Jeannine Cavender-Bares | |
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Born | United States |
Occupation | Professor |
Academic background | |
Alma mater |
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Academic work | |
Institutions | Harvard University,University of Minnesota |
Jeannine Cavender-Bares is Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard University Herbaria. [1] She is also adjunct professor in the Department of Ecology,Evolution &Behavior at the University of Minnesota,where she served on the faculty for over two decades. [2] Her research integrates evolutionary biology,ecology,and physiology by studying the functional traits of plants,with a particular focus on oaks. [3]
Cavender-Bares grew up in Athens,Ohio. [4] She received her B.A. in environmental sciences from Cornell University in 1990,her Masters in forestry and global change from Yale University in 1992 [5] and her PhD from Harvard University in 2000. [6] At Harvard,Jeannine worked with Fakhri A. Bazzaz [7] and studied the physiological and evolutionary ecology of oaks (Quercus). She then worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center with Catherine Lovelock [8] and at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Montpellier with Serge Rambal and Richard Joffre. [9]
She is a leading researcher in the field of 'eco-phylogenetics' or 'community phylogenetics' (her review [10] has been cited over 2000 times),and organized a special issue of the journal Ecology on that topic. [11] Her work has emphasized the role of diversification in community assembly. [12] [13] Cavender-Bares' research group uses concepts from the evolutionary history of plant physiology to understand how ecosystems function in the face of global climate change,as well as how changes in plant function and diversity can be remotely sensed. She led the design and establishment of several long-term experiments at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve,including the Forest and Biodiversity (FAB) experiments. [14] [15] [16]
Cavender-Bares is the Director of the NSF-funded biology integration institute [17] ASCEND [18] on using spectral biology and predictive models for the study of biodiversity and global change. She was lead principal investigator of the NSF/NASA Dimensions of biodiversity project "Linking remotely sensed optical diversity to genetic,phylogenetic and functional diversity to predict ecosystem processes" [19] and lead editor for the open access book Remote Sensing of Plant Biodiversity . [20]
She has contributed to national and international efforts to assess and monitor biodiversity. She was one of the coordinating lead authors of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report for the Americas. [21] The IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body supported by multiple nations with the mission to "strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity,long-term human well-being and sustainable development." [22] She served on the NASA Working Group that authored the 2022 NASA Biological Diversity and Ecological Forecasting Report:Current State of Knowledge and Considerations for the Next Decade. [23] In 2016,she helped launch the Oaks of the Americas Conservation Network,which promotes the protection of oak species across North America. [24] [25]
She serves on the Governing Board of the Ecological Society of America and the Steering Committee of the World Biodiversity Forum. [26] She was appointed to serve on the public facing Biological Sciences Advisory Committee (BIO AC) to the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2019 to 2021.
As of 2024,Cavender-Bares has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles,international assessments or book chapters that have been cited over 39,000 times. [27]
As indexed by Google scholar some of her most important papers as first author are:
Biology –The natural science that studies life. Areas of focus include structure,function,growth,origin,evolution,distribution,and taxonomy.
An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves,often with lobed edges,and a nut called an acorn,borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere;it includes some 500 species,both deciduous and evergreen. Fossil oaks date back to the Middle Eocene. Molecular phylogeny shows that the genus is divided into Old World and New World clades,but many oak species hybridise freely,making the genus's history difficult to resolve.
Biodiversity is the variability of life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability,species diversity,ecosystem diversity and phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distributed evenly on Earth. It is greater in the tropics as a result of the warm climate and high primary productivity in the region near the equator. Tropical forest ecosystems cover less than one-fifth of Earth's terrestrial area and contain about 50% of the world's species. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity for both marine and terrestrial taxa.
In ecology,the competitive exclusion principle,sometimes referred to as Gause's law,is a proposition that two species which compete for the same limited resource cannot coexist at constant population values. When one species has even the slightest advantage over another,the one with the advantage will dominate in the long term. This leads either to the extinction of the weaker competitor or to an evolutionary or behavioral shift toward a different ecological niche. The principle has been paraphrased in the maxim "complete competitors cannot coexist".
A functional group is a collection of organisms that share characteristics within a community. Ideally,these would perform equivalent tasks based on domain forces,rather than a common ancestor or evolutionary relationship. This could potentially lead to analogous structures that overrule the possibility of homology. More specifically,these beings produce resembling effects to external factors of an inhabiting system. Due to the fact that a majority of these creatures share an ecological niche,it is practical to assume they require similar structures in order to achieve the greatest amount of fitness. This refers to such as the ability to successfully reproduce to create offspring,and furthermore sustain life by avoiding predators and sharing meals.
Functional ecology is a branch of ecology that focuses on the roles,or functions,that species play in the community or ecosystem in which they occur. In this approach,physiological,anatomical,and life history characteristics of the species are emphasized. The term "function" is used to emphasize certain physiological processes rather than discrete properties,describe an organism's role in a trophic system,or illustrate the effects of natural selective processes on an organism. This sub-discipline of ecology represents the crossroads between ecological patterns and the processes and mechanisms that underlie them.
Quercus brandegeei is a rare Mexican species of plant in the family Fagaceae,in the oak genus Quercus,section Virentes. It has been found only in the southern part of the State of Baja California Sur in northwestern Mexico.
Plant evolution is the subset of evolutionary phenomena that concern plants. Evolutionary phenomena are characteristics of populations that are described by averages,medians,distributions,and other statistical methods. This distinguishes plant evolution from plant development,a branch of developmental biology which concerns the changes that individuals go through in their lives. The study of plant evolution attempts to explain how the present diversity of plants arose over geologic time. It includes the study of genetic change and the consequent variation that often results in speciation,one of the most important types of radiation into taxonomic groups called clades. A description of radiation is called a phylogeny and is often represented by type of diagram called a phylogenetic tree.
Ecomorphology or ecological morphology is the study of the relationship between the ecological role of an individual and its morphological adaptations. The term "morphological" here is in the anatomical context. Both the morphology and ecology exhibited by an organism are directly or indirectly influenced by their environment,and ecomorphology aims to identify the differences. Current research places emphasis on linking morphology and ecological niche by measuring the performance of traits associated behaviours,and fitness outcomes of the relationships.
Ecological fitting is "the process whereby organisms colonize and persist in novel environments,use novel resources or form novel associations with other species as a result of the suites of traits that they carry at the time they encounter the novel condition". It can be understood as a situation in which a species' interactions with its biotic and abiotic environment seem to indicate a history of coevolution,when in actuality the relevant traits evolved in response to a different set of biotic and abiotic conditions.
Anne Larigauderie is a French ecologist. She is currently the Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). She was previously the Head of Science in Society at ICSU,the International Council for Science,and the executive director of DIVERSITAS,the international scientific programme dedicated to biodiversity science,under the auspices of ICSU,and UNESCO.
Quercus geminata,commonly called sand live oak,is an evergreen oak tree native to the coastal regions of the subtropical southeastern United States,along the Atlantic Coast from southern Florida northward to southeastern Virginia and along the Gulf Coast westward to southern Mississippi,on seacoast dunes and on white sands in evergreen oak scrubs.
Professor Fakhri Al-Bazzaz was an Iraqi-American plant ecologist specializing in the study of plant community ecological succession. A professor and prolific author,he was ranked amongst the top ten "Most Cited Scientists in Environment/Ecology,1992–2002".
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to evolution:
Catherine H. Graham is an American team leader and senior scientist working on the Biodiversity &Conservation Biology,and the Spatial Evolutionary Ecology research units at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest,Snow and Landscape Research WSL. From 2003 to 2017 she was an Assistant,Associate,or Full Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the Stony Brook University,and since her appointment at the WSL in 2017 she has maintained adjunct status there. She received both her M.S. degree (1995) and her Ph.D. (2000) from the University of Missouri at St. Louis,and did post-doctoral training at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California,Berkeley. She studies biogeography,conservation biology,and ecology. Catherine H. Graham is most noted for her analysis of statistical models to describe species' distributions. This work with Jane Elith is useful in determining changes in biodiversity resulting from human activities. Her paper on niche conservatism with John J. Wiens is also highly cited. They focused on how species' retention of ancestral traits may limit geographic range expansion. In many of her papers,she has sought to unite ecology and evolutionary biology to derive a better understanding of the processes driving species diversity patterns. In particular,she and Paul Fine laid out a framework for interpreting community assembly processes from a phylogenetic approach to quantifying beta diversity.
Dorothy Wanja Nyingi is a Kenyan ichthyologist and recipient of the Ordre des Palmes académiques for her work on Fish Biodiversity and Aquatic Ecology. She is the head of the Ichthyology Department at the National Museums of Kenya. She is the author of the first guide to fresh water fish in Kenya,Guide to the Common Freshwater Fishes of Kenya. She is a Kenyan freshwater ecologist focusing on community driven conservation
Erika S. Zavaleta is an American professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California,Santa Cruz. Zavaleta is recognized for her research focusing on topics including plant community ecology,conservation practices for terrestrial ecosystems,and impacts of community dynamics on ecosystem functions.
Sandra Myrna DíazForMemRS is an Argentine ecologist and professor of ecology at the National University of Córdoba,who has been awarded with the Linnean Medal for her scientific work. She studies the functional traits of plants and investigates how plants impact the ecosystem.
Nico Eisenhauer is a German biologist,soil ecologist and professor for experimental interaction ecology at Leipzig University.
Lúcia Garcez Lohmann is a Brazilian botanist specialized in neotropical biodiversity,with an emphasis on plant ecology and evolution in the Amazon Basin. She is the director of the herbaria at the University of California,Berkeley and a professor in the department of integrative biology.