About the Lab
The world’s tropical forests harbor the majority of Earth’s biodiversity, regulate global climate, and form the basis for the livelihoods of rural communities worldwide, but the extent, structure, and composition of these forests are changing dramatically under the influence of a changing climate and human activities. Through an integrated program of empirical and quantitative approaches, research in my lab examines forest ecological dynamics in response to natural disturbance (e.g., hurricanes) and human land use. From a purely ecological perspective, this means that we focus on disturbance ecology, forest succession, and community assembly questions. Our research examines forest dynamics from stand and landscape perspectives, and includes geographic regions where forests have been subject to different forms of natural or anthropogenic disturbance.
Latest News
Professor Uriarte was interviewed for Aeon to discuss her research examining whether increases in droughts and hurricanes threaten the resilience of tropical forests:
https://aeon.co/essays/how-atomic-doomsday-experiments-shaped-disturbance-ecology
Professor Uriarte writes for Columbia News about the importance of ecological research into drought effects.
https://news.columbia.edu/news/understand-climate-change-study-rainfall-and-drought
Research conducted in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, a threatened tropical forested ecosystem, shows that young regenerating forests may have short lifespans, which has serious implications for restoration efforts in tropical regions. Click on the link below to know more:
contact
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution and Evolutionary Biology
Columbia University
10th Floor Schermerhorn Ext., Room 1021
1200 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 212-854-1494