Daniel Laughlin
Botany Department
Professor of Plant Ecology
Louis and Terua Williams Professor
Fellow, Ecological Society of America
Specialization—Plant Ecology, Restoration Ecology, and Ecological Modeling
Education
- Ph.D., Forest Science, Northern Arizona University, 2009
- Graduate Certificate, Applied Statistics, Northern Arizona University, 2007
- M.S., Ecology, Pennsylvania State University, 2002
- B.S., Biology, Calvin College, 1999
Courses
- Vegetation Ecology - BOT4700/5700
- Ecological Modeling - BOT5600
Websites
Research
The Laughlin Lab develops quantitative approaches to understand and predict how plant species and communities respond to global change. We develop trait-based models that translate ecological processes into statistical frameworks to predict how communities assemble along environmental gradients and how species interact at local scales. The goal for these models is not only to gain a deeper understanding of basic ecological processes, but also to inform the restoration of degraded ecosystems.
Books
Laughlin, D.C. 2023. Plant Strategies: The Demographic Consequences of Functional Traits in Changing Environments. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. https://academic.oup.com/book/46761
Keddy, P.A & D.C. Laughlin. 2022. A Framework for Community Ecology: Species Pools, Filters and Traits. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. http://www.cambridge.org/9781316512609
Selected publications
Laughlin, D.C., B.J. McGill. 2024. Trees have overlapping potential niches that extend beyond their realized niches. Science 385:75-80. https://www.science.org/stoken/author-tokens/ST-1967/full
Laughlin, D.C. 2024. Unifying functional and population ecology to test the adaptive value of traits. Biological Reviews 99:1976-1991. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.13107
Laughlin, D.C. 2024. Letter to a young ecologist. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 105(3): e02151. https://doi.org/10.1002/bes2.2151
Laughlin, D. C., A. Siefert*, J. R. Fleri*, … , and H. Bruelheide. 2023. Rooting depth and xylem vulnerability are independent woody plant traits jointly selected by aridity, seasonality, and water table depth. New Phytologist 240:1774-1787. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19276
Laughlin, D. C., L. Mommer, F. M. Sabatini, … , and A. Weigelt. 2021. Root traits explain plant species distributions along climatic gradients yet challenge the nature of ecological trade-offs. Nature Ecology & Evolution 5: 1123–1134. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01471-7
Laughlin, D.C., J.R. Gremer, P. Adler, R.M. Mitchell, M.M. Moore. 2020. The net effect of functional traits on fitness. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 35:1037-1047. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2020.07.010
Laughlin, D.C., S. Delzon, M. Clearwater, M. McGlone, P. Bellingham, S.J. Richardson. 2020. Climatic limits of temperate rainforest tree species are explained by xylem embolism resistance among angiosperms but not among conifers. New Phytologist 226(3):727-740. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16448
Laughlin, D.C., L. Chalmandrier, C. Joshi, M. Renton, J.M. Dwyer, J.L. Funk. 2018. Generating species assemblages for restoration and experimentation: a new method that can simultaneously converge on average trait values and maximize functional diversity. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 9(7):1764-1771. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13023
Laughlin, D.C. 2014. Applying trait-based models to achieve functional targets for theory-driven ecological restoration. Ecology Letters 17(7):771-784. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12288
Laughlin, D.C. 2014. The intrinsic dimensionality of plant traits and its relevance to community assembly. Journal of Ecology 102:186-193. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12187
