James S. Clark

About

James S. Clark is the Nicholas Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science at Duke University, with appointments in the Nicholas School of the Environment, the Department of Biology, and the Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences. His research lab focuses on understanding disturbance and climate controls on ecosystem dynamics through long-term experiments and monitoring studies. Clark has made significant contributions to ecological science, particularly in barrier beach dynamics, climate change, and fire studies, earning recognition from the Ecological Society of America with awards such as the William Skinner Cooper Award and the George Mercer Award. He is a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Clark has led comprehensive scientific assessments, authored over 250 scientific articles and four books, and served on numerous editorial boards and advisory panels, including testifying before Congress on ecological issues.

Research topics

• Biology
• Ecology
• Mathematics
• Climatology
• Geography
• Sociology
• Geology
• Genetics
• Environmental science
• Physical geography

Selected publications

• Pervasive shifts in forest dynamics in a changing world

  Science · 2020 · 1266 citations

  Forest dynamics arise from the interplay of environmental drivers and disturbances with the demographic processes of recruitment, growth, and mortality, subsequently driving biomass and species composition. However, forest disturbances and subsequent recovery are shifting with global changes in climate and land use, altering these dynamics. Changes in environmental drivers, land use, and disturbance regimes are forcing forests toward younger, shorter stands. Rising carbon dioxide, acclimation, a…

  DOI

• On the Interpretations of Joint Modeling in Community Ecology

  Trends in Ecology & Evolution · 2021 · 174 citations

  DOI

• Is there tree senescence? The fecundity evidence

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 84 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Despite its importance for forest regeneration, food webs, and human economies, changes in tree fecundity with tree size and age remain largely unknown. The allometric increase with tree diameter assumed in ecological models would substantially overestimate seed contributions from large trees if fecundity eventually declines with size. Current estimates are dominated by overrepresentation of small trees in regression models. We combined global fecundity data, including a substantial representati…

  DOI

• North American tree migration paced by climate in the West, lagging in the East

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2022 · 62 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Tree fecundity and recruitment have not yet been quantified at scales needed to anticipate biogeographic shifts in response to climate change. By separating their responses, this study shows coherence across species and communities, offering the strongest support to date that migration is in progress with regional limitations on rates. The southeastern continent emerges as a fecundity hotspot, but it is situated south of population centers where high seed production could contribute to poleward…

  DOI

• Masting is uncommon in trees that depend on mutualist dispersers in the context of global climate and fertility gradients

  Nature Plants · 2023-06-29 · 33 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The role of seedling pathogens in temperate forest recuitment

  NSF · $12k · 2007–2010

• Belmont Forum Collaborative Research: Scenarios of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service

  NSF · $180k · 2019–2022

• Collaborative Research: DDDAS-TMRP: Dynamic Sensor Networks - Enabling the Measurement, Modeling, and Prediction of Biophysical Change in a Landscape

  NSF · $1.3M · 2006–2012

Frequent coauthors

• Anna F. Dominiczak

  100 shared

• Benoı̂t Courbaud

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

  91 shared

• Georges Künstler

  83 shared

• Niall Anderson

  University of Edinburgh

  78 shared

• Ghislain Vieilledent

  Institut de Recherche pour le Développement

  75 shared

• Baxter Jeffs

  52 shared

• Robert E. Goodin

  Australian National University

  49 shared

• Dwight Lee

  49 shared

Awards & honors

• William Skinner Cooper Award
• George Mercer Award
• ESA Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow
• National Science Foundation’s Presidential Faculty Fellow Aw…
• Humboldt Research Prize

Similar researchers at Duke University

• Emily Bernhardth-84
• Patrick Halpinh-62
• Nicolas Cassarh-61