Justin P. Wright, Professor  

Justin P. Wright

My research focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of patterns of biological diversity across the planet. I am particularly interested in two broad questions: 1)How does the modification of the environment by organisms affect community structure and ecosystem function? and 2) what aspects of biodiversity matter most in the regulation of ecosystem function? While much of my research has focused on wetland plant communities, I am willing to study any organism and work in any ecosystem to answer the questions that interest me. I have worked in systems ranging from tropical streams to desert shrublands. My research program combines observational and experimental approaches with modeling to develop and test hypotheses and build towards synthetic ecological theory.

Education:
Ph.D., Cornell University, 2002
B.A., Williams College, 1996

Office Location: 258 Biological Sciences, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone: +1 646 825 1275
Email Address: justin.wright@duke.edu
Web Page: http://www.biology.duke.edu/wrightlab/
Additional Web Page: http://wrightlab.weebly.com/

Specialties:
Ecology and Population Biology
Biological Sciences Building

Research Categories: Community, Landscape and Ecosystem Ecology

Research Description: My research focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of patterns of biological diversity across the planet. I am particularly interested in two broad questions: 1)How does the modification of the environment by organisms affect community structure and ecosystem function? and 2) what aspects of biodiversity matter most in the regulation of ecosystem function? While much of my research has focused on wetland plant communities, I am willing to study any organism and work in any ecosystem to answer the questions that interest me. I have worked in systems ranging from tropical streams to desert shrublands. My research program combines observational and experimental approaches with modeling to develop and test hypotheses and build towards synthetic ecological theory.

Representative Publications   (More Publications)   (search)

  1. Cardinale, B; Srivastiva, D; Duffy, E; Wright, J; Downing, A; Sankaranan, M; Jouseau, C, Consistent effects of biodiversity on the functioning of trophic groups and ecosystems, Nature, vol. 443 no. 7114 (2006), pp. 989-992 [doi]  [abs].
  2. Wright, JP; Jones, CG; Boeken, B; Shachak, M, Predictability of ecosystem engineering effects on species richness across environmental variability and spatial scales., Journal of Ecology, vol. 94 no. 4 (2006), pp. 815-824, WILEY [doi]  [abs].
  3. Wright, JP; Jones, CG, The concept of organisms as ecosystem engineers ten years on: Progress, limitations, and challenges, BioScience, vol. 56 no. 3 (2006), pp. 203-209, Oxford University Press (OUP) [doi]  [abs].
  4. Wright, JP; Naeem, S; Hector, A; Lehman, C; Reich, PB; Schmid, B; Tilman, D, Conventional functional classification schemes underestimate the relationship with ecosystem functioning., Ecology letters, vol. 9 no. 2 (February, 2006), pp. 111-120 [doi]  [abs].
  5. Wright, JP; Jones, CG, Predicting effects of ecosystem engineers on patch-scale species richness from primary productivity, Ecology, vol. 85 no. 8 (January, 2004), pp. 2071-2081, WILEY [doi]  [abs].
  6. Wright, JP; Gurney, WSC; Jones, CG, Patch dynamics in an engineered landscape, Oikos, vol. 105 no. 2 (2004), pp. 336-348 [doi]  [abs].
  7. Naeem, S; Wright, JP, Disentangling biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning: deriving solutions to a seemingly insurmountable problem, Ecology Letters, vol. 6 no. 6 (2003), pp. 569-579 [doi]  [abs].
  8. Wright, JP; Flecker, AS; Jones, CG, Local vs. landscape controls on plant species richness in beaver meadows, Ecology, vol. 84 no. 12 (January, 2003), pp. 3162-3173, WILEY [doi]  [abs].
  9. Wright, JP; Jones, CG; Flecker, AS, An ecosystem engineer, the beaver, increases species richness at the landscape scale., Oecologia, vol. 132 no. 1 (June, 2002), pp. 96-101, Springer Nature [doi]  [abs].