Frank Jones
Oregon State University, OR·Ecology & Evolution
Why do some forests hold many tree species while others are dominated by a few? Ecological theory and observations suggest a key factor is how adult trees affect seedlings of their own species.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Plant Science & Agriculture
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
plant-soil feedback
conspecific negative density dependence
fungal symbionts
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Test whether feedback between adult trees and same-species seedlings shifts from negative to positive as drought and nutrient stress increase, mediated by fungal pathogens and mutualists.
- Reciprocally transplant three focal tree species beneath same- or different-species adults along moisture and soil-nutrient gradients at the HJ Andrews LTER site, while manipulating fungal mutualists.
- Manipulate trees, microbes, drought and soil nutrients in greenhouse experiments to separate direct and indirect fungal effects on tree performance.
- Integrate tree-fungus interactions into regional forest community models to predict how Pacific Northwest tree populations respond to abiotic stress.
More about the research
Harmful effects of adults on their own seedlings keep any one species from taking over and help maintain diversity. Helpful effects, which are more common in harsh environments, can instead reduce diversity. Fungi living on and around tree roots, both disease-causing pathogens and helpful partners (mutualists), may drive these effects. However, how their role changes across environments is unknown, and this question becomes more pressing as the climate shifts.
Why it matters
Results could help land managers in the Pacific Northwest understand how soil and leaf fungi affect the growth and survival of key tree species. The models could also help predict how forest diversity and composition may shift as drought and nutrient stress increase with a changing climate.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Richard Lankau
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Ecology & Evolution
Track how soil microbial communities and food webs develop on Midwestern farmland after farming stops or agroforestry begins, comparing sites with different times since abandonment and restoration practices.
Susan Kalisz
University of Tennessee-Knoxville, TN·Ecology & Evolution
Determine long-term patterns in arbuscular mycorrhizal and pathogenic fungal communities on native plant roots, and how invasion by garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) reorganizes them, using a long-term field invasion experiment.
Stefan Schnitzer
Marquette University, WI·Ecology & Evolution
Test whether lianas (woody vines) act as a keystone guild that keeps dominant tree species from crowding out weaker ones, using a large-scale liana-removal experiment in a tropical forest running since 2008.
The school
Oregon State University: 29 labs on PI Pages, $372M a year on research, 238 research doctorates a year.
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