Publications 2010 – 2019 – Forest Ecology and Conservation Group

ELEGANCE VERSUS SPEED: EXAMINING THE COMPETITION BETWEEN CONIFER AND ANGIOSPERM TREES

Exploring the apparent conflict for global tree dominance, we seek here to reveal patterns that explain not only how allegedly inferior conifers persist among angiosperms but also why some conifer groups became extinct in the Cretaceous. Brodribb, T.J.; Pittermann, J.; Coomes, D.A. 2012 PDF
A general integrative framework for modelling woody biomass production and carbon sequestration rates in forests

Our study emphasizes the critical role of disturbance in driving forest carbon fluxes. Losses of biomass arising from tree death (particularly in older stands) exceeded gains arising from growth for most of the 30-year study. Coomes D.A.; Holdaway, R.J.; Kobe, R.K.; Lines, E.R.; Allen, R.B. 2012 PDF
Temperate and Tropical Podocarps: How Ecologically Alike Are They?

Comparison of the similarity and differences in temperate and tropical podocarps and how they fit into their environmental communities. Coomes, D.A.; Bellingham, P.J. 2011 PDF
Differential responses of vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores to traits of New Zealand subalpine shrubs

We related eight traits of 27 subalpine shrub species in South Island, New Zealand, to damage of these shrubs by introduced red deer and native invertebrate herbivores using phylogenetically explicit modeling. TANENTZAP, A.J.; LEE, W.G.; DUGDALE, J.S.; PATRICK, B.P.; FENNER, M.; WALKER, S.; COOMES, D.A. 2011 PDF
Size-Specific Tree Mortality Varies with Neighbourhood Crowding and Disturbance in a Montane Nothofagus Forest

Using permanent plot data from Nothofagus forest, New Zealand, where the fates of trees were followed, to examine patterns of size-specific mortality over three consecutive periods spanning 30 years, each characterised by different disturbance, and the strength and direction of neighbourhood crowding effects on size-specific mortality rates. Hurst, J.M.; Allen, R.B.; Coomes, D.A.; Duncan, R.P.…
Effects of competition on tree radial-growth vary in importance but not in intensity along climatic gradients

Non-manipulative approach to the study of plant–plant interactions allows analysing interactions among many species over large climatic gradients. Kunstler, G.; Albert, C.H.; Courbaud, B.; Lavergne, S.; Thuiller, W.; Vieilledent, G.; Zimmermann, N.E.; Coomes D.A. 2011 PDF
TRY – a global database of plant traits

Presentation of the global database initiative named TRY, which has united a wide range of the plant trait research community worldwide and gained an unprecedented buy-in of trait data: so far 93 trait databases have been contributed. KATTGE, J. et al. 2011 PDF
Influence of foliar traits on forage selection by introduced red deer in New Zealand

Understanding diet selection is to relate diet choices to the foliar and structural traits of forage species. Using data on diet selection by red deer in Fiordland National Park, New Zealand, we determined the extent to which interspecific differences in the palatability of 46 plant species could be explained by 11 chemical and structural characteristics…
How landscapes change: Integration of spatial patterns and human processes in temperate landscapes of southern Chile

Evidence on how landscapes change by analysing the spatial patterns of human processes in three forest landscapes in southern Chile at different states of alteration. Echeverría, C.; Newton, A.; Nahuelhual, L.; Coomes D.A.; Rey-Benayas, J.M. 2011 PDF