- Friday, March 16, 2018
- 1:30 PM–2:30 PM
- Science Building 010
Jonathan Knott, PhD Student, Purdue University
Eastern US forests are under many threats such as human mediated disturbance and fragmentation, invasion by non-native species, and climate change. While local impacts are historically our focus in ecology, large scale patterns and processes associated with climate change (and other threats) are important for understanding the future of our forests. Here, I present two studies on forest composition. First, we analyzed shifts in tree species distribution as a response to climate change using the extensive Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data from the US Forest Service. Second, we are using a new model for identifying forest communities--the mixture of many species that commonly co-occur--and assessing changes to these communities over time.
