Forest diversity, dynamics and resilience in a changing world

This project involves analysis of forest census and trait datasets in order to investigate the potential relationship between forest diversity and resilience to climate change. The overarching objective is to look at factors influencing diversity and how diversity may be linked to forest resilience.
This will be investigated through trait based analyses to evaluate functional diversity through various indices with a focus on rare species, a major component of diversity in tropical forest systems. This will be tested on a smaller scale with a highly comprehensive trait data set as well as across environmental gradients of various tropical forests.
Regarding dynamics, mortality and diversity investigate across different forest types globally to discern links between diversity and mortality rates. Climatic factors will also be considered in these analyses, including events such as ENSO and storms. This may also involve biomass productivity rates.