Integrating ecosystem responses to climate change across scales of space, time, and biological organization
We are ecologists interested in understanding how water-limited ecosystems respond to climate-driven changes in water availability, with a focus on the western United States. Central to our approach is the integration of processes across scales. We are interested in how ecosystem dynamics (e.g., primary productivity) vary through time within an ecosystem, how those temporal dynamics vary across space within an ecoregion or biome, and the connections between different levels of biological organization; how do fine-scale biological processes (e.g., species’ physiology) influence larger-scale emergent ecosystem dynamics (e.g., total ecosystem productivity). Thus, our goal is to discover the mechanisms underpinning large-scale patterns of climate vulnerability. To meet this goal, our research draws from multiple disciplines including theoretical and plant physiological ecology, ecohydrology, and biogeochemistry and uses both observational and experimental approaches while leveraging the techniques of field ecology, remote sensing, and geographic information systems.
Science in action!
Interested in joining the lab as an undergraduate researcher, graduate student, or postdoctoral researcher? Contact Dr. Andrew Felton at [email protected]!
