Resolution of Respect:James A. <scp>MacMahon</scp> (1939–2024)

Photo 1. Dr. James A. MacMahon, 2014, as Dean of the College of Science, Utah State University. Photo credit: Donna Barry, Utah State University (with permission). Professor James A. MacMahon passed away on May 6, 2024, in Logan, Utah, having played a leading role in the science of ecology and in the Ecological Society of America. Jim was ESA's president in 1997–1998, guiding the society through difficult financial times and expanding membership through young scientist recruitments. Jim received the ESA Distinguished Service Award* in 2005 and was an ESA Elected Fellow in 2012. Jim's scientific career spanned 71 years, of which the last 53 years were spent in the Department of Biology at Utah State University, Logan. Over these many years, Jim mentored 62 graduate students and published 135 papers and books. While always professing to be “just a simple country boy,” to everyone who knew him, Jim was clearly a “Renaissance Man” in all respects and an ecologist in every sense of the word. His enormous breadth of scientific interests and knowledge was illustrated in the wide range of his studies; Jim and his students published ecological papers on snakes, turtles, lizards, frogs, salamanders, birds, rodents, large mammals, spiders, ants, beetles, grasshoppers, flies, mycorrhizal fungi, and plant communities from forests to deserts. Jim's expertise lay in the areas of disturbance ecology, succession, and ecosystem restoration (specifically animal-related disturbances, volcanic eruptions, and surface mining activities), along with the conceptual organization of ecological communities. His research addressed concepts in community assembly, animal behavior, biogeography of plants and animals, herbivory, granivory and seedling recruitment, predator–prey interactions, decomposition and nutrient cycling, and systematics and evolution. Jim was the lead Principal Investigator on several major research projects funded by the National Science Foundation. In the 1970s, Jim and his graduate students worked on a large study of succession in the spruce–fir forests of northern Utah, USA. This was followed by a 10-year series of multidisciplinary NSF grants focused on successional processes for ecosystem restoration in shrub–steppe habitat following surface mining disturbances in Wyoming, USA. At a time when studies of succession were largely observational, Jim was leading the designing of experiments focusing on driving mechanisms at a finer resolution than previously undertaken. Sometimes, these experiments were huge, as in the case of the restoration studies undertaken involving hundreds of plantings in computer-generated patterns. In other cases, the manipulation involved a single animal interacting with a single plant and watching how that interaction played out over decades. The eruption of the Mount St. Helens volcano in 1980 provided Jim and his colleagues and students with an outdoor laboratory to examine primary and secondary successional processes that has continued for over four decades with NSF and US Forest Service support recording the post-eruption community development of plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, and soil fungi and bacteria. To say that Jim's life was busy and accomplished is an understatement. He was born on April 7, 1939, in Dayton, Ohio, USA, to a single mom struggling to make ends meet. Jim's father left the family home prior to Jim's birth and never returned. As an eight-year-old, Jim could be found in the Dayton Museum of Natural History tapping on the glass of the reptile cages. Thus, began an amazing career in community ecology. His first job was cleaning those reptile cages to contribute to the family income. His mother worked two jobs and was seldom home, leaving Jim to roam the areas around Dayton collecting snakes and discovering the great outdoors that would later become his passion. Jim was an extremely bright student and succeeded academically, although with much mischief. His mother insisted that he attend Chammonade Julienne (on scholarship), a private Catholic High School. She had hoped he would become a priest, but Jim had other ideas. He became curator of reptiles at the Dayton Museum in 1953 and published his first scientific paper in Copeia in 1957 at age 18 before graduating from high school. During this time, Jim was part of a cadre of high school and college students who founded and developed The Ohio Herpetological Society which in 1967 morphed into the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR), publisher of the Journal of Herpetology. The society is now the largest professional society in the world devoted to the study of amphibians and reptiles. He attended several meetings in the 1950s and 60s, presented his first scientific paper at one of its meetings, and was present for the 10th anniversary meeting when the name was changed to SSAR. He was also editor of the society's journal in 1962–1963. Upon graduating from high school, Jim was named a National Science Foundation Undergraduate Honors Fellow, granting him a scholarship to Michigan State University where he graduated cum laude in 1960 with a BS in Zoology; during his undergraduate years (1957–1960), he served as the Curator of Reptiles at the MSU Museum. He then received one of the first National Science Foundation postgraduate scholarships to attend the University of Notre Dame, working under Professor Robert E. Gordon and graduating with honors in 1964 after completing his dissertation on the salamanders of Appalachia. Jim embraced academia, returning to the University of Dayton where he was an associate professor for 8 years, teaching, writing, mentoring students, and conducting research. Jim was a tenacious champion for social equality and equal justice. One story illustrates the lengths to which he would go to push for his principles. During the civil rights movement in the 1960s, while on faculty at the University of Dayton, he volunteered to be the faculty representative for the campus chapter of the Black Student Union. While in this role, he was approached by Dayton's Black community leaders for assistance with a major rat infestation in the less-affluent sections of town. The all-white city council had refused to pay for rat control measures, stating there was no evidence that Black neighborhoods had any more rats than white neighborhoods. Jim agreed to undertake a mark–recapture study of the rat populations in various parts of Dayton to demonstrate the inequities in rat distributions and abundances. After completing his field work (entirely alone, after dark, across the entire city), he presented the data to the city council, showing much higher rat densities in poor neighborhoods, and successfully lobbied the council to fund rat control measures in these neighborhoods. Photo 2. Jim MacMahon (plaid shirt in top-middle of photo) on field trip with the Utah State University Animal Communities and Herpetology classes near Mendocino, CA, spring 1982. Photo credit: Robert R. Parmenter. Jim gave back to his community by sitting on local, national, and international boards; advising the Utah governor and numerous scientific groups including the United Nations Council on Global Climate Change; serving a term as President of the Ecological Society of America; contributing as the first Chairman of the Board for the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON); and advising National governments and the U.S. Congress on matters of ecology. “Do not take your knowledge too seriously. Explain concepts in simple terms. Use examples from nature to punctuate your discussion of complex phenomena. People will recall interesting examples and, in turn, remember the concepts you want to impart.” Photo 3. Patty and Jim MacMahon in basecamp, Mount St. Helens, 2005. Photo credit: Robert R. Parmenter. After retirement, Jim developed an interest in the history and inner workings of steam trains. Once again they traveled, this time to find small, volunteer-run trains, riding through gorgeous country and enjoying every bit of the time spent together. Jim loved a good red wine, scotch, opera, chamber music, the symphony, great food (Jim was a gourmet cook), books (Jim maintained a huge personal library), art (his home was a virtual museum of Charley Harper prints), time with friends gathered around his dining room table, or a party on the deck. He was a wonderful storyteller and had many entertaining mishaps from his long career. He had a zest for life, but the best times were sitting on the deck during the northern Utah spring with Patty and his canine pals, Tavener and Berkeley, watching the birds and flowers emerge from the winter cold. MacMahon, J. A. 1957. Observations on mating in the corn snake Elaphe g. guttata. Copeia 1957:232–233. https://doi.org/10.2307/1439368 Gordon, R. E., J. A. MacMahon, and D. B. Wake. 1962. Relative abundance, microhabitat and behavior of some southern Appalachian salamanders. Zoologica 47:9–14. https://doi.org/10.5962/p.203318 Farrell, M. P., and J. A. MacMahon. 1969. An eco-physiological study of water economy in eight species of tree frogs (Hylidae). Herpetologica 25:279–294. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3891220 MacMahon, J. A., and J. R. Trigg. 1972. Seasonal changes in an old-field spider community with comments on techniques for evaluating zoosociological importance. American Midland Naturalist 87:122–132. https://doi.org/10.2307/2423886 MacMahon, J. A. 1975. Effects of temperature and photoperiod on oxygenation and other blood parameters of the sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes): adaptive significance. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 51A:59–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/0300-9629(75)90413-2 MacMahon, J. A. 1976. Species and guild similarity of North American desert mammal faunas: A functional analysis of communities. Pages 133–148 in D. W. Goodall, editor. Evolution of Desert Biota, University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, USA. MacMahon, J. A., D. L. Phillips, J. V. Robinson, and D. J. Schimpf. 1978. Levels of biological organization: An organism-centered approach. BioScience 28:700–704. https://doi.org/10.2307/1307320 Hatley, C. L., and J. A. MacMahon. 1980. Spider community organization: Seasonal variation and the role of vegetation architecture. Environmental Entomology 9:632–639. https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/9.5.632 Andersen, D. C., and J. A. MacMahon. 1981. Population dynamics and bioenergetics of a fossorial herbivore, Thomomys talpoides (Rodentia: Geomyidae), in a spruce-fir sere. 1981. Ecological Monographs 51:179–202. https://doi.org/10.2307/2937262 Phillips, D. L., and J. A. MacMahon. 1981. Competition and spacing patterns in desert shrubs. Journal of Ecology 69:97–115. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2259818 Parmenter, R. R., and J. A. MacMahon. 1983. Factors determining the abundance and distribution of rodents in a shrub-steppe ecosystem: The role of shrubs. Oecologia 59:145–156. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4217080 MacMahon, J. A. 1985. Deserts. The Audubon Society Nature Guides. Chanticleer Press, New York, USA. 638 pp. MacMahon, J. A., and F. H. Wagner. 1985. The Mojave, Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts of North America. Pages 105–202 in M. Evenari, et al., editors. Hot deserts and arid shrublands. Ecosystems of the world, vol. 12B, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Kelrick, M. I., J. A. MacMahon, R. R. Parmenter, and D. V. Sisson. 1986. Native seed preferences of shrub-steppe rodents, birds and ants: The relationships of seed attributes and seed use. Oecologia 68:327–337. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01036734 Warner, N. J., M. F. Allen, and J. A. MacMahon. 1987. Dispersal agents of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in a disturbed arid ecosystem. Mycologia 79:721–730. https://doi.org/10.1080/00275514.1987.12025452 Hawkins, C. P. and J. A. MacMahon. 1989. Guilds: The multiple meanings of a concept. Annual Review of Entomology 34:423–451. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.en.34.010189.002231 Chambers, J. C., J. A. MacMahon, and R. W. Brown. 1990. Alpine seedling establishment: The influence of disturbance type. Ecology 71:1323–1341. https://doi.org/10.2307/1938270 Chambers, J. C., J. A. MacMahon, and J. H. Haefner. 1991. Seed entrapment in alpine ecosystems: Effects of soil particle size and diaspore morphology. Ecology 72:1668–1677. https://doi.org/10.2307/1940966 Lubchenco, J., A. M. Olson, L. B. Brubaker, S. R. Carpenter, M. M. Holland, S. P. Hubbell, S. A. Levin, J. A. MacMahon, P. A. Matson, J. M. Melillo, H. A. Mooney, C. H. Peterson, H. R. Pulliam, L. A. Real, P. J. Regla, and P. G. Risser. 1991. The sustainable biosphere initiative: An ecological research agenda: A report from the Ecological Society of America Ecology 72:371–412. https://doi.org/10.2307/2937183 Crist, T. O., and J. A. MacMahon. 1992. Harvester ant foraging and shrub-steppe seeds: Interactions of seed resources and seed use. Ecology 73:1768–1779. https://doi.org/10.2307/1940028 Chambers, J. C., and J. A. MacMahon. 1994. A day in the life of a seed: Movements and fates of seeds and their implications for natural and managed systems. Annual Review of Ecology & Systematics 25:263–292. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.es.25.110194.001403 Christensen, N. L., A. M. Bartuska, J. H. Brown, S. Carpenter, C. D'Antonio, R. Francis, J. F. Franklin, J. A. MacMahon, R. F. Noss, D. J. Parsons, C. H. Peterson, M. G. Turner, and R. G. Woodmansee. 1996. The report of the Ecological Society of America Committee on the Scientific Basis for Ecosystem Management. Ecological Applications 6:665–691. https://doi.org/10.2307/2269460 Dale, V. H., A. E. Lugo, J. A. MacMahon, and S. T. A. Pickett. 1998. Ecosystem management in the context of large, infrequent disturbances. Ecosystems 1:546–557. https://doi.org/10.1007/s100219900050 Franklin, J. F., and J. A. MacMahon. 2000. Perspectives: Ecology. Messages from a mountain. Science 288:1183–1185. 10.1126/science.288.5469.1183 MacMahon, J. A., J. F. Mull, and T. O. Crist. 2000. Harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex spp.): Their community & ecosystem influences. Annual Review of Ecology & Systematics 31:265–291. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.31.1.265 Belovsky, G. E., D. B. Botkin, T. A. Crowl, K. W, Cummins, J. Franklin, M. L.Hunter, A. Joern, D. B. Lindenmayer, J. A. MacMahon, C. R. Margules, and J. M. Scott. 2004. Ten suggestions to strengthen the science of ecology. BioScience 54:345–351. https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0345:TSTSTS]2.0.CO;2 Parmenter, R. R., and J. A. MacMahon. 2009. Carrion decomposition and nutrient cycling in a semiarid shrub-steppe ecosystem. Ecological Monographs 79:637–661. https://doi.org/10.1890/08-0972.1 Crisafulli, C. M., R. R. Parmenter, T. E. Blackman, and J. A. MacMahon. 2018. Mammal community assembly during primary succession on the Pumice Plain at the Mount St. Helens volcano, 1983–2015. Pages 269–303 in C. M. Crisafulli and V. H. Dale, editors. Ecological responses at Mount St. Helens: Revisited 35 years after the 1980 eruption. Springer, New York, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7451-1_15