SpaCE: SPATIAL & COMMUNITY ECOLOGY LAB
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Macrosystems Biology & Patterns of Biodiversity 

Project 1: Biodiversity Patterns & Drivers Across Scales - Project Website: https://neon-biodiversity.github.io/ 

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This NSF funded research includes a NSF EF EAGER-NEON award "Using Intraspecific Trait Variation to Understand Processes Structuring Continental-scale Biodiversity Patterns" (2015-2018), and a Macrosystems Biology award "Local- to Continental-Scale Drivers of Biodiversity" (2019-2024)). These projects utilize National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) data on intraspecific trait variation, additional measurements from NEON organismal samples, and data related to NEON sites and samples (e.g., phylogenetic community structure) to determine how assembly processes internal to communities (e.g., biotic interactions, microenvironmental heterogeneity) and large-scale assembly processes external to communities (e.g., climate, land use, disturbance) combine to affect intraspecific trait variation and community structure across the continental United States.
Monitoring shifts in trait variation and can help detect species-level and community-level responses to disturbances, climate and land use change, and invasive species. 

  • Lab Members: Phoebe Zarnetske, Quentin Read, John Grady, Annie Smith, Cameo Chilcutt
  • Collaborators: Sydne Record (Bryn Mawr), Angela Strecker (Portland State), Benjamin Baiser (U Florida), Lydia Beaudrot (Rice University), Jonathan Belmaker (Tel Aviv University), Mao-Ning Tuanmu (Academica Sinica), Kate Thibault (NEON)
  • Funding: National Science Foundation EF EAGER-NEON; DEB MSB-MRA, Michigan State University
  • ​Publications: Read et al. 2018 Biology Letters, Read et al. 2018 Ecography, Grady et al. 2018 TIEE
  • Project Website: https://neon-biodiversity.github.io/
  • GitHub: https://github.com/NEON-biodiversity

Project 2: bioXgeo (Connecting Biodiversity, Geodiversity, and Remote Sensing across Scales)

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Geodiversity is the variation in abiotic features and processes on Earth's surface. This NASA funded Working Group brings together scientists and practitioners in biodiversity and remote sensing to address two main research questions: 
(1) How do the relationships between biodiversity and geodiversity change across spatial scales?
(2) What derived NASA data products at particular spatial or temporal scales would transform the use of geophysical data by biodiversity scientists and practitioners?

Here is our Project Summary.
  • Lab Members: Phoebe Zarnetske, Quentin Read, John Grady, Annie Smith
  • Collaborators: Kyla Dahlin (MSU), Sydne Record (Bryn Mawr), Jennifer Costanza (NC State), Andrew Finley (MSU), Kieth Gaddis (AAAS/NASA), Martina Hobi (WSL), Andrew Latimer (UC Davis), Sparkle Malone (USDA Forest Service), Scott Ollinger (UNH), Stephanie Pau (Florida State), Woody Turner (NASA), Adam Wilson (University at Buffalo, SUNY)
  • Funding: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
  • Publications: Zarnetske et al. 2019 GEB, Record et al. 2020 Chapter in: Remote Sensing of Biodiversity​, 
  • GitHub: https://github.com/bioXgeo

Project 3: aquaXterra (Aquatic & Terrestrial Linkages)

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Quantifying linkages between biodiversity and productivity across aquatic and terrestrial realms—and how their relationship varies across spatial scales—is a needed area of research informing biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF). Such investigations determine the spatial extent of interconnectivity of nutrient subsidies, species interactions and habitat use, as well as functional diversity among both realms. In combination with the LAke multi-scaled GeOSpatial and temporal database (LAGOS), we are integrating species occurrence, species trait, and satellite remotely sensed data across USGS Hydrologic Units with the goal of generating a publicly-accessible database. 

Goals:
  1. Build capacity for terrestrial-aquatic biodiversity science and management
  2. Synthesize disparate datasets from terrestrial and aquatic subdisciplines and monitoring networks; share resulting data products
  3. Analyze multi-scale patterns​ of biodiversity and productivity
  • Lab Members:  Phoebe Zarnetske, Laura Twardochleb, Quentin Read, ​Simone Oliphant, Jay Jain, Ethan Hiltner, Minali Bhatt, Erika Ralston
  • MSU Collaborators: Kyla Dahlin, Pat Soranno, Kendra Cheruvelil, Lifeng Luo, Aaron Kamoske
  • Funding:
    • MSU Environmental Science & Policy Program (ESPP) Watercube
    • NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship
  • Publications: ​Dahlin et al. in revision, FEE
  • GitHub: https://github.com/aquaXterra

Project 4: Frugivoria: Biodiversity, Cloud Forests, & Species vs. Functional Conservation

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Cloud forests are biodiversity hotspots but climate change is altering cloud layer distribution and thickness. Many of the species residing in cloud forests are data deficient, making it challenging to apply traditional species distribution models. We are working to improve the conservation assessments of a data-deficient species in the Northern Andes by incorporating occurring and functionally similar species occurrence data. This work builds on a project focused on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, plus Conservation (REDD+), which creates financial incentives to reduce forest land C emissions and to promote C-sequestration in developing countries via sustainable development. Faunal biodiversity is not considered per se in the planning or monitoring process. We investigated >100 REDD+ sites to determine their potential for conserving amphibian, mammal, and bird diversity.
  • Lab Members:  Phoebe Zarnetske, Beth Gerstner, Hazel Anderson, Minali Bhatt, Erika Ralston, Arpita Nayak, Alison MacCormick, Caroline Blommel, Nellie Chalem, Emma Mushaka, Krymsen Hernandez, Danielle Miles
  • Funding: NASA FINESST Fellowship, Michigan State University, MSU SROP
  • GitHub: https://github.com/bioXgeo/neotropical_frugivores

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