Faculty

Leonard A Smock
Professor and Department Chair
Ph.D., University of North Carolina (1979)
lasmock@vcu.edu
www.people.vcu.edu/~lsmock

Office room: 126A
Office phone: (804) 828-1562

Lab room: 030
Lab phone: (804) 828-0125

Research interests:
Stream, river and wetlands ecology; aquatic macroinvertebrates; water pollution

Recent publications:

Smock, L.A. 1999. Riverine floodplain forests of the southeastern United States:
invertebrates in an aquatic-terrestrial ecotone. Chapter 7 in D. Batzer and S. Wissinger
(editors). Invertebrates in Freshwater Wetlands of North America: Ecology and
Management. Van Nostrand-Reinhold.

Kedzierski, W.M. and L.A. Smock. 2001. Effects of logging on macroinvertebrate
production in a sand-bottomed, low-gradient stream. Freshwater Biology 46:1-13.

Wright, A.B. and L.A. Smock. 2001. Macroinvertebrate community structure and
production in a low-gradient stream in an undisturbed watershed. Archiv für
Hydrobiologie 152:297-313.

Burcher, C.L. and L.A. Smock. 2002. Habitat distribution, dietary composition and life
history characteristics of odonate nymphs in a blackwater Coastal Plain stream.
American Midland Naturalist 148:75-89.

Sprenkle,. E. S., L. A. Smock and J. E. Anderson. 2004. Distribution and growth of
submerged aquatic vegetation in the Piedmont section of the James River, Virginia.
Southeastern Naturalist 3:517-530.

Smock, L.A., A.B. Wright and A.C. Benke. 2005. Atlantic Coast Rivers of the
Southeastern United States. Chapter 3 in A.C. Benke and C. E. Cushing (editors). Rivers of North America. Academic Press. In press.

Courses currently teaching:
Stream ecology (BIOL 514)
Water pollution biology (BIOL 532)

Dr. Leonard Smock received his Ph.D. in 1979 from the University of North Carolina and is an aquatic ecologist whose primary research interests focus on community-level aspects of streams and riverine wetlands. Much of his research has involved aspects of habitat utilization, resource partitioning and the trophic and production ecology of aquatic invertebrates as well as detritus dynamics in streams and wetlands. His work examines linkages between invertebrate and detritus dynamics in stream channels with those in fringing floodplains. He also conducts research on water quality, including ongoing projects concerning the effects of changes in land-use patterns on the biological structure of streams.