Degree: Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, 2010 I am a plant community ecologist working at the interface of ecology, biogeography and conservation. My broad goal is to understand the mechanisms that influence patterns of biodiversity, and then to use that understanding to address environmental issues. My research combines large-scale observational studies across biogeographic regions, field experiments, functional and phylogenetic approaches, and advanced statistics and modeling to address environmental issues and to explore fundamental questions in ecology.

Spasojevic, M.J., Bahlai, C.A., Bradley, B.A., Butterfield, B.J., Tuanmu, M., Sistla, S., Wiederholt, R. and Suding, K.N. 2016. Scaling up the diversity-resilience relationship with trait databases and remote sensing data: the recovery of productivity after wildfire. Global Change Biology 22:1421-1432 Spasojevic M.J., Turner, B.L. and Myers, J.A. 2016. When does intraspecific trait variation influence beta-diversity across environmental gradients? Journal of Ecology 104:487-496 Spasojevic, M.J., Yablon, Y.E., Oberle, B. and Myers, J.A. 2014. Ontogenetic trait variation influences tree community assembly across environmental gradients. Ecosphere 5(10):125 Spasojevic, M.J., Harrison, S., Day, H.W. and Southard, R.J. 2014. Biotic interactions and belowground feedbacks facilitate plant movement into cooler environments. Ecology Letters 17:700-709 Spasojevic, M.J., Grace, J.B., Harrison, S. and Damschen, E.I. 2014. Functional diversity supports the physiological tolerance hypothesis for plant species richness along climatic gradients. Journal of Ecology 102:447-455 Spasojevic, M.J., Copeland, S., and Suding, K.N. 2014. Using functional diversity patterns to explore metacommunity dynamics: a framework for understanding local and regional influences on community structure. Ecography 37:939-949 Spasojevic, M.J. and Suding, K.N. 2012. Inferring community assembly mechanisms from functional diversity patterns: the importance of multiple assembly processes. Journal of Ecology 100:652-661