Soucy ER,Inouye DW
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jun 30;117(26):15112-15122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1919377117. Epub 2020 Jun 15
Inouye DW
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2020 Jun;1469(1):26-37. doi: 10.1111/nyas.14104. Epub 2019 Apr 26
Inouye DW,Underwood N,Inouye BD,Irwin RE
Science. 2020 May 15;368(6492):724-725. doi: 10.1126/science.abc1261. Epub
Aizen MA,Aguiar S,Biesmeijer JC,Garibaldi LA,Inouye DW,Jung C,Martins DJ,Medel R,Morales CL,Ngo H,Pauw A,Paxton RJ,Sáez A,Seymour CL
Glob Chang Biol. 2019 Oct;25(10):3516-3527. doi: 10.1111/gcb.14736. Epub 2019 Jul 10
Pearse WD,Davis CC,Inouye DW,Primack RB,Davies TJ
Nat Ecol Evol. 2019 Mar;3(3):499. doi: 10.1038/s41559-019-0825-2. Epub
Wadgymar SM,Ogilvie JE,Inouye DW,Weis AE,Anderson JT
New Phytol. 2018 Apr;218(2):517-529. doi: 10.1111/nph.15029. Epub 2018 Feb 16
Pardee GL,Inouye DW,Irwin RE
Glob Chang Biol. 2018 Feb;24(2):848-857. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13865. Epub 2017 Sep 21
Ogilvie JE,Griffin SR,Gezon ZJ,Inouye BD,Underwood N,Inouye DW,Irwin RE
Ecol Lett. 2017 Dec;20(12):1507-1515. doi: 10.1111/ele.12854. Epub 2017 Sep 28
Pearse WD,Davis CC,Inouye DW,Primack RB,Davies TJ
Nat Ecol Evol. 2017 Dec;1(12):1876-1882. doi: 10.1038/s41559-017-0350-0. Epub 2017 Nov 6