Neotropical Ecosystem Change (Δe) as Temporal and Spatiotemporal Gradients

Dr. Myster received his Ph.D from Rutgers University working with STA Pickett and thenwent straight to the University of Puerto Rico (UPR).  There he worked in primary Montane forest and in several of its disturbed secondary forests (old-fields, pastures and landslides) while serving as a CO-PI for 12 years on their NSF LTER grants, done in collaboration with the US Forest Service.  While at UPR he quickly realized the importance of parallel studies in primary Cloud and Montane forests on the Neotropic Mainland, setting them up in the Ecuadorian Andes (and also in their old-fields, pastures and landslides).  Studies in various primary Amazon flooded and non-flooded forests in both Ecuador and Peru (and also in their tree-fall gaps and selectively-logged areas) were also organized during that time.  Taking positions in Oklahoma Universities then allowed him to focus and continue his studies on the Neotropic mainland which has cumulated in (now) seven books, all of whose royalties have supported that research.

• Differential effects of climate change on paramo plant composition across an elevation gradient.- Effects of disturbance and elevational gradients on the carbon dynamics of tropical Andean peatlands.- Temporal variation of fruit consumption seed dispersal and morphology and tree growth in Colombian forests.- Long term dynamics of upland forest in Mexico the role of human efforts.- The effects of seasonal precipitation on forest composition in a floodplain.- Temporal phytoplankton biomass variation and their functional groups.- Carbon sequestration of second growth forest regeneration.- Canopy recovery and biomass after landslide disturbances in Peru.- Species richness and functional diversity of cricetid rodents during climate change induced alterations.- Variation in rate and quality of forest regeneration across the Neotropics.- Spatiotemporal variation in rate and quality of forest regeneration across the Neotropics.- Global warming and the Brazilian Cerrado.- Community structure of small rodents between forest and agroforestry.- The spatiotemporal diversity of bat assemblages in altitudinal gradients.- The spatiotemporal diversity of bat assemblages in altitudinal gradients.- Precipitation during El Nino and Madden Julian Oscillation events.- Temporal gradients of Peri Urban Forest transitions.- Future climate change and spatiotemporal diversity patterns of avifauna across seasonally dry forest new communities and biotic interactions.- Spatiotemporal gradients in Neotropial biogeography taxon cycles and glacial oscillators.- Temporal activities of bats in El Yunque in Puerto Rico.