Diversity and abundance

We use experimentation and observation to address questions related to the roles of abiotic and biotic factors in variation in diversity and abundance through space and time. This work has focused mainly on tundra plant community composition and dynamics at my long-term study site near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, where we have been running an herbivore exclosure experiment combined with a warming experiment since 2003.

Additionally, we are interested in the roles of abiotic (i.e., climatic) and biotic (i.e., density dependent) factors in the population dynamics of large herbivores, especially caribou and muskoxen. We also use large data sets to examine response diversity in the population dynamics of large herbivores to climatic variation across species’ distributions.