Teaching and research in evolutionary and behavioral ecology; resource control and reproductive success in vertebrates, including humans; integration of evolutionary theory and resource management; resources and reproductive variance; reproductive and resource tradeoffs for modern women.

Awards and Grants:
President, Human Behavior and Evolution Society (2002-2005); Director of the Evolution and Human Adaptation Program at the University of Michigan. Author of Why Sex Matters (Princeton, 2000), and co-author and co-editor of Institutions, Ecosystems, and Sustainability (CRC Press, 2001), along with Robert Costanza, Elinor Ostrom, and James Wilson; co-author, with Stan Braude, of Methods and Models in Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation Biology (2010). Ourstanding Graduate Mentor Award, 2007.

Research Interests:
The use of evolutionary theory to understand human activities, particularly patterns of resource use. Specific areas include: degree of sexual dimorphism and mating systems; ecological aspects of marriage systems; sex differences in resource use; resource patterns in historical demography, and the behavioral ecology of conservation. Dynamic modelling of ecosystems and human decision systems, and their interactions.

Evolutionary and behavioral ecology of wildlife species; resource control and reproductive success in vertebrates, parental strategies in vertebrates; integration of evolutionary theory and resource management.

Current/Recent Research:
The ecology of human resource use; Sex differences in human resource use. Resource control and reproductive success: Relevance for sustainability and demographic transitions. Analysis of fertility, mortality, survivorship, and family persistence for individuals of different categories of resource control in 19th-century Sweden, and 20th century China.

• The ecology of polygyny. Cross-cultural patterns in marriage systems and the ecological correlates (e.g., environmental uncertainty, pathogen stress, extremeness). Analysis of resource characteristics (heritability, partability) and marriage preference patterns. Testing hypotheses about resources and fertility, e.g., that marriage preferences emerge as a way of controlling resources.
• The behavioral ecology of conservation. Ecological circumstances promoting trust, cooperation, and long-term conservation strategies.
• Human-ecosystem interactions: Models, rules, and sustainability.

• Teaching Interests:
  Behavioral Ecology and Conervation (Environ 415/EEB424 and Environ 416), Human Resource Ecology (NRE 505)

  Selected Publications:

  • Braude, S., and Bobbi Low. 2010. Methods and Models in Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation Biology. Princeton University Press.
  • Low, B.S. 2000. Why Sex Matters: A Darwinian Look at Human Behavior. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Costanza, R., B. Low, E. Ostrom, and J. Wilson. 2001. Institutions, Ecosystems, and Sustainability. New York, Taylow Francis.
  • Low, Bobbi S. 2009. Marriage and family: The evolutionary ecological context. In H. Elizabeth Peters and Claire Kamp Dush (eds.). Marriage and Family: Complexities and Perspectives. New York: Columbia Press.
  • Borgerhoff Mulder, M., S. Bowles, T. Hertz, A. Bell, G. Clark, I. Fazzio, M. Gurven, K. Hill, P. L. Hooper, W.Irons, H. Kaplan, D. Leonetti, B. Low, F. Marlowe, S. Naido, D. Nolan, P. Piriano, R. Quinlan, R. Sear, M. Shenk, E. A. Smith, P Weissner. 2009. The intergenerational transmission of wealth and the dynamics of wealth in pre-modern societies. Science 326(5953): 682-688.
  • Low, Bobbi S., Ashley Hazel, Nicolas Parker, Kathleen B, Welch. 2008. Influences on women’s reproductive lives: Unexpected ecological underpinnings. Cross-Cultural Research 42:201-219.