Embedded Files
Acclimation of Individual Trees to 40 Years of Climate Change
Acclimation of Individual Trees to 40 Years of Climate Change
By leveraging historical herbarium specimens collected by Al Gentry in the early 1980s and contemporary collections from the very same trees, I am currently investigating long-term functional trait acclimation of individual trees to 40 years of climate change in Tambopata, Peru. Preliminary results indicate that trees are acclimating to climate change but not fast enough to keep up with the pace of increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation. Furthermore, trees are acclimating to increasing moisture stress through reduced stomatal conductance, leading to an increase in leaf temperatures that is faster than that of air temperature. In summary, trees in the southern Peruvian Amazon may be approaching critical thermal thresholds faster than previously thought.
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM) on Colombia's northern coast is the tallest coastal mountain in the world renowned for its high rates of endemism. However, our knowledge of its flora remains sparse due to a lack of botanical research conducted in recent decades. to address this dearth of knowledge, I led a team of researchers to install the first ever plot in the cloud forest of the SNSM. The plot contains remarkably high aboveground biomass and an abundance of rare and endemic tree species, highlighting the uniqueness of the mountain's forests. A data paper of the plot was published in Annals of Forest Science.
Using collection data from GBIF, I also explored patterns of plant endemism in the highlands of the SNSM and compared its flora to nearby mountains. In total, 164 species are endemic to the mountain, representing a staggering >20% of its flora. The uniqueness of the mountain's cloud forest and paramo plant communities were also supported by analyses comparing the SNSM flora to that of nearby mountains, which also indicated a need for botanical collection on the mountain. Together, these results highlight the necessity to conserve the mountain's flora and suggest that additional plant exploration would likely yield many species new to science. These results were published by Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden in a special issue dedicated to the botanist Alwyn Gentry.
The Boiling River
The Boiling River
The Boiling River is a geothermally heated river in the Peruvian Amazon. As scalding hot water escapes through the Earth's crust and joins the river, the water heats up to near boiling temperatures. In turn, this warms the surrounding forest, thus creating a "natural warming experiment" of whole-forest communities. By utilizing this thermal gradient, I found that increases in air temperatures led to a decrease in woody plant diversity and shifts in community composition. Plants in hotter parts of the forest contained more thermophilic species while plants in cooler parts contained more thermophobic species, suggesting that continued warming in the Amazon may lead to widespread shifts in community composition and thermophilization of lowland forest communities. These results were published in Global Change Biology and have been featured in multiple news articles including ones by BBC and Mongabay. Read more about the Boiling River in my blog post here.
1-ha forest dynamics plot at Finca las Piedras
1-ha forest dynamics plot at Finca las Piedras
In collaboration with the Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon, I installed a 1-hectare forest dynamics plot in Madre de Dios, Peru in the summer of 2021. The plot is located in a terra firme tropical moist forest and contains 550 trees representing 178 species. It was recensused in 2024.
The plot has been incorporated into the ForestPlots.net database and ATDN, and is currently part of multiple studies investigating tree diversity and composition across the Amazon basin.
Photo at left courtesy of Bill Hawthorne.
Rediscovery of Gasteranthus extinctus in Western Ecuador
Rediscovery of Gasteranthus extinctus in Western Ecuador
In November 2021, I was part of an international team of botanists who embarked on an expedition to rural Western Ecuador with the aim of documenting rare and endemic flora presumed to be extinct.
Our journey was a success, as we rediscovered a plant named for its own extinction, Gasteranthus extinctus. Our study was published in PhytoKeys and calls for the conservation of remnant forest patches in a highly fragmented landscape. We published a follow-up study in Nature Plants to highlight that continued botanical exploration will be vital to document the presence of rare and endemic plant species. Read more about the region and ongoing projects here.
Nutrient limitation of plant reproduction in a tropical moist forest
Nutrient limitation of plant reproduction in a tropical moist forest
Prior to starting my PhD, I had the fortune of working with Dr. Joe Wright at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. We carried out a study that examined how tropical tree reproduction is limited by soil nutrients, and found phosphorus to be the most important limiting nutrient in a Panamanian rainforest. Read our published study here.
Find me on...
Find me on...
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse