A5004092166- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Plant and animal studies
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Studies
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions
- Genetic diversity and population structure
- Biological Control of Invasive Species
- Plant Parasitism and Resistance
- Forest Insect Ecology and Management
- Geochemistry and Geologic Mapping
- Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Botany and Plant Ecology Studies
- Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
- Economic and Environmental Valuation
- Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies
- Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology
- Plant Diversity and Evolution
- Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Urban Green Space and Health
University of Toronto
2016-2025
The Scarborough Hospital
2016-2025
Stellenbosch University
2024
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
2024
Zhejiang University
2023
Ecological Society of America
2020
Institut de Biologia Evolutiva
2018
Sun Yat-sen University
2015-2017
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
2008-2010
University of California, Santa Barbara
2006-2009
Summary 1. The goal of conservation and restoration activities is to maintain biological diversity the ecosystem services that this provides. These traditionally focus on measures species include only information presence abundance species. Yet how influences function depends traits niches filled by 2. Biological can be quantified in ways account for functional phenotypic differences. A number such (FD) have been created, quantifying distribution a community or relative magnitude...
Accelerating rates of species extinction have prompted a growing number researchers to manipulate the richness various groups organisms and examine how this aspect diversity impacts ecological processes that control functioning ecosystems. We summarize results 44 experiments manipulated plants plant affects production biomass. show mixtures produce an average 1.7 times more biomass than monocultures are productive monoculture in 79% all experiments. However, only 12% do diverse polycultures...
ABSTRACT The use of phylogenies in ecology is increasingly common and has broadened our understanding biological diversity. Ecological sub‐disciplines, particularly conservation, community macroecology, all recognize the value evolutionary relationships but resulting development phylogenetic approaches led to a proliferation diversity metrics. many metrics across sub‐disciplines hampers potential meta‐analyses, syntheses, generalizations existing results. Further, there no guide for...
Two decades of research showing that increasing plant diversity results in greater community productivity has been predicated on functional allowing access to more the total available resources. Thus, understanding phenotypic attributes allow species partition resources is fundamentally important explaining diversity-productivity relationships.
Loss of biological diversity because extinction is one the most pronounced changes to global environment. For several decades, researchers have tried understand how in biodiversity might impact biomass production by examining correlates with a number metrics (especially species and functional groups). This body research has focused on implicit assumption that they are independent entities. However, ecological similarities shaped patterns common ancestry, such distantly related contribute...
Phylogenetic diversity (PD) describes the total amount of phylogenetic distance among species in a community. Although there has been substantial research on factors that determine community PD, exploration consequences PD for ecosystem functioning is just beginning. We argue may be useful predicting functions range communities, from single-trophic to complex networks. Many traits show signal, suggesting can estimate functional trait space community, and thus functioning. Phylogeny also...
Ecosystem stability in variable environments depends on the diversity of form and function constituent species. Species phenotypes ecologies are product evolution, evolutionary history represented by co‐occurring species has been shown to be an important predictor ecosystem function. If phylogenetic distance is a surrogate for ecological differences, then greater should buffer ecosystems against environmental variation result stability. We calculated both abundance‐weighted unweighted...
Phylogenetic information is increasingly being used to understand the assembly of biological communities and ecological processes. However, commonly metrics phylogenetic diversity (PD) do not incorporate on relative abundances individuals within a community. In this study, we develop three indices PD that explicitly consider species abundances. First, present metric phylogenetic-abundance evenness evaluates relationship between abundance distribution terminal branch lengths. Second,...
Abstract We implemented cross‐species and independent‐contrasts multiple regression models to compare life‐history correlates of invasion success between regional continental spatial scales among non‐native plants eastern Australia. focussed on three traits that represent major axes variation in plant life history: specific leaf area (SLA), height seed mass. After controlling for residence time cross‐correlation with other traits, small mass was significantly uniquely correlated at scales....
Abstract Species enter and persist in local communities because of their ecological fit to conditions, recently, ecologists have moved from measuring diversity as species richness evenness, using measures that reflect differences. There are two principal approaches for quantifying differences: functional (trait‐based) phylogenetic pairwise distances between species. Both produced new insights, yet at the same time methodological issues assumptions limit them. Traits phylogeny may provide...
There now is ample experimental evidence that speciose assemblages are more productive and provide a greater amount of ecosystem services than depauperate ones. However, these experiments often conclude there higher probability including complementary species combinations in with lack priori prediction about which maximize function. Here, I report the results an experiment manipulating evolutionary relatedness constituent plant across richness gradient. show distantly related contributed...
Summary Succession has been a focus of extensive ecological study for well over century. Despite this sustained interest, succession remains central theme in research and is positioned to continue that prominence era expanding human impacts. Community ecology currently experiencing profound conceptual expansion, providing many new insights into succession. Here we present an existing framework successional drivers includes variation site conditions, species availability performance, expand...
In the face of biodiversity crisis, it is argued that we should prioritize species in order to capture high functional diversity (FD). Because traits often reflect shared evolutionary history, many researchers have assumed maximizing phylogenetic (PD) indirectly FD, a hypothesis name "phylogenetic gambit". Here, empirically test this gambit using data on ecologically relevant from >15,000 vertebrate species. Specifically, estimate measure surrogacy PD for FD. We find results an average gain...
Abstract Niche differences are key to understanding the distribution and structure of biodiversity. To examine niche differences, we must first characterize how species occupy space, two approaches commonly used in ecological literature. The uses traits estimate multivariate trait space (so‐called functional diversity, FD); second quantifies amount time or evolutionary history captured by a group (phylogenetic PD). It is often—but controversially—assumed that these putative measures at...