My research investigates the role of energy and metabolism in ecology, evolution, and biogeography. I seek to integrate understanding across levels of biological organization, from metabolic networks and cells to multicellular organisms, communities, ecosystems, and socio-ecological systems. I develop theory based on mathematical, physicochemical, and eco-evolutionary principles, and evaluate this theory using macroecological and molecular data. Much of my research currently examines how body size, thermodynamics, and kinetics shape ecological and evolutionary diversity patterns. Microbial communities are of particular interest to me. However, I also pursue research on macro-organisms, as I aim to unify understanding across domains of life.

Examples of currents projects include the development of theory based on geochemistry, thermodynamics, kinetics, and bioenergetics  to elucidate fundamental constraints on the evolution and geographic distribution of functional, metabolic and phylogenetic diversity in microbial communities, plants, and animals. I am also investigating the relationship between scaling of metabolic systems and evolutionary innovations, such as the major evolutionary transition in level of organization that resulted in the endosymbiotic acquisition of mitochondria and chloroplasts. Finally, I pursue research on human ecology, sustainability,  and technological innovations that are tied to themes of energetics, scaling, innovation, and levels of organization.

Selected Publications

•  Libby, E., C. Kempes, and J.G. Okie. 2023. Metabolic compatibility and the rarity of endosymbioses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120(17) e2206527120. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2206527120.

•  Okie, J.G., A.T. Poret-Peterson, Z.M.-P. Lee, L. Eguiarte, A. Richter, L.D. Alcaraz-Peraza, L.E. Eguiarte, J.L. Siefert, V. Souza, C.L. Dupont, and J.J. Elser. 2020. Genomic adaptations in information processing underpin trophic strategy in a whole-ecosystem nutrient experiment. eLife 9:e49816. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.49816.

•  Storch, D., E. Bohdalková, and J.G. Okie. 2018. The more-individuals hypothesis revisited: the role of community abundance in species richness regulation and the productivity-diversity relationship. Ecology Letters 21: 920-937.

•  Okie, J.G., V.H. Smith, M. Martin-Cereceda. 2016. Major evolutionary transitions of life, metabolic scaling, and the number and size of mitochondria and chloroplasts. Proc. Roc. Soc. B 283: 20160611. (Supplemental Material). 

•  Okie, J.G., D.J. Van Horn, D. Storch, J.E. Barrett, M.N. Gooseff, L. Kopsova, and C.D. Takacs-Vesbach. 2015. Niche and metabolic principles explain patterns of diversity and distribution: theory and a case study with soil bacterial communities. Proc Roc Soc B 282:20142630.

•  Okie, J.G., A.G. Boyer, J.H. Brown, D.P. Costa, S.K.M. Ernest, A.R. Evans, M. Fortelius, J.L. Gittleman, M.J. Hamilton, L.E. Harding, K. Lintulaakso, S.K. Lyons, J.J. Saarinen, F.A. Smith, P.R. Stephens, J. Theodor, M.D. Uhen, and R.M. Sibly. 2013. Effects of allometry, productivity, and lifestyle on rates and limits of body size evolution. Proc R Soc B 280: 20131007. (Appendix).

• Okie, J.G. 2013. General models for the spectra of surface area scaling strategies of cells and organisms: fractality, geometric dissimilitude, and internalization. American Naturalist 181: 421-439. (Appendix).

• Okie, J.G. 2012. Microorganisms, in Metabolic Ecology: A Scaling Approach (editors R.M. Sibly, J.H. Brown, and A. Kodric-Brown), Jon Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK.

• DeLong, J.P., J.G. Okie, M.E. Moses, R.M. Sibly, and J.H. Brown. 2010. Shifts in metabolic scaling, production, and efficiency across major evolutionary transitions of life. Proc Nat Acad Sci 107: 12941-12945. (Supporting Information).

• Okie, J.G., and J.H. Brown. 2009. Niches, body sizes, and the disassembly of mammal communities on the Sunda Shelf islands. Proc Nat Acad Sci  106: 19679-19684. (Supporting Information).

Keywords: Metabolic theory of ecology, community assembly rules, morphological evolution, body size distributions, biodiversity, ecological stoichiometry, human macroecology, sustainability, theoretical biology, allometry, major evolutionary transitions, evolutionary ecology, scaling of organelles, allometric scaling and metabolic ecology of unicellular organisms, microbial macroecology, astrobiology, theoretical biogeochemistry