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)

Feeley, K.J. , M. R. Silman, M.B. Bush, W. Farfan R., K. Garcia C., Y. Malhi, P. Meir, S. Saatchi. 2011. The upward migration of Andean trees in response to increasing temperatures. Journal of Biogeography. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2010.02444.x

Feeley, K.J. , M. R. Silman. 2011. Keep collecting: Accurate species distribution modelling reqires more collections than previously thought. Diversity and Distributions. doi: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2011.00813.x

Mailhi, Y., M. R. Silman, N. Salinas, M. Bush, P. Meir, and S. Saatchi. 2010. Elevation gradients in the tropics: Laboratories for ecosystem ecology and global change research. Global Change Biology. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02323.x.

Girardin, C.A.L., Gurdak, Daniel; Aragão, Luiz; Rozas-Dávila, Angela; Huasco, Walter; Farfan Rios, William; Girardin, Cécile; Silman, M.R.; Metcalfe, Daniel; Silva-Espejo, J; Salinas Revilla, Norma; Malhi, Yadvinder. 2010. Net primary productivity allocation and cycling of carbon along a tropical forest elevational transect in the Peruvian Andes. Global Change Biology doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02235.x

Feeley, K.J. and M. R. Silman. 2010. The data void in modeling current and future distributions of tropical species. Global Change Biology doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02239.x

Hillyer, R.A. and M.R. Silman. 2010. Changes in species interactions across a 3 km elevation gradient: effects on plant migration in response to climate change. Global Change Biologydoi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02268.x

Urrego, D., M. B. Bush, M. R. Silman. 2010. A long history of cloud and forest migration from Lake Consuelo, Peru. Quaternary Research 73(2):364-373

Feeley, K.J. and M. R. Silman. 2010. Biotic attrition in the hot tropics accounting for truncated temperature niches. Global Change Biology 16(6):1830–1836. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.02085.x

Feeley, K.J. and M. R. Silman. 2010. Land-use and climate change effects on population size and extinction risk of Andean plants. Global Change Biology doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02197.x

Meier, C. J. Rapp, R. Bowers, M. R. Silman, and N. Fierer. 2010. Fungal growth on a common wood substrate across a tropical elevation gradient: temperature sensitivity, community composition, and potential for above-ground decomposition. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 42(7): 1083-1090. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2010.03.005

Feeley, K.J. and M. R. Silman. 2010. Modelled distributions and responses of Andean & Amazonian plant species to climate change: the effects of geo-referencing errors and the importance of data filtering. Journal of Biogeography 37(4):733-740. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02197.x

Wyatt, J.L. and M.R. Silman. 2010. Centuries-old logging legacy on spatial and temporal patterns in understory herb communities. Forest Ecology and Management 260:116-124. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2010.04.010 Appendix A

Valencia, B, D. Urrego, M. R. Silman, and M. Bush. 2010. From ice-age to modern: a record of landscape change in an Andean cloud forest. Journal of Biogeography. 37:1637-1647

Feeley, K.J. and M. R. Silman. 2009. Extinction rates of Amazonian plant species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 106:12382-12387.

Urrego, D., M.B Bush, M.R. Silman, Correa-Metrio, A. Ledru, M., Mayle, F. and B. Valencia. 2009. Millennial-scale ecological changes in tropical South America since the Last Glacial Maximum. Pp. 283-300 in Past climate variability in South America and Surrounding Regions: From the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene, F. Vimieux, F. Sylvestre, and M. Khodri, eds. Springer. NY.

Zimmermann, M, P. Meir, M. R. Silman, and 15 others. 2009. No differences in soil carbon stocks across the tree line in the Peruvian Andes. Ecosystems DOI: 10.1007/s10021-009-9300-2, Print 13(1):62-74