David Ackerly

Dean of Rausser College of Natural Resources and Professor

Email: dackerly@berkeley.edu
Phone: (510) 664-7868
Lab Webpage: http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/ackerly/

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Research Description

Current research in the Ackerly lab is focused on studies of climate change impacts on California biodiversity, including distribution modeling, long-term vegetation dynamics and focal studies of selected plant species. Our primary field site is the Pepperwood Preserve, Santa Rosa, CA. Graduate students and post-docs are working on evolution of physiological traits, demography of alpine plants, and species distributions on fine-scale spatial gradients. For more information, see ackerlylab.org.

Selected Publications

Ackerly DD, Cornwell WK, Weiss SB, Flint LE, Flint AL. 2015. A geographic mosaic of climate change impacts on terrestrial vegetation: which areas are most at risk? PLoS ONE 10:e0130629 (open access download)

Lawler, J., D.D. Ackerly, C. Albano, M. Anderson, M. Cross, S. Dobrowski, J. Gill, N. Heller, R. Pressey, E. Sanderson, and S. Weiss. 2015. The theory behind, and challenges of, conserving nature’s stage in a time of rapid change. Conservation Biology 29:618-629, doi:10.1111/cobi.12505.

Heller, N.E., J. Kreitler, D.D. Ackerly, S. Weiss, A. Recinos, R. Branciforte, L.E. Flint, A.L. Flint, and E. Micheli. 2015. Targeting climate diversity in conservation planning to build resilience to climate change: a case study with the San Francisco Bay Area Conservation Lands Network. Ecosphere 6: 65 (open access download)

Batllori, E., D.D. Ackerly, and M.A. Moritz. 2015. A minimal model of fire-vegetation feedbacks and disturbance stochasticity generates alternative stable states in grassland-shrubland-woodland systems. Env Research Letters 10: 034018 (open access download)

Chornesky, E.A., D.D. Ackerly, P. Beier, F.W. Davis, L.E. Flint, J.J. Lawler, P.B. Moyle, M.A. Moritz, M. Scoonover, P. Alvarez, K. Byrd, N.E. Heller, E.R. Micheli, S.B. Weiss. Adapting California’s ecosystems to a changing climate. Bioscience 65:247-262 (open access download)

McIntyre, P.J., J.H. Thorne, C.R. Dolanc, A.L. Flint, L.E. Flint, M. Kelly, D.D. Ackerly. 20th century shifts in forest structure in California: denser forests, smaller trees, and increased dominance of oaks. PNAS 112: 1458-1463 (open access download)

Emery, N.C. and D.D. Ackerly. 2014. Ecological release exposes genetically-based niche variation. Ecology Letters 17: 1149-1157, doi:10.1111/ele.12321.

Rapacciuolo, G., S.P. Maher, A.C. Schneider, T.T. Hammond, M.D. Jabis, R. Walsh, K.J. Iknayan, G.K. Walden, M.F. Oldfather, D.D. Ackerly, S.R. Beissinger. 2014. Beyond a warming fingerprint: individualistic biogeographic responses to heterogeneous climate change in California. Global Change Biology 20: 2841-2855 (open access download)