Brian Beckage, Ph.D.

  University of Vermont, Assistant Professor, Fall 2003

  University of Tennessee, Postdoctoral Associate 2001-2003

  Louisiana State University, Postdoctoral Associate 2000-2001

  Duke University, Ph.D. Ecology, M.S. Statistics 2000 

  University of Central Florida, M.S. Biology 1994

  Cornell University, B.S. Engineering 1989

I am an ecologist broadly interested in the dynamics of forests including tree demography, maintenance of species richness, and population dynamics in response to global change.  I emphasize the use of quantitative approaches to investigate the mechanisms structuring forested systems, including statistical models, analytical models, and computer simulation models.  There are four areas of research that I am currently most interested in:

(1)  Disturbance and Forest Dynamics.  Disturbance frequency can exert a strong influence on patterns of understory diversity in forests and that interactions between different disturbances can have strong effects on tree demography.  I am currently studying the potential for fire and hurricane disturbance to mediate the transition between forests, savannas, and open grassland systems using both empirical field studies and models. We have developed a cellular automaton model of pine savanna dynamics and are expanding this model into a fully spatial, individual-based model that will also incorporate our data from field sites in southeastern pinelands. 

(2)  Climate Change and Ecological Communities.

Forest Demography in the Green Mountains. Species distributions in North America have changed dramatically over the last 10,000 years of the Holocene and are likely to change rapidly over the next decades and centuries as global climate warms.  To anticipate how forests will respond to climate change, we must understand both how forests have responded to recent climatic change as well as the demographic processes and constraints that operate at species' range limits.  I have several research projects that investigate recent changes in the distribution of forest trees along an elevational gradient in the Green Mountains of Vermont in response to regional warming trends.

Ecological Communities in the Everglades. We are developing landscape model of the Everglades region that can be used to investigate the future state of the Everglades landscape in response to changes in hydrology, disturbance (such as fire), and global climate change. This work is being done with collaborators Drs. Louis Gross and Scott Duke-Sylvester.

(3)  Tree Invasions.  Some introduced tree species rapidly invade native ecological communities, displacing native species, and disrupting community structure.  Schinus terebinthifolius (Brazilian pepper), Melaleuca quinquenervia (Melaleuca), and Casuarina spp (Australian pine) are invasive trees in southern Florida that can form nearly monospecific stands.  Understanding the mechanisms that led to the invasion of these ecosystems and the displacement of native species by these exotic trees has great theoretical and applied importance. I currently am investigating the potential for the invasive tree Brazilian pepper to influence fire regimes, facilititating its own invasion of southeastern pinelands, using both field studies and a cellular automaton simulation model.