Item Details

abstract

A pressing question in current biology is how ecosystems in general, and species in particular, are responding to climate change in time and space. This dissertation responds to this question using an elevational gradient as a tool to understand the influence of temperature in biodiversity and ecosystem function. This approach has a long history in ecology and biogeography because these “natural laboratories” provide insights into how species and ecosystems respond to climate change. Particularly, I look at Amazonian and Andean forest response to climate gradients and changes in those gradients through time, understanding patterns and processes of tree species-specific functional traits (wood density), shifts in species composition towards taxa that have warmer mean ranges (thermophilization process) and changes in tree demography (rates of tree mortality and recruitment) in temporal- and spatial-scales. These studies are based on comprehensive long-term inventory forest data that includes 41 permanent plots along a 3500 m elevational gradient in Eastern Peru spanning 38 years.

subject

Carbon dynamics

Climate change

Forest dynamics

Species composition

Species migration

Wood density

contributor

Farfan Rios, William (author)

Silman, Miles R. (committee chair)

Anderson, T. Michael (committee member)

Kron, Kathleen A. (committee member)

Smith, William K. (committee member)

Zeyl, Clifford W. (committee member)

date

2019-09-05T08:35:25Z (accessioned)

2020-03-04T09:30:14Z (available)

2019 (issued)

degree

Biology (discipline)

embargo

2020-03-04 (terms)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/94320 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

title

FOREST RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE ALONG AN ANDES-TO-AMAZON ELEVATIONAL GRADIENT

type

Dissertation