Plant Community Ecology

Our research is driven by an interest in understanding species coexistence,
particularly the processes that maintain high forest diversity.
Our projects are field-based and long-term, in temperate and tropical forests,
and we address our research questions with a wide variety of rigorous, quantitative tools.

Tropical Seedling dynamics

Many of the most prominent hypotheses about the maintenance of tropical forest diversity describe processes that occur early in a plant’s life history. Since 2002, we have been monitoring regeneration within the long-term forest dynamics plot in Yasuní National Park, Ecuador. ...more

Disturbance Interactions

Coastal California forests have experienced extensive mortality from Phytophthora ramorum, the causal agent of sudden oak death (SOD). The effects of this mortality cascade through the system to alter forest structure and interact with disturbances like wildfire. ...more

Endemic forest Pathogens

We know groups like the oomycetes to be destructive agricultural pests or the causes of widespread tree mortality when introduced to new systems. But we know very little about the roles these pathogens play when endemic. In Summer 2016, we started investigating regeneration dynamics and potential roles for ooymcetes in determining tree diversity in an old growth forest near Portland. This study is funded by NSF's Dimensions of Biodiversity program and is in collaboration with Oregon State University, Southern Oregon University, and Utah State University. ...more

Latest News

September 2018 - Thrilled to announce the start of another five years of seed and seedling monitoring in Ecuador and Puerto Rico with support from NSF's LTREB program. 

September 2017 - Fall semester starts after a busy, busy summer field season on multiple continents.  Whew...

March 2017 - Plans for summer field season in full swing!

November 2016 - Ina represents the lab at the Murdock undergraduate research conference in Spokane!  Great job!

August 2016 - Summer of intense field work is done! And Sofia shone at the annual Ecological Society of America meeting in Ft. Lauderdale.  Her poster was packed with visitors all night!

July 2016 - Lily is making headlines for her Fulbright work in Nepal!

June 2016 - Thank goodness for Tessa, Katrina, and Zoe. They make starting this enormous project at Wind River look easy!

May 2016 - And we're off!  Headed to Ecuador for a lot of hard work and fun with Robin and Ina. Read more about what it is like here...

April 2016 - Busy month around here. Sofia did us proud with her Festival of Scholars presentation on the lignotuber research.

April 2016 - Congratulations to lab alumna Lily Clarke on her Fulbright research fellowship to study fungi and community-managed forests in Nepal! We are so proud of you!

April 2016 - The new project is here!  We are looking forward to having new students join the lab to get the new project off the ground in Summer 2016.  Welcome, Tessa, Zoe, and Katrina! ...more

Recent Lab adventures

More photo fun here....