James (Eddie) Watkins

BS, Auburn University, 1997
MS, Iowa State University, 2000
PhD, University of Florida, 2006
Post Doc, Harvard University, 2008

Field-Based Courses

• 2008, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2022, 2025: Coordinated the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) sponsored specialty course: Tropical ferns and Lycophytes in Costa Rica (with Robbin Moran NYBG)
• 2012: Invited to coordinate a Spanish-language tropical fern ecology course in Mexico sponsored by the Instituto de Ecología, A.C. and the Departamento  Ecología Funcional, Veracruz, Mexico.
• 2009: Invited to coordinate a Spanish-language tropical fern ecology course in Mexico sponsored by the Instituto de Ecología, A.C. and the Departamento Ecología Funcional, Veracruz, Mexico.
• 2005: Resource person for Organization for Tropical Studies’ Spanish language course: Systematica de Plantas Tropicales. Presented lectures, facilitated tropical fern identification, and led independent field projects.
• 2004: Resource person for Organization for Tropical Studies course: Tropical Ecology. Presented lectures and facilitated tropical fern identification, and guided students through creation of a fern ecology project resulting in a peer reviewed publication: Watkins Jr., J. E. et al. 2006.
• 2002: Resource person for Organization for Tropical Studies course: Tropical Plant Systematics (English language course). Presented lectures and facilitated tropical fern identification.

Biological sciences; botany; plant ecology; plant physiology

• 2018: Understanding the effects of ploidy level on responses to global change in plants. $760,800 (with Emily Sessa, University of Florida and Clayton Visger, Sacramento State). NSF Award Number: 1725458
• 2017: The Cenozoic radiation of Eupolypod ferns: did selection for drought tolerance drive the evolutionary physiology of sporophytes and gametophytes? $642,000 (with J.Pitterman, University of California, Santa Cruz). NSF Award Number: 1656801
• 2013: Novel lessons from ancient plants: water transport in the earliest tracheophytes. $380,000 (with J. Pitterman, University of California, Santa Cruz) NSF Award Number: 1258186
• 2010: Finnish Cultural Foundation: Examination of functional traits of ferns across a rainfall gradient in Panama.Co-PI Mirkka Jones, University of Turku, Finland (€6,000)

• 2012-2014: President of the American Fern Society
• 2010-2014: Council member to the American Institute of Biological Sciences to represent the American Association of Plant Taxonomists
• 2008-Current: Associate Editor of the America Fern Journal
• 2008-2014: Council member to the American Institute of Biological Sciences to represent the American Fern Society.
• 2007-2009: Secretary of the Pteridological Section of the Botanical Society of America

Book Chapters

Pitterman, J.P., J.E. Watkins, Jr. and E. Schuettpelz. 2015. The Structure and Function of Xylem in Seed-Free Vascular Plants: An Evolutionary Perspective. In Functional and

Ecological Xylem Anatomy. Editor U. Hacke. Springer Farrar, D.R., C. Dassler, J.E. Watkins, Jr., C. Skelton, 2008. Gametophyte Ecology. In Biology and Evolution of Ferns and Lycophytes. Editors, T. Ranker and C. Haufler. Cambridge University Press. Pp 235-267.

Refereed Publications

(*Represents undergraduate student author)

2024 (As of September 2024)

Flores-Galván, C., Márquez-Guzmán, J., Mata-Rosas, M., Watkins, J. E., & Mehltreter, K. 2024. Limestone ferns: a review of the substrate characteristics and species diversity in selected geographic regions and genera. Special Issue: New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1–18.

Blake-Mahmud, J. E. Sessa, C. Visger, J.E. Watkins, Jr. 2024. Polyploidy and environmental stress response: a comparative study of fern gametophytes. New Phytologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19969

Suissa, J.S., *N. Barkoff, J.E. Watkins, Jr. 2024. Extreme functional specialization of fertile leaves in a widespread fern species and its implications on the evolution of reproductive dimorphism. Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11552

2023

Aros-Mualin, D., C. Flores-Galván, S. Páez, J.A. Pelosi, E. Sorojsrisom, *N. Yawn, J. E. Watkins Jr. 2023. In situ observations of the gametophytes of six fern species of Costa Rica. American Fern Journal, 113(3):170-190. https://doi.org/10.1640/0002-8444-113.3.170.

Krieg, C, S. Gosetti, J.E. Watkins, Jr., P. Griffith, K. McCulloh. 2023. Reproductive phases coincide with changes in morphology and photosynthetic physiology in an endangered cycad species. Conservation Physiology 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coad020

Pittermann, J, A. Baer, C. Campany, S. Jansen, H. Holmlund, E. Schuettpelz, K. Mehltreter, Watkins, Jr., J.E. 2023. A reduced role for water transport during the Cenozoic evolution of epiphytic Eupolypod ferns. New Phytologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18667.

Krieg, C.P., K. Seeger, C. Campany, J.E.Watkins, Jr., D. McClearn, K.A. McCulloh and E. Sessa. 2023. Functional Traits that underlie leaf economics and lifespan develop at different rates in a tropical fern species. American Journal of Botany. DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.16151

Suissa, J., Y. Preisler, J.E. Watkins, Jr., K. McCulloch. 2023. Vulnerability segmentation in ferns and its implication on their survival during drought. American Fern Journal. American Fern J., 112(4):336-353 https://doi.org/10.1640/0002-8444-112.4.33

2022

Watts, J.L. and J.E. Watkins, Jr. 2022. In Press. New Zealand fern distributions from the last glacial maximum to 2070: a dynamic tale of migration and community turnover. American Fern Journal – Invited Special Issue

Heo, N., M.V. Lomolino, J.E. Watkins, Jr, S. Yun, J. Weber-Townsend, D.D. Fernando. 2022. Evolutionary history of the Asplenium scolopendrium complex (Aspleniaceae), a relictual fern with a northern pan-temperate disjunct distribution. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blac080

Harrington, A., J. Blake-Mahmud, and J.E. Watkins, Jr. 2022. Antheridiogen controls spatial dynamics of sex-expression in naturally occurring gametophytes of the tree fern Cyathea multiflora. American Journal of Botany. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16040

Watts, J.L. and J.E. Watkins, Jr. 2022. Crossing the divide: an exploration of functional traits in ferns that grow across terrestrial, epipetric, and epiphytic Habitats. American Fern Journal. 111(4):000-000.

2021

Testo, W.L., J.E. Watkins, Jr, J. Wiley, L. Baumann, E. Weaver. 2021. Asplenium scolopendrium var. americanum (Aspleniaceae) is found in New Mexico, USA. American Fern Journal. 111(3):217-222

Nitta, J.H., J.E. Watkins, Jr., N.M. Holbrook, R. Taputuarai, T. Wang, C.C. Davis. 2021. Ecophysiological differentiation between life stages in filmy ferns (Hymenophyllaceae). Journal of Plant Research. oi: 10.1007/s10265-021-01318-z

Campany, C., J. Pittermann, A. Baer, H. Holmlund, E. Schuettpelz, K. Mehltreter, J.E. Watkins, 2021. "Leaf water relations in epiphytic ferns are driven by drought avoidance rather than tolerance mechanisms" Plant Cell and Environment 44(6):1741-1755

2020

Ondřej H., W.L. Testo  E. B. Sessa  J.E. Watkins Jr.,  C. E. Campany, J. Pittermann  L. Ekrt. 2020. Insights into the evolutionary history and widespread occurrence of antheridiogen systems in ferns. New Phytologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16836

Nitta, J.H., J. E. Watkins, Jr., R. Taputuarai, and C. Davis. 2020. Life in the canopy: community trait assessments reveal previously undetected diversity among fern epiphytes. New Phytologist https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16607

Kattge, J., G. Bönisch, S. Díaz, S. Lavore, I. C. Prentice, P. Leadley, S. Tautenhahn… J.E. Watkins, Jr. with 729 other authors. 2020. TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access. Global Change Biology

2019

Watts*, J.L., R.C. Moran, J.E. Watkins, Jr. 2019. The first report of hemiepiphytism in Aspleniaceae. Annals of Botany. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcz124. Editor’s Choice Award

Watkins, Jr., J.E. and R.C. Moran. 2019. The gametophytes of the fern genera Dracoglossum and Lomariopsis (Lomariopsidaceae) and their phylogenetic significance. International Journal of Plant Sciences. doi/10.1086/705587

Li-Yaung, K., Y. Chang, Y. Huang, W.L. Testo, A. Ebihara, G. Rouhan, L.Quintanilla, J. E. Watkins Jr, F. Li, Y. Huang. 2019. A global phylogeny of Stegnogramma sensu lato ferns (Thelypteridoideae, Thelypteridaceae, Aspleniineae): generic and section-level revision, historical biogeography, and evolution of leaf architecture. Cladistics. Online Early at https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.12399

Krieg, C.P., J.E. Watkins, Jr., K.A. McCulloh. 2019. A new protocol for psychometric pressure-volume curves of fern gametophytes. Applications in Plant Sciences 7(5): e1248. doi:10.1002/aps3.1248

2018

Campany, C., J.E. Watkins, Jr. and *Martin, L. 2018. Convergence of ecophysiological traits drives floristic composition of early lineage vascular plants in a tropical forest floor. Annals of Botany. 123(5):793–803.  https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcy210

Gabriel y Galan, J. M., A. Murciano, L. Sirvent, A. Sanchez, Watkins, Jr. J.E. 2018. Germination fitness of two temperate epiphytic ferns shifts under increasing temperatures and forest fragmentation. PLOS One. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197110

Mahley*, J. Pittermann, J. Rowe, N., Baer, A. Watkins, Jr, J.E., Schuettpelz, E. Wheeler, J. Mehltreter, K., Windhan, M. Testo, W., Beck, J. 2018. Geometry, allometry and biomechanics of fern leaf petioles: their significance for the evolution of functional and ecological diversity within the Pteridaceae. Frontiers in Plant Science.  https://doi.org 10.3389/fpls.2018.00197

2017

Krieg*, C., C. Husby, J.E. Watkins, Jr. 2017. Sex-specific differences in functional traits and resource acquisition in five cycad species. AoB Plants doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plx013

Chambers, S., J.E. Watkins, Jr., E. Sessa. 2017. Differences in dehydration tolerance among populations of a gametophyte-only fern. American Journal of Botany 104:1-10

2016

Haufler, C.H. , K. Pryer, E. Schuettpelz, E. Sessa, D.R. Farrar, R. Moran, J. Schneller, J.E. Watkins, Jr., M. Windham. 2016. Sex and the single gametophyte: Revising the homosporous vascular plant life cycle in light of contemporary research. Bioscience doi: 10.1093/biosci/biw108

Britton*, M.R. and J.E. Watkins, Jr. 2016. The economy of reproduction in dimorphic ferns. Annals of Botany. 118 (6): 1139-1149 DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcw177

Watkins, Jr., J.E., A.C. Churchill*, N.M. Holbrook. 2016. A site for sori: ecophysiology of fertile-sterile leaf dimorphy in ferns. American Journal of Botany. doi:10.3732/ajb.1500505

Sessa, E.B., W.L. Testo, and J.E. Watkins, Jr. 2016. On the widespread capacity for and functional significance of extreme inbreeding in ferns. New Phytologist 211:761–764. doi: 10.1111/nph.13670

2015

Zier*, J., B. Belanger*, G. Trahan*, J.E. Watkins Jr., 2015. Ecophysiology of four co-occurring lycophyte species: an investigation of functional convergence. AoB Plants 7: plv137; doi:10.1093/aobpla/plv137

Testo, W.L., J.E. Watkins, Jr., J. Pitterman, and R. Momin*. 2015. Pteris ×caridadiae, a new hybrid fern from Costa Rica. Brittonia DOI 10.1007/s12228-015-9370-8

2014

Testo, W.L., J.E. Watkins, Jr., D.S. Barrington. 2014. Dynamics of asymmetrical hybridization in North American wood ferns: reconciling patterns of inheritance with gametophyte ecology. New Phytologist. 206:785–795. 10.1111/nph.13213

Canestraro, B.K., R.C. Moran, and J.E. Watkins, Jr. 2014. Reproductive and physiological ecology of climbing and terrestrial Polybotrya (Dryopteridaceae). International Journal of Plant Sciences. 175:432-411.

2013

Testo*, W.L. and Watkins, J.E., Jr., 2013. Understanding mechanisms of rarity: competition and climate change threaten a rare fern species. American Journal of Botany. 100:2261-2270

Pitterman, J., C. Brodersen, and J.E. Watkins, Jr., 2013. The physiological resilience of fern sporophytes and gametophytes: advances in water relations offer new insights into an old lineage. Invited Review. Frontiers in Plant Biophysics and Modeling. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2013.00285

2012

Testo*, W.L. and J.E. Watkins, Jr., 2012. Influence of plant size on the ecophysiology of the epiphytic fern Asplenium auritum Sw. from Costa Rica. American Journal of Botany. 99:1840-1846.

Watkins, Jr., J.E. and C. Cardelús.  2012. Ferns in an angiosperm world: Cretaceous radiation into the epiphytic niche and diversification on the forest floor. Invited review for the International Journal of Plant Sciences for the special issue: Major Transitions in Angiosperm Ecology and Functional Biology. 173:695-710.

2011

Laurence, W. … J.E. Watkins, Jr., and 48 other authors. 2011. Global warming, elevational ranges, and the vulnerability of tropical biota. Conservation Biology. 144:548-557. doi: 10.1016 /j. biocon.2010.10.010.

Testo*, W.L. and J.E. Watkins, Jr., 2011. Comparative development and gametophyte morphology of the hart's-tongue fern,  Asplenium scolopendrium L. J. Torrey Bot. Soc. 138(4):400-408. 2011 

Watkins, J.E., W.L. Testo*, and R. Merkhofer*. 2011. In situ gametophyte morphology of the tropical epiphyte: Oleandra articulata. American Fern Journal 101(1):50-56

2010

Watkins, Jr., J.E., N.M. Holbrook, M. Zwieniecka. 2010. Hydraulic properties of ferns: consequences for ecological and evolutionary diversification. American Journal of Botany. 97(12):2007-2009. Featured cover article

2009

Watkins, Jr., J.E. and C.L. Cardelús. 2009. Habitat differentiation of ferns in a lowland tropical rain forest. American Fern Journal 3:162–175.

2008

Watkins, Jr., J.E., C.L. Cardelús, M.C. Mack 2008. Ants mediate nitrogen relations of an epiphytic fern. New Phytologist 150:5-8.

2007

Watkins, Jr., J.E., M.C. Mack, T. Sinclair and S.S. Mulkey. 2007. Ecological and evolutionary consequences of desiccation tolerance in tropical fern gametophytes. New Phytologist 176:708-717. Featured cover article with commentary

Watkins, Jr., J.E., M.C. Mack, and S.S. Mulkey. 2007. Gametophyte ecology and demography of epiphytic and terrestrial tropical ferns. American Journal of Botany 94(4):701–708. Featured cover article

Watkins, Jr., J.E., P. Rundel, C.L. Cardelús. 2007 The influence of life form on carbon and nitrogen relationships in tropical rainforest ferns. Oecologia 153(2): 225-232.

2006

Watkins Jr., J.E. A.Y. Kawahara, S.A. Leicht, J.R. Auld, A.J. Bicksler and K. Kaiser. 2006. Fern laminar scales protect against photoinhibition from excess light. American Fern Journal 96(3):83–92.

Watkins, Jr., J.E., C.L. Cardelús, R. Moran, R.K. Colwell. 2006. Species richness and distribution of ferns along an elevational gradient in Costa Rica. American Journal of Botany 93(1):144-156.

2005

Cardelús, C.L., R.K. Colwell, J.E. Watkins, Jr., 2005. Vascular epiphyte distribution patterns: explaining the mid-elevation richness peak. Journal of Ecology. 93(6):73-83.

Watkins Jr., J.E. and D.R. Farrar. 2005. Origin and taxonomic affinities of the disjunct fern Thelypteris burksiorum (Watkins and Farrar). Brittonia 57(2):183-201.

2004

Dute, R.R., D.R. Folkerts, J.E. Watkins, Jr., M.E. Saxon, and R.S. Boyd. 2004. Floral anatomy and pollination biology of Cyrilla racemiflora. Southeastern Naturalist 3(2):309–326.

Moran, R. and J.E. Watkins, Jr., 2004. Lomariopsis X farrarii: a new hybrid fern between L. japurensis and L. vestita (Lomariopsidaceae) from Costa Rica. Brittonia 56(3):205-209.

2002

Watkins Jr., J.E. and D.R. Farrar. 2002 A new name for an old fern from North Alabama. American Fern Journal92(2):171-178.

Moran, R. and J.E. Watkins, Jr., 2002. The occurrence and morphology of Adiantum × variopinnatum Jermy & T. G. Walker (=A. latifolium Lam. × A. petiolatum Desv.; Pteridaceae). Brittonia 54:57-60.

Yoko Y., J.E. Watkins, D.R. Farrar and N. Murakami. 2002. Genetic variation in populations of the morphologically and ecologically variable fern Stegnogramma pozoi subsp. mollissima (Thelypteridaceae). Japanese Journal of Plant Research 115:29-38.

1998-2000

Boyd, R.S., M.A. Wall, and J.E. Watkins, Jr., 2000. Correspondence between Ni tolerance and Ni hyperaccumulation in Strepanthus (Brassicaceae). Madroño 47(2):7-105.

Watkins, J.E. Jr., A. Diamond, R.R. Dute. 2000. Distribution and new county records of the fern: Botrychium lunarioides (Michaux) Sw. in Alabama. Castanea 65(1):64-68.

Watkins, J.E. Jr., and R.R. Dute. 1998. Spore morphology of Botrychium lunarioides (Michaux) Sw. American Fern Journal 88:86-92.

• 2023: Charles E. Bessey Teaching Award from the Botanical Society of America
• 2023: Balmuth Award for Teaching and Student Engagement – Colgate University
• 2021: Colgate University AAUP Professor of the Year
• 2019: Nominated for the Phi Eta Sigma Professor of the Year award, Colgate University
• 2017: Nominated for the Phi Eta Sigma Professor of the Year award, Colgate University
• 2012: Elected as President of the American Fern Society
• 2010: Elected Fellow of the Linnaean Society
• 2009: Nominated for the Phi Eta Sigma Professor of the Year award, Colgate University
• 2006: Mercer Post-Doctoral Fellow, Harvard University
• 2006: McLaughlin Dissertation Fellowship, University of Florida
• 2005: Edgar T. Wherry Award for best talk presented to the Pteridological section of the Botanical Society of America (Austin, Texas)
• 2004: Nominated for University of Florida teaching assistant award
• 2003: Nominated for University of Florida teaching assistant award
• 1999: Edgar T. Wherry Award for best poster presented to the Pteridological section of the International Botanical Congress (St Louis, Missouri)
• 1997: Young Botanist Award, Botanical Society of America
• 1997: Outstanding undergraduate poster presentation, Alabama Academy of Science