Adriane Esquivel Meulbert

Global change impacts on tropical forest diversity and dynamics.

Research Area

My research focuses on understanding how global environmental change is reshaping the composition, dynamics, and resilience of the world’s forests. My group studies forest ecology at macroecological scales, investigating how tree communities respond to climate stressors like drought, heat, storms and elevated CO₂ with particular focus on the tropics. A central theme of my work is tree mortality — one of the greatest uncertainties in Earth System Models — using global forest plot networks and field ecology to uncover its drivers and impacts. I lead efforts to quantify large-scale biodiversity and carbon dynamics engaging with networks of permanent sampling plots and high-frequency drone and field monitoring of tropical giant trees.

My group explores the mechanisms behind how forests are acclimating to global change via phenotypic plasticity and compositional change and work with colleagues from the field of molecular biology to understand molecular adaptation. Our work is deeply collaborative, interdisciplinary, and grounded in inclusive science. We engage with policymakers, traditional communities, and artists to amplify science for societal impact. We are a global team that works to decolonise research practices and create more equitable scientific spaces. Ultimately, we aim to generate knowledge that supports forest conservation, restoration, and climate change mitigation globally.

Project Interests

I would be excited to co-develop projects with students exploring how climate change is reshaping forest composition, biodiversity, and carbon dynamics at regional to global scales. Topics could include drivers of tree mortality, functional trait shifts, or biodiversity–carbon relationships using large datasets and/or field ecology. I also welcome projects that leverage from the data of our NERC/NSF Gigante project that produces high-resolution data on tropical forest dynamics looking at drivers of giant tree mortality and gap formation as well as recovery from these disturbances.