A5104492499- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Plant and animal studies
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Plant Parasitism and Resistance
- Forest ecology and management
- Legume Nitrogen Fixing Symbiosis
- Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Seedling growth and survival studies
- Genetics and Plant Breeding
- Turfgrass Adaptation and Management
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Plant Diversity and Evolution
- Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions
- Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Biomedical Research
- Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock
- Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Gene expression and cancer classification
- Greenhouse Technology and Climate Control
- Ruminant Nutrition and Digestive Physiology
- Agronomic Practices and Intercropping Systems
- Bioinformatics and Genomic Networks
University of Wyoming
2022-2024
University of California, Davis
2015-2021
Syracuse University
2011-2016
Summary Competitor, stress‐tolerator, ruderal ( CSR ) theory is a prominent plant functional strategy scheme previously applied to local floras. Globally, the wide geographic and phylogenetic coverage of available values leaf area LA ), dry matter content LDMC specific SLA (representing, respectively, interspecific variation in size conservative vs . acquisitive resource economics) promises general application strategies across biomes, including tropical forests hosting large proportion...
Abstract Question Are plant traits more closely correlated with mean annual temperature, or precipitation? Location Global. Methods We quantified the strength of relationships between temperature and precipitation 21 from 447,961 species‐site combinations worldwide. used meta‐analysis to provide an overall answer our question. Results Mean was significantly strongly than precipitation. Conclusions Our study provides support for some assumptions classical vegetation theory, points many...
Aim Determining the relative influence of niche-based and neutral processes in driving spatial turnover community composition is a central challenge ecology. Spatial patterns functional turnover, or beta diversity, may capture important signals assembly processes, but these have not been quantified for communities across broad geographic environmental gradients. Here, we analyse continental-scale species diversity relation to space environment assess importance mechanisms. Location Eastern...
Abstract Questions How does spatial scale (extent and grain) influence the relative importance of different environmental factors as determinants plant community composition? Are there general thresholds that mark transition from primarily edaphic to climatic control communities? Location Global. Methods We surveyed empirical literature identified 89 analyses 63 published studies analysed vegetation–environment relationships involving at least two categories predictor variables (edaphic,...
Abstract Understanding patterns of functional trait variation across environmental gradients offers an opportunity to increase inference in the mechanistic causes plant community assembly. The leaf economics spectrum ( LES ) predicts global tradeoffs traits and trait‐environment relationships, but few studies have examined whether these predictions hold different levels organization, particularly within species. Here, we asked (1) main assumptions (expected relationships shifts values...
Abstract How the patterns of niche occupancy vary from species‐poor to species‐rich communities is a fundamental question in ecology that has central bearing on processes drive biodiversity. As species richness increases, habitat filtering should constrain expansion total volume, while limiting similarity restrict degree overlap between species. Here, by explicitly incorporating intraspecific trait variability, we investigate relationship functional and at global scale. We assembled 21...
Despite increasing evidence of the importance intraspecific trait variation in plant communities, its role community responses to environmental variation, particularly along broad-scale climatic gradients, is poorly understood. We analyzed functional among early-successional herbaceous communities (old fields) across a 1200-km latitudinal extent eastern North America, focusing on four traits: vegetative height, leaf area, specific area (SLA), and dry matter content (LDMC). determined...
Evolutionary radiations of woody taxa within arid environments were made possible by multiple trait innovations including deep roots and embolism-resistant xylem, but little is known about how these traits have coevolved across the phylogeny plants or they jointly influence distribution species. We synthesized global vegetation plot datasets to examine rooting depth xylem vulnerability 188 plant species interact with aridity, precipitation seasonality, water table occurrence probabilities...
Abstract Coexistence and diversity in plant communities depend upon outcomes of competition. Competition coexistence can be mediated by abiotic soil nutrient differences as well microbial communities. The latter effects occur through various mechanisms including negative plant–soil feedbacks, when plants foster the build‐up specialized pathogenic microbes, which ultimately reduce conspecific, but not heterospecific, densities. Microbial mutualists have generalized associations with host...
Coexistence requires that stabilizing niche differences, which cause species to limit themselves more than others, outweigh relative fitness competitive exclusion. Interactions with shared mutualists, can differentially affect host and change in magnitude frequency, satisfy these conditions for coexistence, yet empirical tests of mutualist effects on differences are largely lacking within the framework coexistence theory. Here, we show N-fixing rhizobial mutualists mediate four naturally...
ABSTRACT Functional traits affect the demographic performance of individuals in their environment, leading to fitness differences that scale up drive population dynamics and community assembly. Understanding links between is therefore critical for predicting how populations communities respond environmental change. However, net effects on species are largely unknown because we have lacked a framework estimating across multiple environments. We present modeling integrates trait over life...
It is assumed that widespread, generalist species have high phenotypic variation, but we know little about how intraspecific trait variation (ITV) relates to abundance and niche breadth. In the temperate rainforest of southern Chile, hypothesized with wide breadth would exhibit 1) among‐plot ITV, 2) a strong relationship between values environment, 3) close fit traits local environment optima. We measured leaf functional (leaf area, LMA, N P concentrations) saplings in woody species,...
Spatial patterns of functional traits have received little attention in community ecology but the potential to provide insights into processes that structure communities. In this study, I used semivariograms describe spatial and evaluate (niche differentiation, environmental filtering, dispersal limitation) driving divergence old‐field plant collected spatially explicit data on key (vegetative height, specific leaf area [SLA], dry matter content [LDMC]) variables (soil depth soil moisture)...
Abstract Aim We compared the upper range limits of tree species along latitudinal and elevational gradients to assess influence specific climatic factors – winter temperature, summer temperature growing season length in determining limits. analysed degree direction mismatches between determine whether could be explained by dispersal traits. Location E astern N orth A merica G reat S moky M ountains ( Tennessee North Carolina ), USA . Methods determined for each 28 common a gradient eastern...
Summary Species coexistence requires differential response to inter‐ and intraspecific competition, typically conceptualized as niche differentiation. Coexistence of close relatives therefore poses an interesting scenario with regards differentiation since these species generally have many traits in common due shared ancestry. Native Californian Trifolium assemblages are locally diverse represent a unique system for understanding competitive interactions among relatives. We conducted two...
Background and Aims Ecologists are increasingly using plant functional traits to predict community assembly, but few studies have linked species' responses fine-scale resource gradients. In this study, it was tested whether saplings of woody species partition gradients in light availability based on their leaf mass per area (LMA) three temperate rain forests one Mediterranean forest southern Chile.
Abstract Functional traits affect the demographic performance of individuals in their environment, leading to fitness differences that scale up drive population dynamics and community assembly. Understanding links between is, therefore, critical for predicting how populations communities respond environmental change. However, net effects on species are largely unknown because we have lacked a framework estimating across multiple environments. We present modelling integrates trait over life...
Abstract Aim Making predictions about species, including how they respond to environmental change, is a central challenge for ecologists. Because of the huge number ecologists seek generalizations based on species’ traits and phylogenetic relationships, but predictive power trait‐based models often low. Species co‐occurrence patterns may contain additional information ecological attributes not captured by or phylogenies. We propose using novel ordination technique encode contained in species...
Abstract Making predictions about species, including how they respond to environmental change, is a central challenge for ecologists. Due the huge number of ecologists seek generalizations based on species’ traits and phylogenetic relationships, but predictive power trait-based models often low. Species co-occurrence patterns may contain additional information ecological attributes not captured by or phylogenies. We propose using ordination encode contained in species data low-dimensional...
Abstract Functional traits have been proposed to define key dimensions of plant ecological strategies, but we lack consensus on whether can accurately predict demography. Despite theoretical expectations, it has challenging find consistent relationships between functional and growth. In this study, quantified inter‐ intraspecific trait variation (ITV) individual growth rates woody plants across a steep moisture gradient that varies 10‐fold in annual precipitation (350–3700 mm) southern Chile...
Abstract The proliferation of high-dimensional data in ecology and evolutionary biology raise the promise statistical machine learning models that are highly predictive interpretable. However, commonly burdened with an inherent trade-off: in-sample prediction outcomes will improve as additional predictors included model, but this may come at cost poor accuracy limited generalizability for future or unsampled observations (out-of-sample prediction). To confront problem overfitting, sparse can...