Primary Research Areas

Community assembly, niche and scale (Peet, White)
Conservation, Restoration (Peet, Weakley, White)
Discover Life in America: The All taxa biodiversity inventory (White)
Ecoinformatics (Peet, Weakley)
Floristics & Biogeography (Weakley)
Species Diversity and Biodiversity (Peet, White)
Succession and Vegetation Dynamics (Peet, White)
Vegetation Classification and Survey (Peet, Weakley, White)
Vegetation of the Southeastern US (Peet, Weakley, White)

For the additional information you may learn about the personal research activities of the faculty on their home pages [Peet][Weakley][White], or learn about the range of projects undertaken by students by consulting the rosters of past and present group members.

 

Community assembly, niche and scale (Peet, White)

Representative Publications

·        Manthey M., J.D. Fridley & R.K. Peet. 2011. Niche expansion from past species extinctions? A comparative assessment of habitat generalists and specialists in the tree floras of Southeastern North America and Southeastern Europe. Journal of Biogeography 38:840-853.

·        Fridley, J.D., D.B. Vandermast, D.M. Kuppinger, M. Manthey, and R.K. Peet. 2007. Co-occurrence-based assessment of habitat generalists and specialists: a new approach for the measurement of niche width. Journal of Ecology 95:707-722.

·        Fridley, J.D., R.K. Peet, E. van der Maarel, and J.H. Willems. 2006. Integration of local and regional species-area relationships from space-time species accumulation The American Naturalist 168:133-143.

·        Graves, J.H., R.K. Peet, and P.S. White. 2006. The influence of carbon - nutrient balance on herb and woody plant abundance in temperate forest understories. Journal of Vegetation Science 17: 217-226.

 

Conservation, Restoration (Peet, Weakley, White)

Representative Publications

·        Hobbs, R.J., D. N. Cole, L. Yung, E.S. Zavaleta, G. H. Aplet, F. Stuart Chapin III, P. B. Landres, D. J. Parsons, N. L. Stephenson, P. S. White, D. M. Graber, E. S. Higgs, C. I. Millar, J. M. Randall, K. A. Tonnessen, and S. Woodley.  2010. Guiding concepts for park wilderness stewardship in an era of global environmental change.  Frontiers in Ecology 8:483-490.

·        Palmer, M.A., E.S. Bernhardt, W.H. Schlessinger, K.N. Eshleman, E. Foufoula-Georgiou, M.S. Hendryx, A.D. Lemly, G.E. Likens, O.L. Loucks, M.E. Power, P.S. White, and P.R. Wilcock. 2010. Mountaintop Mining Consequences.  Science 327: 148-149. 

·        Kuppinger, D.M., M.A. Jenkins, and P.S. White. 2010.  Predicting post-fire establishment and persistence of an invasive tree species across a complex gradient.  Biological Invasions 12:3473-3484.

·        Cole, D. N., L. Yung, E.S. Zavaleta, G.H. Aplet, F. S. Chapin, F.S., D. M. Graber, D.M., E. S. Higgs, R.J. Hobbs, P.B. Landres, C.I. Millar, D.J. Parsons, J.M. Randall, N.L.Stephenson, K.A. Tonnessen, P.S. White, and S. Woodley.  2008.  Naturalness and Beyond: Protected Area Stewardship in an Era of Global Environmental Change.  The George Wright Society Forum 25:36-56.

·        White, P. S. 2006.  Disturbance, the flux of nature, and environmental ethics at the multipatch scale.  Pages 176-198 in D. Lodge and C. Hamlin (eds.), Religion and the New Ecology: Environmental Responsibility in a World in Flux.  University of Notre Dame Press.

·         Sorrie, B.A. and A.S. Weakley. 2006. Conservation of the endangered Pinus palustris ecosystem based on Coastal Plain centers of endemism. Applied Vegetation Science 9:59-66.

 

Discover Life in America: The All taxa biodiversity inventory (White)

Resources

·        ATBI: All taxa Biodiversity Inventory

Representative Publications

·        White, P. S.  2008.  Discover Life in America, Inc., and the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A Statement for the Sumcommittee on National Parks of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.  Asheville, North Carolina, July21, 2008.

·        White, P. S.  2007. Forward to the Special Volume on the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The Southeastern Naturalist Special Issue 1:1-26.

·        White, P. S.  2007.  The Science Plan for the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee.  The Southeastern Naturalist Special Issue 1:1-26.

·        White, P. S.  2006.  Looking for Linnaea: biological diversity and the ATBI in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Southeastern Naturalist 5: 378-381.

 

Ecoinformatics (Peet, Weakley)

Resources

·        VegBank

·        IAVS Ecoinformatics Working Group

·        GIVD: Global Index of Vegetation Plot Databases

·        VegX: An international Exchange standard for Vegetation-Plot Data

·         Taxon Concept Transfer Schema

Representative Publications

·        Peet, R.K., M.T. Lee, M.D. Jennings, & D. Faber-Langendoen, D. 2012. VegBank: A Permanent, Open-Access Archive for Vegetation Plot Data. Biodiversity and Ecology (in press).

·        Dengler, J., Jansen, F., Glöckler, F., Peet, R.K., De Cáceres, M., Chytrý,M., Ewald, J., Oldeland, J., Finckh, M., Mucina, M., Schaminée, J.H.J., & Spencer, S. 2011. The Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases: a new resource for vegetation science. Journal of Vegetatio Science 22:582-597.

·        Wiser, S.K., N. Spencer, M. De Caceres, M. Kleikamp, B. Boyle, & R.K. Peet. 2011. Veg-X -- An international exchange standard for plot-based vegetation data. Journal of Vegetation Science 22:598-609.

·        Franz, N.M. and R.K. Peet. 2009. Towards a language for mapping relationships among taxonomic concepts. Systematics and Biodiversity 7:5-20.

·        Franz, N. M., R. K. Peet & A. S. Weakley. 2008. On the use of taxonomic concepts in support of biodiversity research and taxonomy. Symposium Proceedings, In:Wheeler, Q. D.,Ed., The New Taxonomy. Systematics Association Special Volume (74). Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 63–86.

 

Floristics & Biogeography (Weakley)

Resources

·        Atlas of the Flora of the Southeast

·        Flora of the southern and mid-Atlantic States

·        Flora of Virginia

·        University of North Carolina Herbarium

Representative Publications

·        Alan S. Weakley, J. Christopher Ludwig, and John F. Townsend. In press. Flora of Virginia. Foundation of the Flora of Virginia Project Inc.

·        Weakley, A.S.  2011.  Flora of the southern and mid-Atlantic states. University of North Carolina Herbarium, North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, NC. 

·        Triplett JK, Weakley AS, Clark LG. 2006 Hill cane (Arundinaria appalachiana), a new species of bamboo (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) from the southern Appalachian mountains. Sida, Contrib. Bot. 22:79-95.

 

Species Diversity and Biodiversity (Peet, White)

Representative Publications

·        Peet, R.K., K.A. Palmquist & S.M. Tessel. 2012.  Herbaceous layer species richness of southeastern forests and woodlands: Patterns and causes. In: F.S. Gilliam & M.R. Roberts, M.R., eds. The herbaceous layer in forests of eastern North America. Second edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. (in press).

·        Wilson, J.B., R.K. Peet J. Dengler, M. Pärtel. 2012. Plant species richness: the world records. Journal of Vegetation Science 23: 796-802.

·        Costanza, J.K., A. Moody & R.K. Peet. 2011. Multi-scale environmental heterogeneity as a predictor of plant species richness. Landscape Ecology 26:851-864.

·        Wang, XP, Fang, JY, Sanders, NJ, White, PS, and Tang, ZY.  2009.  Relative importance of climate vs. local factors in shaping the regional patterns of forest plant richness across northeast China.  Ecography 32: 133-142.

·        Meghan W. McKnight, Peter S. White, Robert I. McDonald, John F. Lamoreux, Wes Sechrest, Robert S. Ridgely, Simon N. Stuart.  2007. Putting Beta-Diversity on the Map: Broad-Scale Congruence and Coincidence in the Extremes.  PLoS Biology 5(10):002-009.

·        Qian, H., P. S. White, and J.-S. Song.  2007.  Distinguishing the effects of historical and regional versus contemporary and ecological factors on plant species richness: an intercontinental analysis. Ecology 88:1440-1453.

·        Fridley, J. D., H. Qian, P. S. White, and M. Palmer.  2006.  Plant species invasions along the latitudinal gradient in the United States:  Comment.  Ecology 87:3209-3013.

·        Fridley, J.D., R.K. Peet, T.R. Wentworth and P.S. White. 2005. Connecting fine- and broad-scale patterns of species diversity: species-area relationships of Southeastern U.S. flora. Ecology 86:1172-1177.

·        Qian, H. R. E. Ricklefs, and P. S. White.  2005.  Beta diversity of angiosperms in temperate floras of eastern Asia and eastern North America.  Ecology Letters 8:15-22.

 

Succession and Vegetation Dynamics (Peet, White)

Resources

·        Data archive for the NC Piedmont forest succession LTREB Project

Representative Publications

·        Xi, W., R.K. Peet, D.L. Urban. 2012. The Impacts of a Large, Infrequent Hurricane on Understory Sapling Dynamics and Diversity in North Carolina Piedmont Forests, USA. In: Xi W-M (Ed.), Forest Restoration. Tree and Forestry Science and Biotechnology 6 (Special Issue 1), 51-59.

·        Thiemann, JA, Webster,CR, Jenkins, MA, Hurley, PM, Rock, JH, White, PS. 2009.  Herbaceous layer impoverisment in a post-agricultural southern Appalachian landscape.  American Midland Naturalist 162:148-168.

·        Xi, W., R.K. Peet, J.K. DeCoster & D.L. Urban.2008. Tree damage risk factors associated with large, infrequent wind disturbances of Carolina forests. Forestry 81:317-334.

·        Xi, W., R.K. Peet and D.L. Urban. 2008. Changes in forest structure, species diversity, and spatial pattern following hurricane disturbance in a Piedmont North Carolina forest, USA. Journal of Plant Ecology 1: 43-57.

·        Busing, RT, White, RD, Harmon, ME, and White, PS.  2009.  Hurricane disturbance in a temperate deciduous forest: patch dynamics, tree mortality, and coarse woody debris.  Plant Ecology 201:351-363.

·        Jenkins, M.A., S. Jose, and P. S. White.  2007.  Impacts of a forest fungal disease on forest community composition and structure and the resulting effects on foliar calcium cycling.  Ecological Applications 17:869-881.

·        Hayes, M., Moody, A., White, P. S. & Costanza, J. L. 2007.  The influence of logging and topography on the distribution of spruce-fir forests near their southern limits in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA.  Plant Ecology 189:51-70.

·        Taverna, K., R.K. Peet and L. Phillips. 2005. Long-term change in ground-layer vegetation of deciduous forests of the North Carolina Piedmont, USA. Journal of Ecology 93:202-213.

 

Vegetation Classification and Survey (Peet, Weakley, White)

Resources

·        U.S. National Vegetation Classification

Representative Publications

·        Peet, R.K. & D.W. Roberts. 2012. Chapter 2 in: J. Franklin and E. van der Maarel, eds. Vegetation Ecology. Second edition. Oxford University Press, New York, New York (in press).

·        Franklin, S., D. Faber-Langendoen, M. Jennings, T. Keeler-Wolf, O.L. Loucks, A. McKerrow, R. Peet, D. Roberts & A. McKerrow. 2012. Building the United States National Vegetation Classification. Annali di Botanica 2:1-9.

·        Jennings, M.D., D. Faber-Langendoen, O.L. Loucks, R.K. Peet, & D. Roberts. 2009. Characterizing Associations and Alliances of the U.S. National Vegetation Classification. Ecological Monographs 79:173-199.

·        Jobe, R. Todd, and Peter S. White. 2009.  A new cost-distance model for human accessibility and an evaluation of accessibility bias in permanent vegetation plots of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA.  Journal of Vegetation Science 20: 1099-1109.

 

Vegetation of the Southeastern US (Peet, Weakley, White)

Resources

Carolina Vegetation Survey

Representative Publications

·        Peet, R.K., M.T. Lee, M.F. Boyle, T.R. Wentworth, M.P. Schafale & A.S. Weakley. 2012. Vegetation plot database of the Carolina Vegetation database. Biodiversity and Ecology (in press).

·        Matthews, E.M., R.K. Peet & A.S. Weakley. 2011. Classification and description of aluvial plant communities of the Piedmont region. North Carolina, .U.S.A. Applied Vegetation Science 14:485-505.

·        Carr, S.C.,K.M. Robertson & R.K.Peet. 2010. A vegetation classification of fire-dependent pinelands of Florida. Castanea 75:153-189.

·        Carr, S.C.,K.M. Robertson,W.J.Platt & R.K.Peet. 2009. A model of geographic, environmental and regional variation in vegetation composition of pyrogenic pinelands of Florida. Journal of Biogeography 36:1600-1612.

·        Peet, R.K. 2006. Ecological classification of longleaf pine woodlands. In: Longleaf pine ecosystems: ecology, management, and restoration. S. Jose, E. Jokela and D. Miller. Eds. Springer, NY. Pp 51-94.