Jacqueline Mohan
Assistant Professor
Graduate Faculty
University of Georgia
Room 708,
Biological Sciences Bldg.
Athens, GA 30602
Office: (706) 542-6365
Lab: (706)-542-3363
Fax: (706) 542-3344
email: jmohan@uga.edu
Education
Ph.D. - Duke University (Terrestrial Community & Ecosystem Ecology)
MEM - Duke University (Conservation Ecology)
B.S., B.A. - University of Chicago (Biochemistry & Evolutionary Ecology)
Research Interests
I use experimental, observational and quantitative modeling approaches to investigate population, community and ecosystem processes across local and regional scales. In particular, my research focuses on i) impacts of global change on forest composition, succession and species distributions, ii) fundamental mechanisms that maintain species coexistence, iii) feedbacks between altered species composition and biogeochemical processes, iv) ecosystem consequences of geographical genetic variability in plant responses to environmental change, and v) potential plant and soil feedbacks to the climate system. These diverse approaches reflect my desire to address fundamental ecological questions that are relevant to the environmental challenges we face today and will undoubtedly deal with in the future. My research involves asking basic questions motivated by ecological theory, and then integrating empirical data with quantitative analyses to forecast responses of plant populations, communities and ecosystems to changing environments. My interests are connected by the pervasive goal of understanding fundamental relationships between ecological processes, how these relationships vary over space and time, and the effects of environmental change on individual levels of biocomplexity as well as on systems in their entirety. I have conducted research in southern (Duke Forest; Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory; Pisgah, Nantahala, Kisatchie and Apalachicola National Forests) and northeastern (Harvard Forest) temperate forest systems, and have also worked in southern Appalachian seepage bogs, high-elevation spruce-fir forests, fire-dependent longleaf pine savannas, and Swedish arctic shrub communities. I look forward to continuing research in forests and other ecosystems, and in expanding my current population, community and biogeochemical work in ecosystems of the United States and abroad.
Research Projects
2007 DOE - soil and air warming at Harvard Forest (MA) and Duke Forest (NC) to detmine how eastern US forests will look and function in the next century & beyond ($2.2 million)
2007 UGA - soil and air warming at Whitehall Forest (GA) (to expand the above research into the Deep South)
1997 DOE - terrestrial ecosystem responses to global change ($290 K)
Honors and Awards
2002 Buell Award (Ecological Society of America's Award for the best student presentation)
1993 U.S. Forest Service Science & Mathematics Award (for Best Master's Project at the Duke Nicholas School)
1991-1993 Duke Fellow with The Nature Conservancy (Master's Fellowship to formulate ecologically-based reserve design methods)
1991 Mellinger Grant for Academic Excellence (University of Chicago)
Professional Affiliations
Ecological Society of America
American Geophysical Union
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Society of Conservation Biology
Selected Publications
Bradford, M.A., C.A. Davies, S.D. Frey, T.R. Maddox, J.M. Melillo, J.E. Mohan, J.F. Reynolds, K.K. Treseder, and M.D. Wallenstein. 2008. Thermal adaptation of soil microbial respiration to elevated temperature. Ecology Letters, in press. Doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01251.x
Wang, X. and J.E. Mohan. 2008. Effects of global changes on weeds. CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources, invited review, in press. Doi: 10.1079/PAVSNNR20083067.
Mohan, J.E., R. Cox, and L. Iverson. 2008. Northeastern forest compositions and productivity in a future, warmer world. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. In press.
Mohan, J.E., J.S. Clark, W.H. Schlesinger. 2007. Long-term CO2 enrichment of a forest ecosystem: implications for forest regeneration and succession. Ecological Applications 17(4): 1198-1212.
Ziska L.H., Sicher R.C., George K., Mohan J.E. 2007. Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide and potential impacts on the growth and toxicity of poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans). Weed Science 55: 288-292
Mohan, J.E., L.H. Ziska, W.H. Schlesinger, R.B.Thomas, R.C. Sicher, K.George, J.S. Clark. 2006. Biomass and toxicity responses of poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) to elevated atmospheric CO2. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(24): 9086-9089.(covered in >130,000 news entries on Google News.com)
Schlesinger, W.H., J.S. Clark, J.E. Mohan, and C.D. Reid. 2001. Global Environmental Change: Effects on Biodiversity. Pg. 175-223 IN: M. Soule and G. Orians (eds.) Conservation Biology: Research Priorities for the Next Decade. Island Press. Washington, D. C., USA.
Clark, J.S., B. Beckage, J. HilleRisLambers, I. Ibanez, S. LaDeau, J. McLachlan, J. Mohan, and M. Rocca. 2001. The Role of Dispersal in Plant Migration. IN: H. A. Mooney and J. Canadell (eds.) Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change, Volume 3. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, NY.
Clark, J.S., B. Beckage, P. Camill, B. Cleveland, J. HilleRisLambers, J. Lichter, J. McLachlan, J. Mohan, and P. Wycoff. 1999. Interpreting recruitment limitation in forests. American Journal of Botany 86:1-16.
Jacqueline Mohan
I am fascinated by impacts of past and future global changes on plant population dynamics, community interactions and ecosystem functioning. I continue to study climate feedbacks mediated by vegetation and soils, and ecological consequences of geographical genetic variation in plant responses to changing environmental factors.
