Fitchburg State College Faculty

Christopher Picone

Biology/Chemistry

Courses Taught:

• Conservation Biology
• General Biology II
• Ecology
• Environmental Science

Education:

• University Of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI). Ph.D. Ecology. 1999. Ph.D. Thesis: Comparative ecology of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in lowland tropical forest and pasture.
• Michigan State University (Lansing, MI). Graduate Mycology course. 1998.
• Organization for Tropical Studies (Costa Rica). Tropical Managed Ecosystems Course. 1993.
• College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA). B.A., Biology summa cum laude. 1990.

Research Interests:

Ecology of agricultural systems compared to "natural" systems
Relationships between plants and beneficial soil fungi (mycorrhizas)
Sustainable agriculture (especially perennial grains grown in mixtures)
Tropical forest ecology and conservation
Ecological education

Current Projects:

Comparing communities of beneficial soil fungi in native grasslands and agricultural systems in Kansas
The role of "host-specificity" in controlling the fungus soecies growing with different plant groups
Potential for potential fungi to supress agricultural weeds
Evaluating techniques for teaching graphing and analytical skills to improve ecological literacy

Representative Publications:

Peer-reviewed Articles & Book Chapters

Picone, C. Managing communities of arbuscular mycorrizal fungi: perennial, no-till systems are more important than plant diversity. To be submitted to Ecological Applications.

Cox, T.S., C. Picone, and W. Jackson. 2004. Research priorities in natural systems agriculture. Journal of Crop Improvement 12 (1/2): 511- 532.

Picone, C. 2003. Managing mycorrhizae for a sustainable agriculture in the tropics. Pp. 93-130 in Advances in Agroecology  Tropical agroecosystems. John Vandermeer, Ed. CRC Press.

Picone, C., D.Vantassel. 2002. Agriculture and biodiversity loss: industrial agriculture. Pp. 99-105 in Life on Earth: An Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution. Niles Eldredge, Ed. ABC-CLIO publishers.

Cox, T. S., M. Bender, C. Picone, D. L. Van Tassel, J. B. Holland, C. E. Brummer, B. E. Zoeller, A. H. Paterson and W. Jackson. 2002. Breeding perennial grain crops. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 21:59-91.

Picone, C. 2000. Diversity and abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus spores in tropical forest and pasture. Biotropica 32: 734-750.

Picone, C. 1996. Abundance, diversity, and spatial heterogeneity of AM fungal spores in degraded pasture and lowland forest of Nicaragua. Pp. 134-136 in Mycorrhizas in Integrated Systems: from Genes to Plant Development. C. Azcón-Aguilar and J.M.Barea, Eds. European Commission, Brussels, Belgium.

Murray, K. G., S. Russell, C. Picone, W. Sherwood, M. Kuhlman, and K. Winnet-Murray. 1994. Seed passage rates in fruit-eating birds: chemical control by plants and consequences for dispersal distance and germination success. Ecology 75: (4) 989-994.

Harrington, B. H., C. Picone, S. L. Resende, and F. Leeuwenberg. 1993. Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica) migration in southern Argentina. Wader Study Group Bulletin, January.


Reports & Popular Media

Picone, C. 2004. Evaluation of the Land Institutes Graduate Fellows Workshop in Natural Systems Agriculture, June 6-12, 2004. Evaluation on file with the G.E. Dodge Foundation, and with The Land Institute, Salina, KS.

Picone, C. 2002. Natural systems of soil fertility: the webs beneath our feet. The Land Report 73: 3-7.

Picone, C. 2000. Wheat as part of a soil community: a history of cooperation with fungi. The Land Report 67: 6-7.

Picone, C. Voting for Nader would help farmers. Op-Ed piece for the Salina Journal, September 18, 2000.

Picone, C., W. Jackson, S. Cox, and D. Van Tassel. Give consumers choice on genetically altered food. Op-Ed piece for the Kansas City Star, Sept. 11, 2000.

Picone, C. The goal is fair trade, not just free trade. Op-Ed piece for the Salina Journal, December 15, 1999.

Picone, C., D. Andresen, G. Thomas, and D. Griffith. 1999. Say no to GMOs: A rational, scientific assessment of the risks from genetically modified crops to health, the environment and small farmers. Agenda magazine. May-June. pp. 6-8. Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Picone, C. 1992. Searching for the austral shorebirds. Manomet Bird Observatory Quarterly. Spring/summer: 10-13.

Professional Affiliations:

Ecological Society of America (Soil microbial ecology, agro-ecology, and education sections)
Soil Ecology Society
New World Agriculture and Ecology Group