Biography

Sievert Rohwer
Professor Emeritus
rohwer@u.washington.edu
Box: 351800
Office: 206-543-4066

Bio:
I grew up in the deep south where I spent most of my childhood in the woods catching snakes. Glen Woolfenden was my undergraduate mentor and the only field biologist at the University of South Florida in the 60’s, so I switched to studying birds. Richard Johnston at the University of Kansas and Steve Fretwell at Kansas State University were my graduate and postdoctoral advisors. I came here in 1972, jointly appointed in Zoology and as Curator of Birds at the Burke Museum.

Research Interests:
My science is inspired by observations that appear to be a challenge to explain by natural selection. My early work here focused on field experimental investigations of the evolution of badge signaling systems and how they resist invasion by cheaters, on parent cannibalism of offspring, and on the evolution of adoption of unrelated offspring by replacement mates. Later, as we developed a premier bird collection for the Northwest at the Burke Museum, my interests expanded to include a diversity of projects that are well suited to investigations using museum collections.

Selected Publications:
Avian Color Evolution:

Rohwer, S., and G.S. Butcher. 1988. Winter versus summer explanations of delayed plumage maturation in temperate passerine birds. American Naturalist 131: 556-572.

Rohwer, S., and E. Roskaft. 1989. Results of dying male Yellow-headed Blackbirds solid black: implications for the arbitrary identity badge hypothesis. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 25:39-48.

Adoption and Infanticide:

Rohwer, S, J.C. Herron and M.L. Daly. 1999. Step parental behavior as mating effort. Evolution and Human Behavior 20: 367-390.

Gori, D.F., S. Rohwer and J. Cassell. 1996. Accepting unrelated broods helps replacement male Yellow-headed Blackbirds attract mates. Behavioral Ecology 7:49-54.

Rohwer, S. 1978. Parent cannibalism of offspring and egg raiding as a courtship strategy. American Naturalist 112: 429-440.

Molt and Avian Life Histories:

Rohwer, S., L. K. Butler, and D. R. Froehlich. 2002. Ecology and demography of east-west differences in molt scheduling of neotropical migrant passerines. Smithsonian Birds of Two Worlds Symposium: in press.

Rohwer, S. 1999. Time Constraints and Moult-Breeding tradeoffs in Large Birds. In: Adams, N. and Slotow, R. (Eds), Proceedings of the 22 International Ornithological Congress Durban, University of Natal: 568-581.

Langston, N.E. and S. Rohwer. 1996. Molt/breediong tradeoffs in albatrosses: Implications for understanding lifehistory variables. Oikos 76: 498-510.

Behavioral Ecology of Hybrid Zones:

Rohwer, S. 2004. Using age ratios to infer survival and despotic breeding dispersal in hybridizing warblers. Ecology 85: 423-431.

Rohwer, S., E. Bermingham, and C. Wood. 2001. Plumage and mitochondrial DNA haplotype variation across a moving hybrid zone. Evolution 55:405-422.

Pearson, S.F., and S. Rohwer. 2000. Asymmetries in male aggression across an avian hybrid zone. Behavioral Ecology 11: 93-101.

Holarctic and Eurasian Phylogeography:

Drovetski, S. V., R. M. Zink, S. Rohwer, I. V. Fadeev, E. V. Nesterov, I. Karagodin, E. V. Koblik, and Y. A. Red’kin. 2004. Complex biogeographic history of a holarctic passerine. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B 271: 545-551.

Pavlova, A., R.M. Zink, S. Drovetski, Y. Red'kin, and S. Rohwer. 2003. Phylogeographic patterns in Motacilla flava and M. citreola: species limits and population history. Auk 120: 744-758.

Zink, R.M., S. Rohwer, S. Drovetski, R.C. Blackwell-Rago, and S. L. Farrell. 2002. Holarctic phylogeography and species limits of Three-toed Woodpeckers. Condor, 104: 167-170.