G. Kunstler

How do sapling and adult demography explain beech predominance along environmental gradients in Central European forests?

The paper uses a forest model calibrated with demographic data to confirm Ellenberg's theory that beech predominates in Central European forests under favorable soil conditions.

Abundance of Northern Hemisphere tree species declines in the warm and arid regions of their climatic niches

The paper quantifies tree species abundance declines in their climatic niches across Northern Hemisphere forests, finding shifts toward colder and wetter regions after accounting for stand development.

Beyond mean fitness: demographic stochasticity and resilience matter at tree species climatic edges

This study shows that demographic stochasticity and recovery capacity, not just mean fitness, influence tree species' distribution edges under climate change.

Beyond variance: simple random distributions are not a good proxy for intraspecific variability in systems with environmental structure

This paper shows that using random noise to represent unexplained intraspecific variability in ecological models can lead to inaccurate community dynamics simulations.

Rethinking the nature of intraspecific variability and its consequences on species coexistence

The paper shows that high intraspecific variability in plant communities may be driven by environmental factors rather than random variation, and that this has implications for understanding species coexistence.

Short-lived plants have stronger demographic responses to climate

The paper synthesizes population growth rate data from 165 plant populations to show precipitation has a larger effect on population growth than temperature, with short-lived species showing stronger responses.

Tree demographic performance of European tree species at their hot and cold edges.

This study examines demographic performance of European tree species at their hot and cold edges, finding differing constraints on growth, survival, and lifespan.