Cavender-Bares Lab
Research interests
- Physiological ecology of plants
- Remote sensing of plant diversity and function
- Application of phylogenetic methods to ecology
- Evolution of plant function, environmental gradients and local adaptation
- Phylogeography and conservation
- Ecosystem services of trees
- Oaks as a model clade for integrating ecology and evolution
We are interested in how functional traits of plants link evolutionary history to current ecological processes. In particular I seek to understand how the evolutionary and biogeographic history of organisms influences community assembly, species composition and, hence, ecosystem function in the face of global change. Much of our work combines phylogenetic and phylogeographic approaches with studies of plant physiological function to understand forces underlying shifts in stress tolerance among closely related species or among populations of the same species. The lab is engaged in large-scale collaborative efforts to remotely sense biodiversity and understand the ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences of changing diversity. We use spectral biology to integrate across all scales of plant function to understand the causes and consequences of changes in plant diversity.
We embrace all aspects of human diversity and welcome the broad range of perspectives that people from different places, cultural and ethnic contexts, nationalities, and walks of life bring to the study of biodiversity to help sustain our planet.
