biology

Phyllis Coley

Phyllis Coley is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Phyllis Coley rather than just read about it. In short: Phyllis Dewing Coley is a Biology professor currently teaching at the University of Utah. In 1996 she received the University's Distinguished Research Award.

Key takeaways

Phyllis Coley belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Phyllis Coley to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Phyllis Coley from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Phyllis Dewing Coley is a Biology professor currently teaching at the University of Utah. In 1996 she received the University's Distinguished Research Award. She has been a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute since 1995. In 2023, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. In 1974, she completed her B.A. at Hampshire College. Her M.A. and doctorate were completed at the University of Chicago by studying resource availability theory, including the effects of leaf age and plant life history patterns on herbivory, and patterns of plant defenses. Throughout her academic career, Coley has received multiple honors and awards. She received the National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Advancement Award in 1994 and in 2002 was named an ISI highly cited researcher in Ecology/Environment. Since 2006, Coley has been a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS).

Research interests Coley's research interests include bioprospecting and plant defenses and herbivory in tropical forests. Additional emphasis of research includes the study of conservation of tropical rainforests and how tropical herbivores are regulated by the third trophic level Current attentions in her research are focused on chemical defenses and linking these to other plant traits, within a phylogenetic context. This research is primarily based on the tropical plants part of the family Fabaceae as a model to understand how herbivores may be driving rapid evolution of defenses and how this might contribute to community assembly and speciation in the genus Her research has implications in understanding multi-species comparisons and interactions in tropical communities.

Selected publications

Coley, P.D. 1980. Effects of leaf age and plant life history patterns on herbivory. Nature 284:545-546. Coley, P.D. 1982. Rates of herbivory on different tropical trees. Pages 123–132. In: The Ecology of a Tropical Forest: Seasonal Rhythms and Long-term Changes, E.G. Leigh, A.S. Rand and D.M. Windsor (eds), Smithsonian Press. Coley, P.D. 1983. Herbivory and defensive characteristics of tree species in a lowland tropical forest. Ecological Monographs 53:209-233. Coley, P.D. 1983. Intra-specific variation in herbivory on two tropical tree species. Ecology 64:426-433. Putz, F.E., P.D. Coley, K. Lu, A. Montalvo and A. Aillelo. 1983. Uprooting and snapping of trees: Structural determinants and ecological consequences. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 13:1011-1020. Angehr, G., P.D. Coley, and A. Worthington. 1984. Guía de los Árboles Comunes del Parque Nacional Soberanía, Panamá. Smithsonian Institution Press. Coley, P.D., J.P. Bryant, F.S. Chapin, III. 1985. Resource availability and plant anti-herbivore defense. Science 230:895-899. Coley, P.D. 1986. Costs and benefits of defense by tannins in a neo-tropical tree. Oecologia 70:238-241. Salo, J., R. Kalliola, I. Hakkinen, Y. Makinen, P. Niemela, M. Puhakka, and P.D. Coley. 1986. River dynamics and diversity of Amazon lowland forest. Nature 322:254-258. Coley, P.D. 1987. Patrones en las defensas de las plantas: ¿Porque los herbivoros prefrieren ciertas especies?. Revista de Biología Tropical 35 (suppl):251-263. Bazzaz, F.A., N. Chiariello, P.D. Coley and L.F. Pitelka. 1987. Allocating resources to reproduction and defense. Bioscience 37:58-67. Coley, P.D. 1987. Species differences in leaf defenses of tropical trees. Pages 30–35. In: Fourth Annual Wildland Shrup Symposium on Plant-Herbivore Interactions. F.D. Provenza and J. Flinders (eds). Dirzo, R. F.S. Chapin, P.D. Coley, D.H. Janzen, R. Marquis, L. McHargue, J Nunez-Farfan and K Oyama. 1987. Problemas importantes en el estudio de interacciones planta-herbivoro en los bosques tropicales. Revista de Biología Tropical 35 (suppl):207-211. Coley, P.D. 1987. Interspecific variation in plant anti-herbivore properties: The role of habitat quality and rate of disturbance. New Phytologist 106 (suppl):251-263. Coley, P.D. 1988. Effects of plant growth rate and leaf lifetime on the amount and type of anti-herbivore defense. Oecologia 74:531-536. Coley, P.D. and T.M. Aide. 1989. Red coloration of tropical young leaves: A possible antifungal defense. Journal of Tropical Ecology 5:293-300. Jing, S.W. and P.D. Coley. 1990. Dioecy and herbivory: the effect of growth rate on plant defense in Acer negundo. Oikos 58:369-377. Coley, P.D. and T.M. Aide. 1991. Comparison of herbivory and plant defenses in temperate and tropical broad-leaved forests. Pages 25–49. In: Plant-Animal Interactions: Evolutionary Ecology in Tropical and Temperate Regions, edited by PW Price, TM Lewinsohn, GW Fernandes and WW Benson, Wiley & Sons, NY. Kursar, T. A. and P. D. Coley. 1991. Nitrogen content and expansion rate of young leaves of rainforest species: Implications for herbivory. Biotropica 23:141-150. Kursar, T. A. and P. D. Coley. 1992. Delayed development of the photosynthetic apparatus in tropical rainforest species. Functional Ecology 6:411-422.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Phyllis Coley

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Phyllis Coley claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Phyllis Coley before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Phyllis Coley ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Phyllis Coley

In research: Phyllis Coley appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Phyllis Coley in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Phyllis Coley is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American women biologists, 21st-century American biologists, 21st-century American women biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Phyllis Coley outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Phyllis Coley in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Phyllis Coley means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Phyllis Coley out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Phyllis Coley in simple terms?

Phyllis Dewing Coley is a Biology professor currently teaching at the University of Utah. In 1996 she received the University's Distinguished Research Award.

Why does Phyllis Coley matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Phyllis Coley?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Phyllis Coley.