Overview & General Approach
The goal of the research conducted in the group is to leverage information regarding intra- and inter-specific variation in organismal performance to understand and predict the past, present and future distribution of tree biodiversity. In pursuit of these research goals, our approach follows two guiding principles. First, we believe that the grand challenges facing scientists today require integrative approaches that draw from the concepts and techniques from many fields. We achieve this within the lab by attempting to tackle problems from genomes to forest canopies. Second, our research approach necessitates the collection and analysis of large datasets that document the distribution and dynamics of plant species on a global-scale. These data allow us to quantify the drivers of tree distributions and demography, which is an essential step for predicting the fate of individual species and forests in the future.
Research Foci
Researchers in the group work in temperate, subtropical and tropical forests worldwide. Currently, we conduct field work in the forests of the Eastern United States, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and southeast Asia. The research group is located in the Department of Biological Sciences the University of Notre Dame. The hub for our research on trees in eastern North America is the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC), which is also a National Science Foundation NEON site. Our current major research foci are the following:
1) Tree Community Structure and Dynamics – The structure and dynamics of forests are the emergent properties of individual-level demographic outcomes. These outcomes, themselves, are due to how individuals interact with their environment upon the basis of their functional strategies. As such, our group has a major focus on establishing the linkages between phenotypes and demographic outcomes given various abiotic and biotic contexts. Our functional work ranges from measurements of functional traits to detailed anatomical and physiological trait measurements to functional genomics. We conduct this work worldwide including in Smithsonian ForestGeo plots and the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC).
2) Comparative Studies of the Dimensions of Biodiversity in Tree Communities in Asia and the Americas – A major goal of the research group is to draw generalizations regarding the processes that structure tree communities across significant spatial and environmental gradients. We have found that phylogenetic and functional trait information often provides invaluable information for understanding the similarities and dissimilarities among forests worldwide. Our comparative work leveraging scale forest plot, phylogenetic and trait data ranges from field investigations multiple ForestGeo plots around the world to biodiversity informatics approaches where we synthesize large forest plot datasets in the light of phylogenetic and functional information.
3) Comparative Studies of Major Tree Lineages – We are interested in the evolution of the anatomical and physiological traits and the biogeography of major tree lineages and how this history impacts current patterns of forest composition and diversity. In pursuit of this interest, we infer phylogenetic trees for lineages of tree species in temperate and tropical forests and conduct comparative analyses of plant function. At present, this work is focused on the maple genus Acer and several genera of Southeast Asian trees.
The goal of the research conducted in the group is to leverage information regarding intra- and inter-specific variation in organismal performance to understand and predict the past, present and future distribution of tree biodiversity. In pursuit of these research goals, our approach follows two guiding principles. First, we believe that the grand challenges facing scientists today require integrative approaches that draw from the concepts and techniques from many fields. We achieve this within the lab by attempting to tackle problems from genomes to forest canopies. Second, our research approach necessitates the collection and analysis of large datasets that document the distribution and dynamics of plant species on a global-scale. These data allow us to quantify the drivers of tree distributions and demography, which is an essential step for predicting the fate of individual species and forests in the future.
Research Foci
Researchers in the group work in temperate, subtropical and tropical forests worldwide. Currently, we conduct field work in the forests of the Eastern United States, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and southeast Asia. The research group is located in the Department of Biological Sciences the University of Notre Dame. The hub for our research on trees in eastern North America is the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC), which is also a National Science Foundation NEON site. Our current major research foci are the following:
1) Tree Community Structure and Dynamics – The structure and dynamics of forests are the emergent properties of individual-level demographic outcomes. These outcomes, themselves, are due to how individuals interact with their environment upon the basis of their functional strategies. As such, our group has a major focus on establishing the linkages between phenotypes and demographic outcomes given various abiotic and biotic contexts. Our functional work ranges from measurements of functional traits to detailed anatomical and physiological trait measurements to functional genomics. We conduct this work worldwide including in Smithsonian ForestGeo plots and the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC).
2) Comparative Studies of the Dimensions of Biodiversity in Tree Communities in Asia and the Americas – A major goal of the research group is to draw generalizations regarding the processes that structure tree communities across significant spatial and environmental gradients. We have found that phylogenetic and functional trait information often provides invaluable information for understanding the similarities and dissimilarities among forests worldwide. Our comparative work leveraging scale forest plot, phylogenetic and trait data ranges from field investigations multiple ForestGeo plots around the world to biodiversity informatics approaches where we synthesize large forest plot datasets in the light of phylogenetic and functional information.
3) Comparative Studies of Major Tree Lineages – We are interested in the evolution of the anatomical and physiological traits and the biogeography of major tree lineages and how this history impacts current patterns of forest composition and diversity. In pursuit of this interest, we infer phylogenetic trees for lineages of tree species in temperate and tropical forests and conduct comparative analyses of plant function. At present, this work is focused on the maple genus Acer and several genera of Southeast Asian trees.