Director, Principal Investigator Critical Ecology Lab, United States
Parent materials, topographic parameters, latitude, disturbance history, and the presence of nearby islands are drivers of island vegetation dynamics. These conditions have also been influential in the process of European colonization of Caribbean islands due to their influence on island suitability for colonial extraction. Suitability for colonization may include potential landscape productivity and resources to support long-term intensive monocropping, as well as space and resources for settlers and large enslaved populations. We present the hypothesis that the plant functional diversity will vary least following plantation abandonment on islands presenting the greatest utility for colonial exploitation.
