Prof. Dr. Jake Alexander
Prof. Dr. Jake Alexander
Lecturer at the Department of Environmental Systems Science
Situated at the interface of ecology and evolution, my research addresses fundamental questions about how species’ interactions with other organisms and with their environment shape patterns of plant species' distribution, diversity and range dynamics.
Research Area
Two of the most pressing challenges for environmental biologists are forecasting the spread of non-native plant invasions and predicting the response of native species to global climate change. My research explores leading questions at the intersection of these global challenges, rooted in a fundamental curiosity in the ecological and evolutionary factors that shape species distributions. My current work focuses on three core questions: How do species interactions shape plant community responses to climate change? What limits the spread and impacts of invasive species? To what extent can species evolve to rapidly changing climate?
Selected publications
Iseli, E., Chisholm, C., Lenoir, J., Haider, S., Seipel, T., Barros, A., Hargreaves, A.L., Kardol, P., Lembrechts, J.J., McDougall, K., Rashid, I., Rumpf, S.B., Arévalo, J.R., Cavieres, L., Daehler, C., Dar, P.A., Endress, B., Jakobs, G., Jiménez, A., Küffer, C., Mihoc, M., Milbau, A., Morgan, J.W., Naylor, B.J., Pauchard, A., Backes, A.R., Reshi, Z.A., Rew, L., Righetti, D., Shannon, J.M., Valencia, G., Walsh, N., Wright, G.T., Alexander, J.M. (2023) Rapid upwards spread of nonnative plants in mountains across continents.
Nature Ecology and Evolution, 7, 405–413.
Lyu, S. and J.M. Alexander. (2022) Competition contributes to both warm and cool range edges.
Nature Communications 13 (1), 2502-2510.
Stephan, P., B. Bramon Mora, and J.M. Alexander. (2021) Positive species interactions shape species' range limits.
Oikos 130, 1611-1624.
Alexander, J.M., Levine, J.M. (2019) Earlier phenology of a nonnative plant increases impacts on native competitors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116, 6199–6204.
Alexander, J.M., Chalmandrier, L., Lenoir, J., Burgess, T.I., Essl, F., Haider, S., Kueffer, C., McDougall, K., Milbau, A., Nuñez, M.A., Pauchard, A., Rabitsch, W., Rew, L.J., Sanders, N., Pellissier, L. (2018). Lags in the response of mountain plant communities to climate change. Global Change Biology, 24, 563–579.
Alexander, J.M., Diez, J.M., Hart, S., Levine, J.M. (2016) When climate reshuffles competitors: a call for experimental macroecology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 31, 831–841.
Alexander, J.M., Diez, J.M., Levine, J.M. (2015). Novel competitors shape species' responses to climate change. Nature, 525, 515–518.
external page List of all publications