Research Staff

J. Sebastián Tello, Ph.D.
Assistant Scientist, Ecology
Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development

office phone: + 1 (314) 577-5100 ext. 846
fax: + 1 (314) 577-9596
email: sebastian.tello@mobot.org

Missouri Botanical Garden
4344 Shaw Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63110
USA

Education
Ph.D., Louisiana State University, 2011
B.S., Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (Quito, Ecuador), 2005

Biodiversity, macroecology, metacommunities, spatial ecology, null models, computer simulation models
Web Pages Personal web page

Research Emphases My research interests are on the study of biodiversity, particularly on macroecology, metacommunity ecology, biogeography and spatial ecology. I have worked mostly with bats, bat ectoparasites and rodents, but I consider my research to be question oriented rather than system oriented, and now I am concentrating on investigating diversity issues with plant data. I am particularly interested in the role that historical events and stochastic processes have on traditional biogeographic patterns (like broad scale species richness gradients), and community level patterns (like species coexistence and species turnover).
Selected Publications Tello, J. S. and Stevens, R. D. Accepted. Can stochastic models of geographical evolution recreate macroecological richness-environment correlations? Global Ecology and Biogeography. PDF. Stevens, R.D., Gavilanez, M.M, Tello, J. S. and Ray, D. A. Accepted. Phylogenetic structure illuminates mechanistic effect of environmental heterogeneity on community organization. Journal of Animal Ecology. PDF. Tello, J. S. and Stevens, R. D. Accepted. Murciélagos, características ambientales y efectos de mitad de dominio (Bats, environmental characteristics and mid-domain effects). In Tirira, D., Burneo, S. and Boada, C. (eds.). Investigación y conservación de los murciélagos del Ecuador. PDF. Stevens, R. D. and Tello, J. S. 2011. Diversity begets diversity: relative roles of structural and resource heterogeneity in determining patterns of community structure. Journal of Mammalogy. 92: 387-395. PDF. Tello, J. S. and Stevens, R. D. 2010. Multiple environmental determinants of regional species richness and effects of geographic range size. Ecography 33: 796-808. PDF. Carrera, J. P., Solari, S., Larsen, P. A., Alvarado, D. F., Brown, A. D., Carrión-B., C, Tello, J. S. and Baker, R. J. 2010. Bats of the tropical lowlands of western Ecuador. Special Publications. Museum of Texas Tech University. Number 57. PDF. Stevens, R. D. and Tello, J. S. 2009. Micro- and macro-habitat associations of rodents in a Mojave Desert metacommunity. Journal of Mammalogy 90: 388-403. PDF. Tello, J. S., Stevens, R. D. and Dick, C. W. 2008. Patterns of species co-occurrence and density compensation: a test for interspecific competition in bat ectoparasite infracommunities. Oikos. 117: 693-702. PDF.