Biology

How do over a thousand species of trees coexist in an area the size of ~100 football fields? What happens to fire-prone forests when a non-native pathogen is introduced and kills high numbers of just a few species? I am a plant community ecologist, and those are two examples of questions I investigate in my research on forest diversity. I explore the relative importance of biotic interactions, disturbance, and the abiotic environment in driving dynamics. My students and I do field research on pathogens and natural regeneration in the old growth conifer forests of the Columbia River Gorge. I have ongoing research programs in both the coastal forests of the western US, where a recently introduced pathogen is transforming forest diversity, and in the tropical rainforests of eastern Ecuador, where I have a long-term project on the role of natural regeneration in the maintenance of the hyperdiversity in Amazonian forests.