Research

My primary interests are community composition and dynamics of Andean and Amazonian tree communities in both space and time.  The lab's current research focuses on combining modern- and paleoecology to understand tree distributions and plant-climate relationships in the Andes and Amazon.  The work is focused on the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes and the adjacent Amazonian plain, with a particular emphasis in distributions along environmental gradients, be they in space or time, and includes both empirical work and modeling.  Our main study site now is a 3 km altitudinal transect from tree line to the Amazon plain in SE Peru, and we have 16 years of experience in the western Amazon and Andes.

Other studies include experimental work on tree life history and tropical tree community structure, plant-animal interactions and biodiversity maintenance in tropical forests, large-scale analyses of tree species composition in Amazonia, and inverse modeling of climate from plant community composition.

Recent Publications (grad students in bold) (all publications)

Bush, MB, MR Silman, C McMichael, and S Saatchi. 2008. Fire, climate change and biodiversity in Amazonia: a Late-Holocene perspective. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B. 363: 1795–1802

Hillyer, R, BG Valencia, MB Bush, MR Silman, and M Steinitz-Kannan. 2008. A 24,700-yr paleolimnological history from the Peruvian Andes. Quaternary Research. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2008.06.006

Bush, MB and MR Silman. 2008. Amazonia: A cultural landscape? In "An international Forum on Sustainability", (G. Nelson & I. Hronsky eds.), pp 51-61. Arisztotelész Publishing Co, Budapest.

Silman, MR. 2007. Plant species diversity in Amazonian forests. ch. 11 in Bush, M. and Flenly, J. eds. Tropical Rain Forest Responses to Climate Change. Praxis Publishing, Springer-Praxis, London.

Bush, MB, MR Silman, MB de Toledo, CMCS Listopad, WD Gosling, C Williams, PE de Oliveira, and C Krisel. 2007. Holocene fire and occupation in Amazonia: a spatial perspective. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B. 362: 209-218.

Bush, MB, MR Silman, and CMCS Listopad. 2007. Climate change and human occupation in Peruvian Amazonia: a paleoecological perspective.  Journal of Biogeography. 34 (8): 1342-1356

Bush, MB and MR Silman. 2007. Amazonian exploitation revisited: Ecological asymmetry and the policy pendulum. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 5 (9): 457-465.

Silman, MR and C Krisel. 2006.  Getting to the root of tree neighborhoods: hectare-scale root zones of a Neotropical fig. J. of Tropical Ecology 22:727-730.

Silman, MR. 2006. Plant species diversity in Amazonian forests. ch. 11 in Flenly, J and Bush, M eds. Tropical Rain Forest Responses to Climate Change . Praxis Publishing, Springer-Praxis, London.

Wright, IJ, DD Ackerly, F Bongers, KE Harms, G Ibarra-Manriquez, M Martinez-Ramos, SJ Mazer, HC Muller-Landau, H Paz, NCA Pitman, L Poorter, MR Silman, CF Vriesendorp, CO Webb, M Westoby, and SJ Wright. 2006. Relationships among ecologically important dimensions of plant trait variation in seven neotropical forests. Annals of Botany. 10.1093/aob/mcl066. Ann Bot:mcl066.

lman, MR, A Aruajo Murakami, H Pariamo, M Bush, D Urrego. 2006. Changes in tree community structure at the southern limits of Amazonia: Manu and Madidi. Ecologia en Bolivia 40:443-452.

Terborgh, J, K Feeley, MR Silman, P Núñez and VB Balukjian.  2006.  Vegetation dynamics of predator-free land-bridge islands. J. of Ecology 94:253-263.

*Bush, MB,*MR Silman, and D Urrego. 2004. 48,000 years of climate and forest change in a biodiversity hotspot. Science 303:827-829.
(*Authors contributed equally to this work)

Urrego, D, MR Silman, and MB Bush. 2005. The last glacial maximum: stability and change in an Andean cloud forest. J. of Quaternary Science. 20:693-701.

Peters, H, A Pauw, MR Silman, and J Terborgh. 2004. Falling palm fronds structure tropical rain forest plant communities. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B (Suppl.) 271, S367-S369

Wyatt, JL and MR Silman. 2004. Distance-dependence in two Neotropical palms: effects of spatial and temporal variation in seed predator communities. Oecologia 140:26-35.

Bush, MB and MR Silman. 2004. Observations on Late-Pleistocene cooling and precipitation in the Neotropics. J. of Quaternary Science 18:677-684.

Silman, MR, J Terborgh, and R Kiltie. 2003. Population regulation of a dominant rain forest tree by a major seed predator. Ecology 84:431-438.

Silman, MR, EJ Ancaya, and J Brinson. 2003.  Bamboo forests of western Amazonia.  In: Alto Purus: Biodiversity, Conservation, and Management. R Leite, N Pitman, P Alvarez eds. Center for Tropical Conservation Press. (Titles appear in Spanish).