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Dr. Fred Benfield
Biological Sciences
[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Dr. Fred Benfield is Professor of Ecology and Associate Head in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech. His research has focused on biodiversity and ecosystem level functional responses of southern Appalachian streams to historical and contemporary disturbances in the landscape. He has concentrated on watershed disturbance created by logging and agriculture and, more recently, by urbanization of agricultural lands.
Dr. Benfield has collaborated with Drs. Jack Webster and Maury Valett, as members of the “VT Stream Team”, on research ranging from a 30 year project following recovery of a stream whose watershed was clear-cut in 1975, to a present study of stream responses to watershed logging operations.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”35867″ img_size=”275×355″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_border”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]He collaborates with scientists associated with the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory NSF-sponsored Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) site in western North Carolina on a project that seeks to predict how southern Appalachian ecosystems will respond to development over the period 2000-2030. He and Dr. Valett also explored the importance of ecosystems services provided by freshwater mussel beds in streams of western Virginia.
The Virginia Tech Stream Team, now known as the Ecosystem Research Group, is a collaboration of professors and students in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech who are studying various aspects of ecosystem ecology. The Group collaborates with each other, and with other University units and with other institutions. Within the university, they have had collaborations with faculty in Forestry, Geology, Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation, Agricultural Economics, Civil Engineering, Biological Systems Engineering, and Entomology.
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In the News
Heartfelt thanks to Fred Benfield, professor emeritus of Biological Sciences
Biological Sciences’ Fred Benfield honored with emeritus status by the Board of Visitors
Professor Fred Benfield shares his talents with the university and community
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Recent Relevant Publications
Wyderko, Jennie A., Benfield, Ernest F., Maerz, John C., Cecala, Kristen K., Belden, Lisa K. (2015) Variable infection of stream salamanders in the southern Appalachians by the trematode Metagonimoides oregonensis (family: Heterophyidae). Parasitol Research, 114:3159-3165. DOI 10.1007/s00436-015-4550-8
Northington, R.M., Webster, J.R., Benfield, E.F., Cheever, B.M. and Niederlehner, B. 2013. Ecosystem function in Appalachian headwater streams during an active invasion by the hemlock woolly adelgid. PLoS ONE. 8(4):e61171. (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061171)
Belden, Lisa K., William E. Peterman, Stephen A. Smith, Lauren R. Brooks, E.F. Benfield, Wesley P. Black, Zhaomin Yang and Jeremy M. Wojdak. 2012. Metagonimoides oregonensis (Heterophyidae: Digenea) Infection In Pleurocerid Snails and Desmognathus quadramaculatus Salamander Larvae In Southern Appalachian Streams. Journal of Parasitology 98(4):760-767.
Webster, J.R., K. Morkenski, C.A. Wojculewski, B.R. Niederlehner, E.F. Benefield and K.J. Elliott (2012). Effects of Hemlock Mortality on Streams in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The Midland American Naturalist: An International Journal of Ecology, Evolution and Environment. 168:112-131.
Webster, J.R., K. Moreski, C.A. Wojculewski, E.F. Benfield, K.J. Elliott. 2012. Effects of hemlock mortality on streams in the southern Appalachian mountains. American Midland Naturalist 168:112-131.
Sokol ER, Benfield EF, Belden LK, Valett HM (2011) The assembly of ecological communities inferred from taxonomic and functional composition. The American Naturalist 177(5): 630-644. doi:10.1086/659625
Hagen, Elizabeth M. Matthew E. McTammany, Jackson R. Webster, Ernest F. Benfield. 2010. Shifts in allochthonous input and autochthonous production in streams along an agricultural land-use gradient. Hydrobiologia. 655(1):61-77.
Simon, K., Simon, M., Benfield, E. 2009. Variation in ecosystem function in Appalachian streams along an acidity gradient. The Ecological Society of America, 19(5): 1147-1160
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