Macroecology Lab

Many of us are up in Portland Oregon for the 2017 ESA meetings. Here is a listing of the various talks and posters we will be presenting. Do stop by and see us and say hi! Enquist Lab ESA Talks https://eco.confex.com/eco/2017/webprogram/authore.html ====== Monday, August 7, 2017 ============================================= 2:30 PM Portland Blrm 258, Oregon Convention Center OOS 5-4 – An energetic approach to variation in leaf and microbial functional traits across climate gradients Sean T. Michaletz1,2, Vanessa R. Buzzard3, Ye Deng4, Zhili He5, Daliang Ning6, Lina Shen7, Qichao Tu5, Michael D. Weiser8, Michael Kaspari8, Jizhong Zhou5, Robert B. Waide9 and Brian J. Enquist10, https://eco.confex.com/eco/2017/webprogram/Paper62588.html 2:50 PM D138, Oregon Convention Center COS 20-5  Why do leaf venation networks have loops? Testing hypotheses with an Andes-Amazon elevation gradient Benjamin W. Blonder, University of Arizona; Norma Salinas, Universidad San Antonio Abad del Cusco; Lisa Patrick Bentley, Sonoma State University; Alexander Shenkin, University of Oxford; Percy Chambi Porroa, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco; Yolvi Valdez Tejeira, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco; Tatiana Boza Espinoza, University of Zurich; Gregory R. Goldsmith, Paul Scherrer Institute; Lucas Enrico, University of Cordoba; Roberta Martin, Carmegie Institution; Gregory P. Asner, Carnegie Institution for Science; Sandra Díaz, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Brian J. Enquist, University of Arizona; Yadvinder Malhi, University of Oxford https://eco.confex.com/eco/2017/webprogram/Paper64877.html   ====== Tuesday ==========================================================   8:40 AM B114, Oregon Convention Center COS 45-3 – Spectroscopy of canopy foliar traits: Can airborne […]

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The Enquist lab has positions for two new postdoctoral positions to start fall 2016 (1) Postdoctoral Position –  Macroecology of land plant biodiversity: Niche evolution and ecological limits. The College of Science at the University of Arizona is seeking to fill a position in Plant Macroecology and trait-based niche evolution.  This position, funded by the National Science Foundation, will work closely with an interdisciplinary group of researchers associated with the University of Arizona (Enquist Lab), Kenyon College (Andrew Kerkhoff), and Wesleyan University (Dana Royer) together with international collaborators from the Botanical Information and Ecology Network (BIEN). We are looking for a candidate to investigate the fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes that generate continental-scale variation in plant biodiversity. The post-doc’s main responsibility will be to lead integration of plant diversity, macroecology, plant trait, and climate measures associated with the biogeography of plant diversity.  The successful candidate will lead a novel research program that leverages the BIEN database, the largest botanical dataset in existence, with information on the distribution, ecology, and evolutionary history of more than 100,000 plant species in North and South America. The candidate will take advantage of computational advances in biodiversity informatics, phylogenetic analysis, and multivariate niche modeling to investigate how the evolutionary contingencies of adaptation, diversification, and dispersal
interact with possible ecological limits on the ‘niche space’ of different environments. The main goals of this position are to test whether the colonization of novel environments is limited by niche evolution, and whether less physiologically favorable environments actually impose hard ecological limits on the number of plant species they can support. The unprecedented scale of […]

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New! Postdoctoral position in Tropical Forest Ecology, Trait-based ecology, and Macroecology at the University of Arizona. Starting late 2015/2016 A two-year post-doctoral position is available (start date flexible, can start as early as Fall 2016) in the group of Dr. Brian Enquist (https://brianjenquist.wordpress.com) in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona as part of an NSF Ecosystems Grant to study impacts of drought and climate change in the Amazon. The post-doc’s main responsibility will be to lead the implementation of new field experiments in the Andes and Amazon in Peru, as well as manage and analyze the data from these experiments. He/She will work closely with other post-docs and PIs on the project from UCLA (Dr. Van Savage), Carnegie Institution (Stanford/Carnegie Insituttion – Global Ecology Labs; Dr. Greg Asner), and the University of Oxford (United Kingdom; Dr. Yadvinder Mahli). As such, work may also involve theory development for trait-based models, analysis of large datasets for plant traits, as well as numerical simulations for how plant traits determine forest dynamics, carbon production. Results from this project will: (1) lead to a deeper understanding of how climate change and individual plant traits influence forests and forest ecosystems and (2) allow for projections of future productivity, diversity, and the functioning of tropical forests. Candidates are expected to be collaborative yet independent, highly motivated problem solvers who communicate well and enjoy working both in the field and in a […]

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Source: A Big Database and Big Models Pave the Way for Big Questions in Ecology

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