Global Change Biogeography
Earth's ecosystems globally have been increasingly altered by a variety of environmental change factors that include climate warming, drought, sea-level rise, ocean acidification, eutrophication, pollution, species invasions, overharvesting, etc. While mounting individual site-scale studies have shown the impacts of global change on ecosystems and their underlying mechanisms, we lack an understanding of patterns in and mechanisms underlying their variations across spatial scales that include site-to-site differences (spatial extent) and dependency of investigation size (grain size).
In my research, I try to incorporate a spatial, biogeographic perspective into understanding the patterns in and mechanisms underlying variations in the impact of environmental change on ecosystems, which may be called Global Change Biogeography. My recent works include: how the impact of nutrient enrichment and top-down control in coastal wetlands vary geographically across latitude and climate.
Relevant Publications
He, Q., & Silliman, B. R. 2015. Biogeographic consequences of nutrient enrichment for plant–herbivore interactions in coastal wetlands. Ecology Letters 18: 462–471.
He, Q., & Silliman, B. R. 2016. Consumer control as a common driver of coastal vegetation worldwide. Ecological Monographs 86: 278–294.
He, Q., Bertness, M.D., & Altieri, A.H. 2013. Global shifts towards positive species interactions with increasing environmental stress. Ecology Letters 16: 695–706.
Fariña, J. M., He, Q., Silliman, B. R., & Bertness, M.D. 2017. Biogeography of salt marsh plant zonation on the Pacific coast of South America. Journal of Biogeography, doi: 10.1111/jbi.13109