Current Research
PLANT COMMUNITY ASSEMBLY
The understory plant community in forested ecosystems is comparatively less researched than the overstory tree community. However, the understory plant community often responds to changes in resources (light, nutrients, etc.) as a result of disturbance (e.g., spruce beetle outbreaks, fires, or glaciers) much quicker than the overstory community. Disturbances in forested ecosystems provide opportunities to understand how plant communities assemble, how (or if) the forest will regenerate, and how associated ecosystem services might be impacted. My research on understory plant community assembly takes place in multiple systems (southern Rocky Mountains & Glacier Bay National Park, AK) and utilizes plant functional traits to understand the potential mechanisms responsible for the response of plant communities.
CHANGING DISTURBANCE REGIMES
Individual disturbance events undoubtedly impact plant communities. According to theory, plant communities should have functional traits reflective of the disturbance regimes that they evolved under. However, global climate change is altering the frequency, severity, and area of impact for many disturbance types creating novel disturbance conditions. For example, the effect of changed disturbance regimes may lead to disturbances events occurring in short intervals and interacting. These novel disturbance regimes in turn may alter the strength of filters for plant community assembly and lead to novel plant communities.
CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
It is important to me that my science contributes (at least in part) to boots on the ground land management. I primarily contribute to conversations related to land management through research on carbon conservation and fire management in forested ecosystem. Forested ecosystems are increasingly suggested as nature-based climate solutions but there is still large uncertainty on the carbon balances of many forested ecosystems, in part due to forest disturbance. Climate change is creating novel conditions that lead to large wildfires in forested ecosystems that jeopardize human lives, structures, in addition to ecosystem services such as carbon storage. My research focusses on regional scale modelling to understand the processes that drive biomass carbon storage and how plant communities in forests can interact with wildfire management goals.
photo curtesy of Conor Phelan