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The Forest Dynamics Lab
Senior Lecturer
M.F. Yale University, 1993
Ph.D. University of Washington, 2001
Telephone: +61-3-9905-0508
Fax: +61-3-9905-5613
E-mail: patrick.baker@sci.monash.edu.au |
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| Research areas |
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Research projects in my lab focus on the ecology and dynamics of mixed species forests. Projects under active
investigation include: |
 Dendrochronological
potential of Australian tree species
Supported by a Monash Faculty of Science Early Career Researcher's Grant. |
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 Ecology
and silviculture of the endemic Hawaiian hardwood, Acacia koa
Supported by the USDA Forest Service, The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, and The Hawaiian Community Foundation |
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 Student
research projects in the Forest Dynamics Lab
The Forest Dynamics lab has a growing group of students doing Honours theses and independent study projects on a wide range
of cool topics. |
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Disturbance history of a tropical forest
The role of disturbance and history on the long-term dynamics of tropical forests is poorly understood. Unraveling the
impacts of historical disturbances and the subsequent stand development patterns in tropical forests has been hampered
by the lack of annual growth rings in most tropical tree species. In the seasonal tropical forests of Southeast Asia, however,
intra-annual rainfall variation associated with the annual monsoons leads to the formation of annual growth rings in a
number of tree species. I have been using dendroecological techniques developed in temperate forests to reconstruct the
historical disturbance regimes of seasonal dry evergreen and mixed deciduous forest types in western Thailand at the Huai
Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary. This work will provide insights into temporal patterns of establishment, growth, and mortality
in seasonal tropical forests at the stand scale, as well as expanding our understanding of how disturbance and climatic
fluctuations in recent decades and centuries have influenced the spatial distribution of several distinct forest types
interspersed in mosaic fashion across the landscape.
Relevant publications:
- Baker, P. J., and S. Bunyavejchewin. Suppression, release, and canopy recruitment patterns in a
seasonal tropical forest in western Thailand. (In prep)
- Baker, P. J., S. Bunyavejchewin, C. D. Oliver, and P. S. Ashton. Disturbance history and historical
stand dynamics of a seasonal tropical forest in western Thailand. Ecological Monographs (accepted with minor
revisions 9/04)
- Baker, P. J., and J. S. Wilson. 2003. Coexistence and relative abundance in forest trees. Nature 422:
581–582.
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