People
María Natalia Umaña, PhD
I am a forest community ecologist interested in understanding how plant communities function and are structured within a context fo a changing world. To achieve this, I combine information from organismal functional traits measured at both individual and species levels, alongside spatially explicit long-term demographic data.
Check out our Research Section to learn more obout the projects we are working on!
Email: maumana@umich.edu | google scholar
Minh Chau N. Ho – PhD student (co-advisor)
Chau is interested in linkages between functional traits and growth and survival in trees, particularly using architectural traits. She is also interested in demographic trade-offs and mechanistic trait models, and is co-advised by Dr. Annette Ostling.
Tsun Fung Au (Tom) – Postdoc
Tom is a global change ecologist who is interested in climate change impacts on terrestrial ecosystems. Under the supervision of Drs., Inés Ibáñez, Peter Reich, and me, he will be studying the complex responses of species, communities, and forest ecosystems to rapid climate change with implications on global carbon cycles, species conservation, and forest sustainability.
Tomás Fuentes-Rohwer – PhD student
Tomás holds a master’s degree from the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs program and previously served as a lead ecologist at Meristem, LLC in Bloomington, Indiana, where he also completed his BS in Biology. In 2023, he joined our lab with a specific focus on investigating forest recovery following extreme droughts and hurricanes in Puerto Rico.
Andrés González-Melo – Postdoc
Andres is a plant ecologist interested in studying how functional traits, particularly wood traits, shape tree ecological strategies, and forest dynamics. He is also interested in the links between plant traits and ecological restoration.
Samuel Schaffer-Morrison – PhD student
Sam obtained his master’s degree at the University of Michigan at the School for Environment and Sustainability, where he studied the role of mycorrhizal networks on seedling recruitment in Michigan. Before that, he completed his BSc at George Washington University. Sam is interested in forest ecology, functional traits, and mycorrhizal associations.
Peter Williams – Postdoc
Peter is interested in community ecology. As a Ph.D. student, he worked in the tropical forests of Malaysian Borneo, examining the role of seed predators and frugivores on plant communities. As a postdoctoral researcher co-advised by Elise Zipkin and me, he will be working on a project studying tree responses to rainfall variation in tropical dry forests in the neotropics.
Anna Vi – Undergraduate researcher
Nick McNutt – Undergraduate researcher
Fieldwork Team In Colombia
Cotové-Antioquia (Tropical Dry Forest):
Roy González-M, Maribel, Verónica Marín, Julieth Villaba, Susana, and Alvaro Idarraga.
Colorados-Bolivar (Tropical Dry Forest)
Felipe Rojas, Juan Manuel Cely, Beatriz Salgado, Juan Gabriel, Esperanza Ruiz, and María Paula Cuervo
Lab Alumni
Xucai Pu – visiting scholar from Northeast Forestry University in China. Currently at University of Peking
Monique Weemstra – Postdoctoral researcher. Currently at Wageningen University.
Scott Fordham – Undergraduate researcher. Currently at USGS.
Savannah Rascon – Undergraduate researcher.