USGS National Wetlands Research Center: Beth Middleton Profile

Beth A. Middleton, Ph.D.

E-mail: beth_middleton@usgs.gov Beth Middleton

Beth A. Middleton, Ph.D. 1989. Botany, Iowa State University. Wetland plant ecology, production and decomposition dynamics, plant regeneration dynamics, disturbance and restoration of wetlands.

Middleton's research focuses on regeneration dynamics and its relationship to restoration/disturbance ecology, biotic and spatial relationships of species to environmental and global climate change. Specific studies have examined production and decomposition dynamics and its relationship to carbon accumulation/sequestration in mangrove, baldcypress, monsoonal and forested wetlands; seed dispersal and regeneration in baldcypress swamps; potential effects of global climate change on wetlands; spatial constraints of plant regeneration in impounded wetlands; invasive species comparisons in native vs. introduced habitats; fire in tropical dry forest and sedge meadows; grazing (cattle, geese) in sedge meadows, monsoonal wetlands and tropical cloud forests.

Middleton has been a book editor for Restoration Ecology and has participated in the Emiquon Advisory Board for the Illinois River.

For more information about invasive plant species in North America that are native to Turkey, click here.

Volunteer Information

Puprple Loostrife
Baldcypress

List of graduate students and projects - (maintained by Middleton)
*middletongrads.pdf

Curriculum vitae - (maintained by Middleton)
*middlcv.pdf

International CV - (maintained by Middleton)
*internationalcv.pdf

*Please Note: these files require Adobe Acrobat Reader which is available for download free at the Adobe Web site.

Representative Publications

For a complete list of Middleton's NWRC publications, please go to the online NWRC publications data base
(http://librrefmgr.cr.usgs.gov?func=advSearch) to search for the bibliographic citations of individual staff members. For a complete list of Middleton's career publications, please click here.

Books

Middleton, B.A., 1999, Wetland restoration, flood pulsing and disturbance dynamics: New York, John Wiley and Sons, 400 p.

Middleton, B.A., ed., 2002, Flood pulsing in wetlands—restoring the natural hydrological balance: New York, John Wiley and Sons, 320 p.

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Barko, V.A., Burke, B.A., Gibson, D.J., and Middleton, B.A., 2004, Seedling growth of Wisconsin fast plants (Brassica rapa) in field environments: TIEE—Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology, v. 1. Available at http://tiee.ecoed.net/vol/v1/toc.html.

Brandon, A.L., Gibson, D.J., and Middleton, B.A., in press, Mechanisms for dominance in an early old field by the invasive exotic Lespedeza cuneata (Dum. Cours.) G. Don: Biological Invasions.

Brinson, M., Bedford, B., Middleton, B. and Verhoeven, J., in press, Temperate freshwater wetlands, in Polunin, N., ed., Enviromental future of freshwater and marine ecosystems: Cambridge, UK,Cambridge University Press.

Middleton, B.A. and Grace, J., accepted, Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning—synthesis and perspectives (book review), Restoration Ecology.

Middleton, B.A. and McKee, K.L., 2001, Degradation of mangrove tissues and implications for peat formation in Belizean island forests: Journal of Ecology, v. 89, p. 818-828. (Featured in Science, Editor’s Choice)

Middleton, B.A. and McKee, K.L., in press, Primary production in an impounded baldcypress swamp at the northern limit of the range: Wetlands Ecology and Management.

Middleton, B.A. and McKee, K.L., 2004, Use of a latitudinal gradient in bald cypress production to examine physiological controls on biotic boundaries and potential responses to environmental change: Global Ecology and Biogeography, v.13, p. 247-258.

Middleton, B.A., in press, Biodiversity conservation through the reengineering of flood pulse in natural and restored wetlands in India: Pune, India, India Water Works Society.

Middleton, B.A., 2003, Ecology and objective based management—case study of the Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, in Saberwal, V. and Rangarajan, M., ed., Battles Over Nature—Science and the Politics of Conservation: New Delhi, India, Permanent Black Publishers, p. 86-116.

Middleton, B.A., 2002, Flood pulsing in the regeneration and maintenance of species in riverine forested wetlands of the southeastern United States, in Middleton, B.A., ed., Flood pulsing in wetlands—restoring the natural hydrological balance: New York, John Wiley and Sons, p. 223-294.

Middleton, B.A., 2002, Introduction to the flood pulse concept and its general importance to wetland restoration, in Middleton, B.A., ed., Flood pulsing in wetlands—restoring the natural hydrological balance: New York, John Wiley and Sons, p. 1-10.

Middleton, B. A., 2002, Nonequilibrium dynamics of sedge meadows grazed by cattle in southern Wisconsin: Plant Ecology, v.161, p. 89-110.

Middleton, B. A., 2003, Soil seed banks and the potential restoration of forested wetlands after farming. Journal of Applied Ecology, v.40, p.1025-1034.

Middleton, B.A., 2002, Winter burning and the reduction of Cornus sericea in sedge meadows in southern Wisconsin: Restoration Ecology, v. 10, p. 1-8.

Sengupta, R., Middleton, B., Yan, C., Zuro, M. and Hartman, H., in press, Propagule deposition and landscape characteristics of source forests of Rhizophora mangle in coastal landscapes in Florida: Landscape Ecology.

Spyreas, G., Gibson, D.J. and Middleton, B.A., 2001, Effects of endophyte infection in tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea—Poaceae) on community diversity: International Journal of Plant Science, v. 162, p. 1237-1245.

Taylor, J. and Middleton, B.A., 2004, Functional comparison of litter decomposition in natural vs. coal slurry ponds reclaimed as wetlands: Land Degradation and Development, v. 15, p. 1-8.

Ture, C., Akanil Bingol, N., and Middleton, B.A., accepted, Characterization of the gap environment of Lythrum salicaria L. and its relationship to seed production and stem height along arid rivers dominated by Populus alba L. in Turkey: Wetlands.

Xiao, N., Bennett, D.A., Middleton, B.A., and Fessel, K., 2002, SISM—a multiscale model for cypress swamp regeneration: Geographical and Environmental Modelling, v. 6, no. 1, p. 99-116.

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