Research

Much of my work deals with ecosystem processes, a broad topic that I most often address through field experiments. I have worked primarily in terrestrial, tropical ecosystems. Examples of my research include the following themes:

• Tropical succession, with emphasis on the early phases of regrowth and recovery following shifting agriculture. PUBLICATIONS on succession.
• Invasibility, invasives, and novel ecosystems, particularly the ecosystem processes that influence invasibility and the new ecosystems that result. PUBLICATIONS on invasibility, invasive species, and novel ecosystems.
• Biodiversity, stand longevity, and ecosystem functioning. Two field experiments addressed relationships among species or life-form richness, plant longevity, and ecosystem functioning. In both experiments the major response variables were (1) productivity (carbon and light acquisition), (2) nutrient retention or loss, and (3) interactions between plants and their consumers and competitors. Because some people confuse the two experiments (thinking they were a single effort in one location in Costa Rica, rather that two efforts in distinct locations, conducted at different times), I describe each of them briefly in subsections SUCCESSION AS MODEL and LONGEVITY AND DIVERSITY.

Some of my other research interests include conservation silviculture; vegetation structure in relation to bioclimate; fire; and ecosystems of the southeastern U.S. coastal plain. Publications on these and a few other topics are included, but uncategorized, on my career-long list of PUBLICATIONS.