National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis 2004 - Report to the National Science Foundation

The first of these projects examines one of the fundamental mechanisms thought to regulate species diversity within a local community - the extent of spatial heterogeneity in resource availability and the richness of the regional species pool. [...] The aim of this proposal is to array these seed masses on to the phylogenetic tree of angiosperms to quantify where and when in the history of the angiosperms the major divergences in seed mass occurred. [...] The overall objective is to contribute to a better understanding of the distribution of tree life history strategies within and among communities, and of the implications for forest structure and dynamics. [...] In my research, I am using a variety of modeling techniques to examine the interactions between the behavior of disturbance-generating animals, the structure of the associated plant community, and the ecosystem processes that result from this interaction. [...] The project involves a multidisciplinary team of computer scientists, ecologists and technologists from the Partnership for Biodiversity Informatics (PBI), a consortium comprising the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS); the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC); the University of Kansas (KU); and the University of New Mexico (UNM) and partnering institutions (Arizona Sta.