Rate My Professor Brett Mattingly

W. Brett Mattingly is Associate Professor and Assistant Department Chair in the Biology Department at Eastern Connecticut State University. As a community ecologist, his research focuses on non-native species invasions, plant-consumer interactions, biodiversity, and land-use legacies. Before joining Eastern, he served as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and conducted extensive fieldwork in the longleaf pine savannas of the southeastern United States. Dr. Mattingly holds a B.A. in Biology from Hanover College, an M.S. in Biology from the University of Cincinnati, and a Ph.D. in Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior from Indiana University Bloomington.

Dr. Mattingly has authored or co-authored 22 peer-reviewed publications, accumulating over 630 citations. Key publications include "Long-term, large-scale experiment reveals the effects of seed limitation, climate, and anthropogenic disturbance on restoration of plant communities in a biodiversity hotspot" (2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), "Soil fertility alters the nature of plant-resource interactions in invaded grassland communities" (2014, Biological Invasions), "Historic land use influences contemporary establishment of invasive plant species" (2013, Oecologia), "Dendroecological analysis reveals long-term, positive effects of an introduced understory plant on canopy tree growth" (2012, Biological Invasions), "Plant architecture affects periodical cicada oviposition behavior on native and non-native hosts" (2011, Oikos), and "Resource use in arboreal habitats: structure affects locomotion of four ecomorphs of Anolis lizards" (2004, Ecology). His teaching interests encompass Biological Invasions, Plant Ecology, and Tropical Biology. Dr. Mattingly leads global field courses for students, including trips to the Bahamas for marine and tropical ecology research, the southwestern United States deserts, and Costa Rica, fostering hands-on learning in diverse ecosystems. He contributes to university service as a member of the University Curriculum Committee and Honors Council readers.