Contact Information
505 S. Goodwin Ave
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Areas
Research Description
Tropical forest dynamics, plant-soil and plant-fungal interactions, seed ecology
My research concerns the population and community ecology of tropical forests, with a particular interest in understanding how soil nutrient availability and soil microbial communities shape the composition and diversity of tree communities. Much of my work is carried out with collaborators at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, in Panama, where I am a Research Associate Scientist. My work is carried out principally on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal Watershed, or at the Fortuna Forest Reserve and Volcan Barú in western Panama where I established and maintain a network of forest dynamics plots that encompass a wide range of soil nutrient availabilities and elevation (700-3200m).
Current projects explore:
- seed-infecting fungi as a model system for understanding how plant-pathogen interactions and plant defense traits influence abundance and coexistence
- role of soil nutrient availability in structuring tree communities and plant functional traits
- role of wood nutrients as a plant nutrient store in nutrient-poor soil and as a determinant of wood decomposer community composition and decay rate
Education
B.A., 1988, Oxford University
Ph.D., 1992, Cambridge University
Awards and Honors
Delcomyn Professorial Scholar
Visiting Fellow, Magdalen College, Oxford
Beaufort Visiting Fellow, St John's College, Cambridge
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Plant Biology
Professor, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Professor, Center for Global Studies
External Links
Recent Publications
Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J., Díaz, S., Rifai, S. W., Corral-Rivas, J. J., Nava-Miranda, M. G., González-M, R., Hurtado-M, A. B., Revilla, N. S., Vilanova, E., Almeida, E., de Oliveira, E. A., Alvarez-Davila, E., Alves, L. F., de Andrade, A. C. S., Lola da Costa, A. C., Vieira, S. A., Aragão, L., Arets, E., Aymard C, G. A., ... Malhi, Y. (2025). Tropical forests in the Americas are changing too slowly to track climate change. Science (New York, N.Y.), 387(6738), eadl5414. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adl5414
Álvarez, J., Dalling, J. W., Edgington, J. M., & Fraterrigo, J. M. (2025). Homogenization of a temperate old-growth forest remnant in central Illinois following the introduction of Dutch elm disease (Ophiostoma novo-ulmi) and emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis). Forest Ecology and Management, 585, Article 122707. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122707
Hua, X., Lusk, C. H., Dickie, I. A., Adu-Bredu, S., Allen, K. J., Araus, V., Augusto, L., Barsukov, P., Bauman, D., Brédoire, F., Burslem, D. F. R. P., Dalling, J. W., Depauw, L., Dexter, K. G., Drouet, T., Godlee, J. L., Godoy, R., Gutiérrez, R. A., Muledi, J. I., ... Wright, I. J. (2025). Site-Specific Nutrient Data Reveal the Importance of Soils in Driving the Mycorrhizal Make-Up of Woody Vegetation Worldwide. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 34(1), Article e13936. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13936
Jops, K., Dalling, J. W., & O’Dwyer, J. P. (2025). Life history is a key driver of temporal fluctuations in tropical tree abundances. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(4), Article e2422348122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2422348122
Seyfried, G. S., Edwards, J. D., Dalling, J. W., Kent, A. D., & Yang, W. H. (2025). Nitrogen addition alters interactions between ectomycorrhizal host trees and fungal communities in a mixed mycorrhizal tropical rainforest. Plant and Soil, Article 108386. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-025-07327-4