Dr. Will K. Cornwell

Hello, I am Will.  I am interested in climate change, plant functional traits, evolution, and carbon cycling.  For more information please see http://www.phylodiversity.net/wcornwell/

 

Research projects

 

TRAITS AND FIRE. Experimental research on the flammability of different plant species in tundra, heathland and forest ecosystems. In FLARE (Fire Laboratory Amsterdam for Research in Ecology), we do comparative controlled burns involving parts of different species of vascular plants, mosses and lichens. This work links to climate in the present, future and past.
With Hans Cornelissen, Richard van Logtestijn, Nadia Soudzilovskaia and others.

THE TREE OF LIFE AND CARBON CYCLING. A large part of the carbon cycle is determined by plant traits.  These traits did not appear de novo, instead representing many millions of years of evolution though changing climates, atmospheres and ecological contexts.  We are studying the evolution of plant traits that affect carbon cycling by using molecular phylogenies and trait measurments on extant taxa. With Hans Conelissen, Andries Temme, Rien Aerts, Ming Dong, Kunfang Cao and others.CLIMATE CHANGE EFFECTS ON TERRESTRIAL VEGETATION.  What is the best way to model the vulnerability of terrestrial vegetation to climate change?
With David Ackerly. Peter van Bodegom, Bob Douma, and others

TEMPO AND MODE OF PLANT TRAIT EVOLUTION  Bringing together molecular phylogenies and trait data to characterize the evolution of the functional diversity we see today.  Funded by NESCent and ARC-NZ network for vegetation function.With Amy Zanne, Stephen Smith, Ian Wright, Mark Westoby, Michael Donohue and others

 

Links

 

TRY database
ARC-NZ network of Vegetation Function

 

Six selected publications

 

Cornwell, W.K. and D.D. Ackerly. 2010. A link between plant traits and abundance: evidence from woody plants in coastal California.Journal of Ecology 98: 814-821.

Cornwell, W.K., J.H.C. Cornelissen, S.D. Allison, J. Bauhus, P. Eggleton, C.M. Preston, F. Scarff, J.T. Weedon, C. Wirth, A.E. Zanne. 2009. Plant traits and wood fates across the globe—rotted, burned, or consumed?Global Change Biology 15: 2431-2449.

Cornwell, W.K. and Ackerly D.D. 2009. Community assembly and shifts in the distribution of trait values across an environmental gradient in coastal California.Ecological Monographs 79: 109-126

Hudson, J.M.G., G.H.R. Henry, and W.K. Cornwell. in press . Taller and larger in the Arctic: shifts in leaf traits after 16 years of experimental warming.Global Change Biology.

Kooyman R., W.K. Cornwell and M. Westoby. 2010. Partitioning functional trait variation into within- and among-community components for Australian sub-tropical rainforest.Journal of Ecology 98: 517-525.