Stuart J. Davies

Senior Staff Scientist, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; Director, Center for Tropical Forest Science/Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory

Department of Botany, MRC-166
Smithsonian Institution
P.O. Box 37012
Washington, DC 20013-7012
Ph: 617.495.1494
Email
Website

Education

Ph.D. Harvard University, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
B.Sc. University of Sydney, Australia, (Honors) First Class

Research Interests

Ecology and evolution of tropical rain forest trees; long-term dynamics of forest ecosystems; tropical plant systematics.

Current Research

The goal of my current research is to understand broad-scale patterns in the diversity and dynamics of tropical rainforests. I am particularly interested in how variation in resource availability affects the composition and dynamics of rainforests. To investigate this, I am focusing on the impact of several well-known resource gradients on tropical forest diversity and dynamics: geographic variation in rainfall seasonality, local variation in soil resource availability, and temporal variation in climatic patterns. In each broad project, we are conducting a range of ecophysiological, demographic, community, and biogeographic studies. Understanding how environmental factors constrain species distributions and affect growth and mortality rates is fundamental to predicting the likely impacts of changes in land-use and global climatic conditions on tropical rainforests.

Recent Publications

• Swenson, N.G., J.C. Stegen, S.J. Davies, D.L. Erickson, J. Forero-Montana, A.H. Hurlbert, W.J. Kress, J. Thompson, M. Uriarte, S.J. Wright & J.K. Zimmerman. 2011. Temporal turnover in the composition of tropical tree communities: functional determinism and phylogenetic stochasticity. Ecology (in press).
• Wang, X., T Wiegand, A. Wolf, R. Howe, S.J. Davies & Z. Hao. 2011. Spatial patterns of tree species richness in two temperate forests. Journal of Ecology 99: 1382-1393.
• Feeley, K.J., S.J. Davies, R. Peres, S. Hubbell & R. Foster. 2011. Directional changes in the composition of a tropical forest due to climate change. Ecology 92 (4): 871-882.
• Wright, S.J., Katajima, K., Kraft, N.J.B., Reich, P.B., Wright, I.J., Bunker, D.E., Condit, R., Dalling, J.W., Davies, S.J., Diaz, S., Engelbrecht, B.M.J., Harms, K.E., Hubbell, S.P., Marks, C.O., Ruiz-Jaen, M.C., Salvador, C.M. & Zanne, A.E. 2010. Functional traits underlying the growth-mortality tradeoff among tropical trees. Ecology 91: 3664- 3674.
• Peay, K.G., P.G. Kennedy, S.J. Davies, S. Tan, and T.D. Bruns. 2010. Potential link between plant and fungal distributions in a dipterocarp rainforest: community and phylogenetic structure of tropical ectomycorrhizal fungi across a plant and soil ecotone. New Phytologist 185(2): 529–542.
• Baltzer, J.L., D.M. Gregoire, S. Bunyavejchewin, M.N.S. Noor, and S.J. Davies. 2009. Coordination of foliar and wood anatomical traits contributes to tropical tree distributions and productivity along the Malay-Thai Peninsula. American Journal of Botany 96(12): 2214–2223.
• Bunyavejchewin, S., J.V. LaFrankie, P.J. Baker, and S.J. Davies, P. S. Ashton. 2009. Forest trees of Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuarry, Thailand: Data from the 50-hectare Forest Dynamic Plot. Bangkok, Thailand: The National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department.
• King, D.A., S.J. Davies, S. Tan, and M.N.S. Noor. 2009. Trees approach gravitational limits to height in tall lowland forests of Malaysia. Functional Ecology 23(2): 284–291.
• Tan, S., T. Yamakura, M. Tani, P.A. Palmiotto, D.D. Mamit, C.S. Pin, S.J. Davies, P.S. Ashton, and I. Baillie. 2009. Review of soils on the 52 ha long term ecological research plot in mixed dipterocarp forest at Lambir, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Tropics 18(2): 61–86.
• Wolf, A., S.J. Davies, and R.S. Condit. 2009. Ecological insights from long-term research plots in tropical and temperate forests. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 90(4): 519–525.
• Baltzer, J.L., S.J. Davies, S. Bunyavejchewin, and M.N.S. Noor. 2008. The role of desiccation tolerance in determining tree species distributions along the Malay-Thai Peninsula. Functional Ecology 22(2): 221–231.
• Chave, J., R.S. Condit, H.C. Muller-Landau, S.C. Thomas, P.S. Ashton, S. Bunyavejchewin, L.L. Co, H.S. Dattaraja, S.J. Davies, S. Esufali, C.E.N. Ewango, K.J. Feeley, R.B. Foster, N. Gunatilleke, S. Gunatilleke, P. Hall, T.B. Hart, C. Hernandez, S.P. Hubbell, A. Itoh, S. Kiratiprayoon, J.V. LaFrankie, S.L. de Lao, J-R. Makana, M.N.S. Noor, A.R. Kassim, C. Samper, R. Sukumar, H.S. Sureh, S. Tan, J. Thompson, M.D.C. Tongco, R. Valencia, M.I. Vallejo, G. Villa, T. Yamakura, J.K. Zimmerman, and E.C. Losos. 2008. Assessing evidence for a pervasive alteration in tropical tree communities. PLoS Biology 6(3): e45.
• Russo, S.E., P. Brown, S. Tan, and S.J. Davies. 2008. Interspecific demographic trade-offs and soil-related habitat associations of tree species along resource gradients. Journal of Ecology 96(1): 192–203.
• Webb, C.O., C.H. Cannon, and S.J. Davies. 2008. Ecological organization, biogeography, and the phylogenetic structure of tropical forest tree communities. In: W.P. Carson, S.A. Schnitzer (Ed.), Tropical forest community ecology: 79–97. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Current Grants

• Bromley Charitable Trust: “Building Long-term Sustainability of the CTFS-Asia Program through Training and Capacity Building,” PI, 2011 ($50,000).
• National Science Foundation: DEB:1046113, Division of Environmental Biology, Dimensions of Biodiversity, International Research Coordination Networks Program: “Diversity and Forest Change: Characterizing functional, phylogenetic, and genetic contributions to diversity gradients and dynamics in tree communities,” PI, 2011–15 ($631,640).
• Encyclopedia of Life Rubenstein Fellowship to David Kenfack: “Development of EOL species pages for a diverse tropical African species,” co-PI with David Kenfack and John Kress, 2010-2011 ($43,000).
• John Swire & Sons (Australia): “The Swire Papua New Guinea Rainforest Study: The Wanang Conservation School: Community development through  education and forest conservation in Papua New Guinea,” PI, 2010-2015 ($250,000).
• Smithsonian federal allocation to expansion of the Smithsonian Global Earth Observatory (CTFS) network. Ongoing annual federal allocation, co-PI with E. Bermingham, 2010 -  , ($1,500,000).
• John Swire & Sons (Australia): “Swire PNG Rainforest Study (SPRS)” to establish 50-ha plot in Papua New Guinea, PI, 2008–2014 ($500,000).
• HSBC Brunei: “Partnership for Monitoring Climate Change Impacts on the Forests of Brunei Darussalam between HSBC Bank, KBFSC-UBD & CTFS-STRI,” PI, 2008-2011 ($336,700).
• Hong Kong Shanghai Banking (HSBC) Corporation: “HSBC Climate Partnership: Climate Change and Tropical Forests,” co-PI with E. Bermingham, 2007–11 ($8,000,000).