Our group studies plant communities – especially tropical forests – through a mix of field studies, biodiversity databases, and statistical models. Our research projects explore how environmental heterogeneity influences plant diversity and dynamics across various spatial and temporal scales. We are interested in diversity patterns, species range dynamics, the responses of biological communities to natural and anthropogenic disturbances, and the implications for ecosystem services.
Please see the group website for more information: https://bobmuscarella.weebly.com
Selected Publications
Muscarella, R, S Kolyaie, DC Morton, JK Zimmerman and M Uriarte (2019) Effects of topography on tropical forest structure depend on climate context. Journal of Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.13261.
Muscarella, R, J Messier, R Condit, SP Hubbell, JC Svenning (2018) Effects of biotic interactions on tropical tree performance depend on abiotic conditions. Ecology. 99: 2740-2750. DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2537.
Uriarte, M, R Muscarella and JK Zimmerman (2018) Environmental heterogeneity and biotic interactions mediate climate impacts on tropical forest regeneration. Global Change Biology. 24: e692–e704. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14000.
Muscarella, R, M Lohbeck, M Martinéz-Ramos, L Poorter, J Rodriguez-Velázquez, M van Breugel and F Bongers (2017) Demographic drivers of functional composition dynamics. Ecology. DOI: 10.1002/ecy.1990.
Muscarella, R and M Uriarte (2016) Do community-mean functional traits reflect optimal strategies? Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 283: 20152434. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.2434.
Poorter, L, … R Muscarella & 64 coauthors (2016) Biomass resilience of Neotropical secondary forests. Nature. 530(7589): 211-214. DOI: 10.1038/nature16512.
Muscarella, R, PJ Galante, M Soley-Gaurdia, RA Boria, J Kass, M Uriarte & RP Anderson (2014) ENMeval: an R package for conducting spatially independent evaluations and estimating optimal model complexity for Maxent ecological niche models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 5(11): 1198-1205. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12261.
