University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
College of Biological Sciences
http://www.cbs.umn.edu/

Associate Professor Jeannine Cavender-Bares

Ph.D., Harvard University, 2000
Phone: 612-624-6337 Fax: 612-624-6777
cavender@umn.edu

Graduate Faculty Memberships

Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; Plant Biological Sciences

 

Research Interests
 

  • Physiological ecology of plants
  • Intregation of community ecology and phylogenetics
  • Linking plant function, evolutionary history and environmental gradients
  • Phylogeography, local adaptation and conservation

 


Statement
 

The unifying goal of my work is to understand how functional traits of plants link evolutionary history to current ecological processes with consequences for ecosystem function and stability on an increasingly human dominated planet. My research program integrates levels of biological organization from cell and tissue function to ecosystem biology with a long-term goal of understanding the origins and organization of plant biodiversity and its consequences. In doing so, I bring together concepts and tools from physiological ecology, ecosystem ecology, and evolutionary biology.

There are several areas in which I am currently working. These include 1) investigation of the historical biogeographic and climatic influences on community assembly and local adaptation of populations in the seasonally dry tropical forests of northwestern Costa Rica, 2) linking phylogenetic history, plant traits, and environmental gradients to understand community organization at multiple scales in North America; 3) addressing how global change impacts biodiversity (in terms of functional and phylogenetic diversity) and ecosystem processes in human dominated landscapes, such as across urban to rural land use gradients, and 4) macro- and microevolution of ecophysiological function in oaks (Quercus). My students are working on a wide array of project that range from the impacts of habitat fragmentation on population genetic structure in live oaks, to the phylogeography of Douglas fir in relation to historical climate change, the mechanisms of niche differentiation in willow species at local and continental scales, and the ecological and evolutionary responses of invasive species to biotic control.


Selected Publications


Full publications list in PDF format http://www.cbs.umn.edu/lab/cavender/publications


Cavender-Bares, J. and P.B. Reich. 2012. Shocks to the system: Community assembly of the oak savanna in a 40-year fire frequency experiment. Ecology, 93(8) Supplement, pp. S52–S69. 

Savage, J. and J. Cavender-Bares. 2012. Habitat specialization and the role of trait lability in structuring hyper-diverse Willow family (Salicaceae) communities across a hydrologic gradient. Ecology, 93(8) Supplement, pp. S138–S150 

Koehler, K., A. Center, and J. Cavender-Bares. 2012. Evidence for a freezing tolerance - growth rate trade-off in the live oaks (Quercus series Virentes) across the tropical-temperate divide. New Phytologist, Vol. 193, Iss. 3, pp. 730-744.

Knapp, S., L. Dinsmore, C. Fissore, S. Hobbie, I. Jakobsdottir, J. King, S. Klotz, J. McFadden, and J. Cavender-Bares, Characteristics of spontaneous floras of household yards and their changes along an urbanization gradient. Ecology, 93(8) Supplement, pp. S83–S98. 
 
Cavender-Bares, J., A. Gonzalez-Rodriguez, A. Pahlich, K. Koehler, and N. Deacon. 2011. Phylogeography and climatic niche evolution in live oaks (Quercus series Virentes) from the tropics to the temperate zone. Journal of Biogeography 38:962-981. 
 
Gugger, P. and J. Cavender-Bares. 2011. Molecular and morphological support for a Florida origin of the Cuban oak, Journal of Biogeography.
 
Davies, K. F., J. Cavender-Bares, and N. Deacon. 2011. Native communities determine the identity of exotic invaders even at scales at which communities are unsaturated. Diversity and Distributions 17:35-42.
 

 

Additional Links
 

Cavender-Bares Lab

My CV