Paul Gagnon, Post-Doctoral Researcher
Mapping stands of the bamboo Arundinaria gigantea Muhl
Research Statement: I am interested in how ecological perturbations affect the dynamic assemblages that compose biological populations and communities. Disturbances reshuffle these assemblages in dramatic and important ways. I seek to understand the mechanisms underlying changes within these assemblages both over time, and at spatial boundaries between adjacent assemblages.
By collecting and analyzing demographic information from carefully-conceived experiments on dominant focal species, I have been able to draw mechanistic inferences about population-, community- and landscape-level dynamics.
Examining A. gigantea in flower
This approach lends itself to investigations that are simultaneously fundamental and applied in nature. My work demonstrates that important implications for conservation and/or restoration can proceed naturally from the very same research that endeavors to understand evolutionary strategies and other curiosities of natural selection. My biological research has focused on population and community ecology of terrestrial and wetland plants in: 1) bottomland hardwood forests, 2) longleaf pine savannas, and 3) fragmented Amazonian forests.
Academic Appointments:
2008-present: Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, University of Florida in Gainesville.
2007-2008: Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
Education:
2006: Ph.D. in plant biology, minor in applied statistics, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge
1998: MFS, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University in New Haven, CT
1990: BA, Economics and Business, Baylor University in Waco, TX
Contact:
Email: pgagnon@ufl.edu
