Jeannine Cavender-Bares

Climate Action Acceleration Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Director of the Harvard University Herbaria
Chair of the Harvard Forest Leadership Committee
Jeannine Cavender-Bares smiling, with long dark hair, standing in a field
Harvard University Herbaria, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
617-496-0299
jcavender@fas.harvard.edu
Cavender-Bares Lab

Faculty Support: Patricia Cross-Fuentes

Our work focuses on the physiological and evolutionary dimensions of plant ecology that influence community assembly and ecosystem function. We are particularly interested in the genetic and evolutionary basis of variation in plant phenotypes and spectral properties that can be detected at scales from leaves to landscapes. Through our work in spectral biology, we aim to advance remote sensing of biodiversity and the detection of biological processes across scales and their changes through time. A current focus is a collaborative effort to determine protocols and best practices for NextGen spectral digitization of herbarium specimens. We are committed to advancing international efforts for global monitoring and assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services to aid management efforts towards sustainability on our rapidly changing planet.

The Cavender-Bares Lab's ongoing projects include: detecting tree diseases and mapping forest composition and diversity using remote sensing; determining the mechanisms and ecosystem consequences of tree species interactions (particularly in the FAB tree diversity experiments); using spectral phenotypes in phylogeographic studies and to test for selection; understanding the ecophysiological mechanisms that influence species distributions; and understanding the evolutionary history of physiological traits that influence long-term ecological processes and can help predict future shifts as the climate changes.

Dr. Cavender-Bares also directs the NSF ASCEND Biology Integration Institute.

Recent Publications

Sapes, G., L. Schroeder, A. Scott, I. Clark, J. Juzwik, R. A. Montgomery, J. A. Guzmán Q, and J. Cavender-Bares. 2024. Mechanistic links between physiology and spectral reflectance enable previsual detection of oak wilt and drought stress. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121:e2316164121.

Guzmán, J.A., Pinto-Ledezma, J. N., D. Frantz, P. A. Townsend, J. Juzwik, and J. Cavender-Bares. 2023. Mapping oak wilt disease from space using land surface phenology. Remote Sensing of Environment 298:113794.

Pinto-Ledezma, J. N., S. Díaz, B. S. Halpern, C. Khoury, and J. Cavender-Bares. 2023. No branch left behind: tracking terrestrial biodiversity from a phylogenetic completeness perspective. Frontiers in Ecology and Environment. e2696. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2696.

Kothari, S., R. Beauchamp-Rioux, E. Laliberté, and J. Cavender-Bares. 2023. Reflectance spectroscopy allows rapid, accurate, and non-destructive estimates of functional traits from pressed leaves. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 14 (2), 385-401173.

Cavender-Bares, J., E. Nelson, J.E. Meireles, J.R. Lasky, D. Miteva, D. Nowak, W.D. Pearse, M. Helmus, A.E. Zanne, W. Fagan, C. Mihiar, N.Z. Muller, N. Kraft, S. Polasky, Stephen. 2022. The hidden value of trees: Quantifying the ecosystem services of tree lineages and their major threats across the contiguous US. PLoS Sustainability and Transformations 1 (4), e0000010.

Cavender-Bares, J.,  F.D. Schneider, M.J. Santos, A. Armstrong, A. Carnaval, K.M. Dahlin, L. Fatoyinbo, G.C. Hurtt, D. Schimel, P.A. Townsend, S.L. Ustin, Z. Wang, A.M.Wilson. 2022 Integrating remote sensing with ecology and evolution to advance biodiversity conservation, Nature Ecology and Evolution 6:506-519.

Cavender-Bares, J., A. K. Schweiger, J. A. Gamon, H. Gholizadeh, K. Helzer, C. Lapadat, M. D. Madritch, P. A. Townsend, Z. Wang, and S. E. Hobbie. 2022. Remotely detected aboveground plant function predicts belowground processes in two prairie diversity experiments. Ecological Monographs 92:e01488.

Williams, L.J., J. Cavender-Bares, P.A. Townsend, J. J. Couture, Z. Wang, A. Stefanski, C. Messier, P.B. Reich 2021. Remote spectral detection of biodiversity effects on forest productivity. Nature Ecology and Evolution. 5, 46–54 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01329-4.

Cavender-Bares, J. 2019. Diversification, adaptation, and community assembly of the American oaks (Quercus), a model clade for integrating ecology and evolution. New Phytologist 221:669-692.