Predictive ecology of forest plant diversity

加拿大景观中的许多生态区为我们的自然遗产提供了多样性。任何生态区的基本视觉和生物特征都是由其植被决定的，从贫瘠的苔原到广阔的草原到茂密的森林。植物生态学有着悠久的描述性研究历史，将本地植被划分为不同的植物群落，在光照、水分和养分有效性方面沿梯度排列。通过对植物功能和适应的研究，我们在较小程度上理解了为什么特定物种在某些环境中繁盛，而在另一些环境中消亡。这些知识对于制定有充分依据的政策、可持续管理我们的森林和野生动物栖息地以及保护濒危动植物物种至关重要。不幸的是，描述性研究没有为我们预测植物群落将如何应对气候变化和非本土物种的入侵做好准备。植物生态学家现在面临的挑战是开发客观的、定量的方法来预测植物群落对其环境和区域物种库中物种的变化的反应。这些挑战组织了我的研究计划。

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.