Organized Oral Session
Hybrid Session
Chris Smith-Martin
Columbia University, United States
Human activities continue to alter global climate which has led to widespread modifications of ecosystem processes impacting how ecosystems and plants function across the globe including the tropics. For example, anthropogenic-induced climate change is increasing the occurrence and strength of extreme weather events such as droughts and heatwaves, leading to biodiversity loss attributed to factors such as species-specific drought-induced mortality. Tropical ecosystems are especially important as they store vast amounts of carbon, house the majority of terrestrial biodiversity, offer ecosystem services, and contribute to people’s livelihood. Moreover, topical ecosystems are particularly impacted by anthropogenic activities such as widespread deforestation and degradation, which are heavily modifying ecosystem function. There has been a growing interest in the use of plant physiological ecology to understand how and why forests will respond to anthropogenic-induced changes and how we can mitigate these impacts with ecosystem management and restoration. The objective of this organized oral session is to unite scientists using physiological ecology approaches to further our understanding of tropical plant function and how diverse tropical ecosystems — dry forests, rainforests, and savannas — will respond to environmental changes. This oral session is composed of talks showcasing novel and exciting research that will broaden our understanding of how evolution, physiology, ontogeny, and environmental gradients dictate: plant function, structure of forests and savannas, and responses to rapid environmental change. This session has a diverse group of speakers that will present the results of studies where they applied cutting-edge ecophysiological approaches to answer questions related to plant hydraulics, photosynthesis, and physiology of tropical angiosperms, conifers, and ferns. These studies also provide insight into inter- and intra-specific trait variation across environmental gradients and shed light on the tolerance of mainland and island plants to drought and other climate stressors. We anticipate our oral session being of interest to many ESA annual meeting attendees, especially those interested in plant physiological ecology, community ecology, global change biology, and tropical ecology in general.
Co-Author: Lucy Rowland – University of Exeter
Presenting Author: Fernanda V. Barros – University of Exeter
Co-author: Rafael S. Oliveira – UNICAMP
Co-author: Demetrius L. Martins – UNICAMP
Co-author: Guilherme G. Mazzochini – UNICAMP
Co-author: Rafael O. Xavier – UNICAMP
Co-author: Maurizio Mencuccini – CREAF
Presenting Author: Chris M. Smith-Martin – Columbia University
Co-author: Robert Muscarella – Uppsala University
Co-author: María Uriarte – Columbia University
Presenting Author: Jarmila Pittermann – University of California -Santa Cruz
Co-author: Alex Baer – University of california, santa cruz
Co-author: Courtney Campany – Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, West Virginia
Co-author: Steven Jansen – University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
Co-author: Eric Schuettpelz – National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Co-author: Helen Irene Homlund – Pepperdine University
Co-author: Klaus Mehltreter – Instituto de Ecologia, Xalapa, Mexico
Co-author: James Watkins – Colgate University ,Hamilton, New York
Presenting Author: Eleinis Ávila-Lovera – The University of Utah
Co-author: Klaus Winter – Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Presenting Author: Stephanie C. Schmiege – Michigan State University
Co-author: Madison Li – Emory University
Co-author: Brendan M. Buckley – Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
Co-author: Dennis W. Stevenson – New York Botanical Garden
Co-author: Kevin L. Griffin – Columbia University
Presenting Author: Kasey E. Barton – University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa