Christopher Dick

About

Christopher Dick is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, as well as the Curator and Director of the U-M Herbarium and the U-M Museum of Zoology at the University of Michigan. His lab group studies the evolution, ecology, and historical biogeography of trees, with a particular focus on understanding the drivers of species richness in tropical forests. His research sites include Central America, the Andean slopes, the Amazon basin, and deciduous forests of eastern North America. Dr. Dick's educational background includes postdoctoral fellowships at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, a Ph.D. from Harvard University obtained in 1999, an M.A. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Hampshire College. His work contributes to the understanding of tropical forest biology and molecular ecology, and he is affiliated with the Program in the Environment at the University of Michigan.

Research topics

• Ecology
• Biology
• Geography
• Oceanography
• Paleontology
• Environmental resource management
• Evolutionary biology
• Geology
• Environmental science
• Zoology

Selected publications

• ForestGEO: Understanding forest diversity and dynamics through a global observatory network

  Biological Conservation · 2020 · 250 citations

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Beyond Refugia: New Insights on Quaternary Climate Variation and the Evolution of Biotic Diversity in Tropical South America

  Fascinating life sciences · 2020 · 70 citations

  PublisherDOI

• Mycorrhizal feedbacks influence global forest structure and diversity

  Communications Biology · 2023-10-19 · 52 citations

  articleOpen access

  One mechanism proposed to explain high species diversity in tropical systems is strong negative conspecific density dependence (CDD), which reduces recruitment of juveniles in proximity to conspecific adult plants. Although evidence shows that plant-specific soil pathogens can drive negative CDD, trees also form key mutualisms with mycorrhizal fungi, which may counteract these effects. Across 43 large-scale forest plots worldwide, we tested whether ectomycorrhizal tree species exhibit weaker neg…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• <i>allodb</i> : An R package for biomass estimation at globally distributed extratropical forest plots

  Methods in Ecology and Evolution · 2021-11-07 · 43 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Allometric equations for calculation of tree above‐ground biomass ( AGB ) form the basis for estimates of forest carbon storage and exchange with the atmosphere. While standard models exist to calculate forest biomass across the tropics, we lack a standardized tool for computing AGB across boreal and temperate regions that comprise the global extratropics. Here we present an integrated R package, allodb , containing systematically selected published allometric equations and proposed fun…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• By Animal, Water, or Wind: Can Dispersal Mode Predict Genetic Connectivity in Riverine Plant Species?

  Frontiers in Plant Science · 2021-02-12 · 39 citations

  articleOpen access

  Seed dispersal is crucial to gene flow among plant populations. Although the effects of geographic distance and barriers to gene flow are well studied in many systems, it is unclear how seed dispersal mediates gene flow in conjunction with interacting effects of geographic distance and barriers. To test whether distinct seed dispersal modes (i.e., hydrochory, anemochory, and zoochory) have a consistent effect on the level of genetic connectivity (i.e., gene flow) among populations of riverine pl…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Dimensions US-BIOTA-Sao Paulo: Assembly and evolution of the Amazonian biota and its environment: an integrated approach

  NSF · $265k · 2012–2018

• Dissertation Research: Plant-herbivore community assembly and the problem of specificity: Do insect herbivores specialize among sympatric, congeneric plants in tropical forests?

  NSF · $15k · 2010–2013

• DISSERTATION RESEARCH: A hypothesis test for cryptic northern refugia in bitternut and shagbark hickory, with implications for migration and adaptation

  NSF · $18k · 2015–2017

Frequent coauthors

• Eldredge Bermingham

  29 shared

• Rémy J. Petit

  Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement

  27 shared

• Feng Sheng Hu

  Guizhou Provincial Meteorological Bureau

  26 shared

• Rogério Gribel

  National Institute of Amazonian Research

  18 shared

• Myriam Heuertz

  Fondazione Edmund Mach

  17 shared

• Pamela S. Soltis

  Florida Museum of Natural History

  17 shared

• Maristerra R. Lemes

  National Institute of Amazonian Research

  16 shared

• S. Joseph Wright‬

  Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

  16 shared

Education

• PhD, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

  Harvard University

  1999

Similar researchers at University of Michigan

• Rose Coryh-59
• William Currieh-45
• Sol Harth-43