Organized Oral Session
Elizabeth LaRue
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at El Paso, United States
Christopher Hakkenberg
Northern Arizona University, United States
Elizabeth LaRue
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at El Paso, United States
Owing to rapidly expanding capabilities in remote sensing and computational technologies, scientists are now capable of precisely measuring the physical structure of ecosystems across large spatial scales to accurately characterize ecosystem structural diversity. Structural diversity is defined as the volumetric capacity and arrangement (e.g. complexity, variation) of biotic components within ecosystems. Despite recent progress in this relatively new area of ecological research, it is still not well understood how recent advances in the consistent characterization of structural diversity are related to ecological processes. For example, structural diversity may be a better predictor of key ecosystem functions (e.g. productivity) than biodiversity, but the mechanisms underlying these patterns have not yet been sufficiently tested across ecosystem types or ecosystem functions. In this session, scientists will share novel findings on how structural diversity relates to biodiversity and ecosystem functions across ecosystems. Speakers working at the forefront of remote sensing, forest ecology, and species distribution modelling will present upon different methodologies for measuring structural diversity, relating them to ecosystem pattern and process, and assessing their implications for ecological theory and management.
Presenting Author: Songlin Fei – Purdue University
Co-author: Elizabeth LaRue – The University of Texas at El Paso
Co-author: Robert Fahey – University of Connecticut
Co-author: Brady Hardiman – Purdue University
Presenting Author: Ruben Valbuena – Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Co-author: Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa – University of Alberta, Canada
Co-author: Thomas Lovejoy – Posthumous
Presenting Author: Sruthi Moorthy – University of Maryland
Co-author: Felicien Meunier – Department of Environment, Ghent University, Belgium
Co-author: Kim Calders – Department of Environment, Ghent University, Belgium
Co-author: Stefan A. Schnitzer – Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Wisconsin, USA
Co-author: Marco D. Visser – Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, The Netherlands
Co-author: Helene C. Muller-Landau – Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Co-author: Hans Verbeeck – Department of Environment, Ghent University, Belgium
Presenting Author: Arshad Ali – Hebei University
Presenting Author: Christopher Hakkenberg – Northern Arizona University
Co-author: Patrick Burns – Northern Arizona University
Co-Author: Scott Goetz – Northern Arizona University
Presenting Author: Zaneta Monika Kaszta – Northern Arizona University
Co-author: Zaneta Monika Kaszta – Northern Arizona University
Co-author: Patrick Burns – Northern Arizona University
Co-author: Samuel A. Cushman – US Forest Service
Co-Author: Scott Goetz – Northern Arizona University