Predictive ecology of forest plant diversity

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The many ecoregions across the Canadian landscape provide the diversity underpinning our natural heritage. The fundamental visual and biological character of any ecoregion is set by its vegetation, from barren tundra through expansive grasslands to dense forests. Plant ecology has a long history of descriptive studies classifying native vegetation into different plant communities arrayed along gradients in light, water and nutrient availability. Through studies of plant function and adaptation, we understand to a lesser degree why particular species prosper in some environments and die out in others. This knowledge is critical to developing well-founded policies for the sustainable management of our forests and wildlife habitat, and for protecting endangered plant and animal species. Descriptive studies unfortunately do not prepare us well for predicting how plant communities will respond to climate change and invasion by non-native species. Plant ecologists now are challenged to develop objective, quantitative methods for predicting the responses of plant communities to changes in their environment and in the regional species pool from which species in the community are drawn. These challenges organize my research program.