Maria N. Miriti

My research incorporates experimental and demographic methods to address factors that regulate plant populations and communities. Because plants are immobile and habitats are heterogeneous, the individual responses of plants to patchy resource distribution will influence not only the spatial distribution of plants, but also the demographic behavior of plant populations. Also of interest is how individualistic responses of plants influence community and ecosystem processes. I address this question by merging information on the spatial distribution of resources and the differential responses of neighboring individuals to the spatial characteristics of their environment. Current research in my lab addresses responses of native and exotic herbaceous plants to variation in nutrient levels and the population and community dynamics of desert perennials of the Colorado Desert in California.