Helene Muller-Landau
 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
Ph.D., Princeton University, 2001
Contact Information
Phone: 612-624-9529
Fax: 612-624-6777
E-mail: hmuller@umn.edu
Graduate Faculty Memberships
Conservation Biology; Ecology, Evolution and Behavior
Research Interests
Plant community ecology, especially of tropical forests; ecological and evolutionary theory; anthropogenic influences on plant community structure and dynamics.
Statement
I’m fascinated by the diversity of ways in which plant species make a living, the diversity of plant species that can coexist within the same area, and the diversity of plant communities around the globe. I’m particularly interested in tropical forests: which generally have very high species richness and wide variation in many plant traits, and exhibit intriguing similarities and differences in structure among sites. My research seeks to understand this diversity, its causes, and its consequences, through a combination of empirical and theoretical studies.
One major focus of my research has been seed dispersal. I’ve analyzed interspecific and interannual differences in seed production and seed dispersal of tropical tree species, examined the relative importance of seed dispersal to seedling recruitment in tropical forests, used models to investigate the consequences of different seed dispersal strategies for community-level patterns in general, and conducted theoretical studies of seed dispersal evolution. Another area of interest is the Janzen-Connell hypothesis: the idea that specialized natural enemies depress success in areas of higher density of any one species, thus acting to maintain diversity. I’m pursuing theoretical studies of how this effect varies with characteristics of plants and their enemies, complementing empirical studies documenting the strength of the effect in different species and life stages. In the last year, I’ve also been working on explaining differences in forest structure among tropical sites, again using both theory and data.
I believe that a better, more mechanistic understanding of plant communities is urgently needed in order for us to accurately predict long-term impacts of growing anthropogenic influences - especially in communities such as tropical forests that are dominated by long-lived organisms. I hope that my research will not only contribute to such a basic ecological understanding of plant communities, but also enhance our ability to assess and manage human influences on them.
Selected Publications
Muller-Landau, H. C. In press. Colonization-related tradeoffs in tropical forests and their role in the maintenance of plant species diversity. Tropical Forest Community Ecology. W. P. Carson and S. A. Schnitzer, editors. Blackwell Scientific.
Muller-Landau, H. C., R. S. Condit, K. E. Harms, C. O. Marks, S. C. Thomas, S. Bunyavejchewin, G. Chuyong, L. Co, S. Davies, R. Foster, S. Gunatilleke, N. Gunatilleke, T. Hart, S. P. Hubbell, A. Itoh, A. R. Kassim, D. Kenfack, J. V. LaFrankie, D. Lagunzad, H. S. Lee, E. Losos, J.-R. Makana, T. Ohkubo, C. Samper, R. Sukumar, I.-F. Sun, N. Supardi M. N., S. Tan, D. Thomas, J. Thompson, R. Valencia, M. I. Vallejo, G. Villa Muñoz, T. Yamakura, J. K. Zimmerman, H. S. Dattaraja, S. Esufali, P. Hall, F. He, C. Hernandez, S. Kiratiprayoon, H. S. Suresh, C. Wills, and P. Ashton. 2006. Comparing tropical forest tree size distributions with the predictions of metabolic ecology and equilibrium models. Ecology Letters 9:589-602.
Muller-Landau, H. C., R. S. Condit, J. Chave, S. C. Thomas, S. A. Bohlman, S. Bunyavejchewin, S. Davies, R. Foster, S. Gunatilleke, N. Gunatilleke, K. E. Harms, T. Hart, S. P. Hubbell, A. Itoh, A. R. Kassim, J. V. LaFrankie, H. S. Lee, E. Losos, J.-R. Makana, T. Ohkubo, R. Sukumar, I.-F. Sun, N. Supardi M. N., S. Tan, J. Thompson, R. Valencia, G. Villa Muñoz, C. Wills, T. Yamakura, G. Chuyong, H. S. Dattaraja, S. Esufali, P. Hall, C. Hernandez, D. Kenfack, S. Kiratiprayoon, H. S. Suresh, D. Thomas, M. I. Vallejo, and P. Ashton. 2006. Testing metabolic ecology theory for allometric scaling of tree size, growth, and mortality in tropical forests. Ecology Letters 9:575-588.
Adler, F. R. and H. C. Muller-Landau. 2005. When do localized natural enemies increase species richness? Ecology Letters 8 (4):438-447.
Muller-Landau, H. C., and Hardesty, B. D. 2005. Seed dispersal of woody plants in tropical forests: concepts, examples, and future directions. Pages 267-309 in Biotic Interactions in the Tropics. D. Burslem, M. Pinard, and S. Hartley, editors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wright, S. J., H. C. Muller-Landau, O. Calderón, and A. Hernández. 2005. Annual and spatial variation in seedfall and seedling recruitment in a Neotropical forest. Putative mast seeding, seed fate, and El Niño climate fluctuation in a Neotropical forest. Ecology 86(4):848-860.
Muller-Landau, H. C., S. A. Levin, and J. E. Keymer. 2003. Theoretical perspectives on the evolution of long-distance dispersal and the example of specialized pests. Ecology 84(8):1957-1967.
Dalling, J., H. C. Muller-Landau, S. J. Wright, and S. P. Hubbell. 2002. Role of dispersal in the recruitment limitation of Neotropical pioneer species. Journal of Ecology 90:714-727.
Muller-Landau, H. C., S. J. Wright, O. Calderón, S. P. Hubbell, and R. B. Foster. 2002. Assessing recruitment limitation: concepts, methods and examples for tropical forest trees. Pages 35-53 in Seed Dispersal and Frugivory: Ecology, Evolution and Conservation. J. Levey, W. R. Silva and M. Galetti, editors. Oxfordshire, UK: CAB International.
Chave, J., H. C. Muller-Landau, and S. A. Levin. 2002. Comparing classical community models: Theoretical consequences for patterns of diversity. American Naturalist 159:1-23.
Additional Links
Muller-Landau Lab
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