Shinya Sugita
 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
Ph.D., University of Washington, 1990
Contact Information
Phone: 612-624-3406
Fax: 612-624-6777
E-mail: sugita@umn.edu
Graduate Faculty Memberships
Conservation Biology; Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; Quaternary Paleoecology.
Research Interests
Quaternary palynology and paleoecology; theory of pollen analysis; stand-scale dynamics of forest; species invasion and migration; land use history
Statement
I am interested in the history of vegetation and climate change in the Quaternary period, because it gives us a unique perspective for a better understanding of the interactions between biological and physical environments. Fossil pollen in particular has a great potential to provide quantitative information on populations and communities of plants over thousands of years in the past. In addition, because humans are dramatically altering the Earth System, we need to predict how climate and vegetation will change for the well-being of our society and for nature conservation. Paleorecords provide constraints for testing mechanistic and predictive models of climate and vegetation, a critical procedure to improve our ability to evaluate future scenarios.
I will continue to study the vegetation history of Japan, northern Europe, and the Midwest of the United States. How did climate changes affect vegetation? How important have the feedbacks between vegetation and climate been since the last glacial maximum 21,000 years ago? What have been the roles of human impacts on the changes in vegetation and climate? What were the patterns and mechanisms for species invasion and migration? Were natural and/or anthropogenic disturbances important for plant migration? These are the questions I would like to tackle using paleorecords, model simulations, and field experiments. Further development of the theory of pollen analysis, particularly in mountain regions of complex topography, and the theory-based methods for vegetation reconstruction will be another important topic of my research activities.
Selected Publications
Takahara, H., Sugita, S., Harrison, S.P., Miyoshi, N., Morita, Y., Prentice, I.C., and Uchiyama, T. 2000. Pollen-based reconstruction of Japanese biomes at 0, 6000 and 18,000 yr B.P. Journal of Biogeography 27, 665-683.
Sugita, S., Gaillard, M.-J., and Broström, A. 1999. Landscape openness and pollen records: a simulation approach. Holocene 9, 409-421.
Sugita, S. 1998. Modeling pollen representation of vegetation. Palaeoclimatic Research, Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz 27, 1-15.
Davis, M.B., Calcote, R.R., Sugita, S. and Takahara, H. 1998. Invasion by hemlock and the origin of the hemlock-hardwood forest mosaic. Ecology 79, 2641-2659.
Frelich, L.E., Sugita, S., Reich, P.B., Davis, M.B., and Friedman, S.K. 1998. Neighborhood effects in forests: Implications for within stand patch structure and management. Journal of Ecology 86, 149-161.
Sugita, S., MacDonald, G.M. and Larsen, C.P.S. 1997. Reconstruction of fire disturbance and forest succession from fossil pollen in lake sediments: potential and limitations. In "Sediment Records of Biomass Burning and Global Change" (J.S. Clark, H. Cachier, J.G. Goldmmer and B.J. Stocks, Eds.), pp. 387-412. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Sugita, S. 1994. Pollen representation of vegetation in Quaternary sediments: Theory and method in patchy vegetation. Journal of Ecology 82, 881-897.
Sugita, S. 1993. A model of pollen source area for an entire lake surface. Quaternary Research 39: 239-244.
Additional Links
The pollen/landscape calibration (POLLANDCAL) network
IGERT Training Grant
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