Bart Durham , Ph.D.

Dr. Durham joined LCU as a full-time faculty member in January 2009. He is Professor and Program Director of the Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resources Ecology and Conservation.  Dr. Durham was born and raised in a farming and ranching community in the Oklahoma Panhandle.  After completing his B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Ecology at Oklahoma State University, Dr. Durham came to Lubbock to attend graduate school at Texas Tech University where he completed both his M.S. and Ph.D. in Fisheries Science.  Dr. Durham serves on many university and community committees, and he is the faculty sponsor of the LCU Agriculture Club.  He and his wife Cassie have two children, Keeley and Landon.

Scholarly Interests

Although I am interested in a broad range of ecological questions, my primary research focus is in the area of aquatic ecology.  Specifically, I am interested in life-history and population dynamics of native fishes in highly variable prairie streams. My current research is being conducted in conjunction with colleagues from Texas Tech University to study the food web dynamics and food source acquisition of imperiled fishes in the Red River of Texas and Oklahoma. I am also interested in the high impact mentoring practice of undergraduate research and undergraduate student mentoring. Along with other LCU science faculty, I am currently engaging undergraduate students in a project to study the broad effects of wastewater reuse on a Texas reservoir ecosystem.

Thornton*, B., A. M. Laughlin, D. J. Swartz, and B. W. Durham. 2020. A contemporary perspective on undergraduate research mentoring in university fisheries and aquatic sciences programs. Fisheries 45:1-10.

Durham, B. W., Porter, L., *Webb, A. B., and *Thomas, J. 2016. Seasonal influence of environmental variables and artificial aeration on Escherichia coli in small urban lakes. Journal of Water and Health 14:929-941.

Durham, B. W., and G. R. Wilde. 2014. Understanding Complex reproductive ecology in fishes: the importance of individual and population-scale information. Aquatic Ecology 48:91-106.

Vander Plas, Stephanie, A. L. Laughlin, and B. W. Durham.  2011.  The effect of folic acid fortification on pregnancy.  Proceedings of the National Conference of Undergraduate Research, Ithaca New York.  125: 22-29.

Durham, B. W., and G. R. Wilde.  2009.  Population dynamics of smalleye shiner an imperiled cyprinid fish endemic to the Brazos River, Texas.  Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 138:666-674.

Durham, B. W., and G. R. Wilde.  2009.  Effects of streamflow and intermittency on the reproductive success of two broadcast-spawning cyprinid fishes.  Copeia 2009:21-28. 

Durham, B. W., and G. R. Wilde.  2008.  Asynchronous and synchronous spawning by smalleye shiner Notropis buccula from the Brazos River, Texas.  Ecology of Freshwater Fish 17:528-541.

Wilde, G. R., and B. W. Durham.  2008.  A population dynamics model for the peppered chub, a broadcast spawning cyprinid fish.  Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 137:1657-1666.