T. Michael Anderson

My research focuses on the ecology and conservation of grassland and savannas ecosystems. In particular, I am interested in understanding the unique co-evolution that has occurred between plants and large herbivores in African savannas and the consequences of these interactions for ecosystem processes across large scales. The majority of my research is conducted in the Serengeti Ecosystem of East Africa, one of the last remaining fully functional grazing ecosystems, home to earth’s largest free-ranging ungulate herds and one of the best-studied ecosystems in the paleotropics.

Recent and current projects include: (1) how landscape features, plant forage quality, and risk of predation interact to determine the spatial distribution and movements of large savanna herbivores; (2) the ecology and evolution of trees in the "acacia" clade; (3) plant and herbivore effects on nutrient cycling; (4) dynamics and stability of tree-grass coexistence in savannas across continents.