My research is focused on development of concepts regarding effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbances that are important in the evolutionary ecology and conservation biology of plant populations and communities in coastal-plain landscapes of the southeastern United States. Long-term studies have been conducted in longleaf and south Florida slash pine savannas, temperate and subtropical hardwood forests, and coastal habitats that transition from salt marshes and estuaries to upland forests and pine savannas. Trees, shrubs and herbs are marked, mapped, and censused regularly in study plots in old-growth forests. These empirical demographic studies, some now conducted for two decades, have produced quantitative descriptions of spatial and temporal patterns of the population and community dynamics of these habitats, as well as changes that potentially are associated with global climate change. Hypotheses have been developed regarding effects of disturbances (e.g., fires, hurricanes) on plant populations and communities in the different habitats being studied. Experimental field studies have then been used to test aspects of these hypotheses. For example, study of old-growth longleaf pine populations and groundcover has generated hypotheses regarding the role of pyrogenicity in maintaining conditions conducive for this species (and preventing succession). This study has generated long-term experimental studies in which characteristics of fire regimes are manipulated, and population and community-level responses of vegetation are measured. Current ongoing experimental studies derived from long-term study of pine savannas are focused on how variation in fire characteristics and dispersal limitation influence high biodiversity groundcover plant communities in pine savannas. Models of relationships between climate and fire regimes in different pine savannas provide a mechanistic approach to the prediction of fire characteristics, enabling putative relationships between global climate patterns and biodiversity to be explored for pine savannas. This combination of empirical and experimental field ecology has provided new concepts regarding the role of disturbances in generating high biodiversity in southeastern coastal landscapes.
Drewa, P.B., W.J. Platt, and E.B. Moser. 2002. Fire effects on resprouting of shrubs in southeastern longleaf pine savannas. Ecology 83:755-767.
Platt, W. J., B. Beckage, R. F. Doren, and H.H. Slater. 2002. Interactions of large-scale disturbances: prior fire regimes and hurricane mortality of savanna pines. Ecology 83:1566-1572. (Report)
Schmitz, M., W.J. Platt, and J. DeCoster. 2002. Substrate heterogeneity and numbers of plant species in Everglades savannas (Florida, USA). Plant Ecology 160:137-148.
Batista, W.B. and W.J. Platt. 2003. Tree population response to hurricane disturbance: syndromes in a southeastern United States old-growth forest. Journal of Ecology 91:197-212.
Beckage, B. and W. J. Platt. 2003. Predicting severe wildfire years in the Florida Everglades. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1:235-239.
Beckage, B., W.J. Platt, M.G. Slocum, and R. Panko. 2003. Influence of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation on fire regimes in the Florida Everglades. Ecology 84:3124-3130. (Report)
Kwit, C. and W.J. Platt. 2003. Disturbance history influences regeneration of non-pioneer understory trees. Ecology 84:2575-2581. (Report)
Platt, W.J. and J.H. Connell. 2003. Natural disturbances and directional replacement of species. Ecological Monographs 73:507-522 (Concepts and Synthesis Section).
Quigley, M.F. and W.J. Platt. 2003. Composition and structure of seasonally deciduous forests in the Americas. Ecological Monographs 73:87-106.
Slocum, M.G., W.J. Platt, and H.C. Cooley. 2003. Effects of differences in prescribed fire regimes on patchiness and intensity of fires in subtropical savannas of Everglades National Park, Florida. Restoration Ecology 11:91-102.
Gilliam, F.S., W. J. Platt, and R.K. Peet. 2006. Natural disturbances and the physiognomy of pine savannas: a phenomenological model. Applied Vegetation Science 9:83-96.
Platt, W.J., S.M. Carr, M. Reilly, and J. Fahr. 2006. Pine savanna overstorey influences on ground-cover biodiversity. Applied Vegetation Science 9:37-50.
Thaxton, J.M. and W. J. Platt. 2006. Small-scale fuel variation alters fire
intensity and shrub abundance in a pine savanna. Ecology 87:1331-1337.
Postdoctoral Researchers at LSU
Dr. Matt Slocum; mateo457@yahoo.com
Prior Ph.D. Graduate Students
Dr. William Batista, Associate Professor,
Department of Statistics, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dr. Steve Brewer, Associate Professor,
Department of Biology, University of Mississippi
Dr. Paul Drewa, Assistant Professor, Case
Western Reserve University
Dr. Sue Grace, Regional Fire Ecologist,
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Dr. Jean Huffman, Preserve Manager, Florida Department of Environmental Protection
& Apalachicola NERR
Dr. Heather Passmore, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Biological Sciences,
Louisiana State University
Dr. Martin Quigley, Department of Horticulture,
Ohio State University
Dr Charles Kwit, Postdoctoral Researcher,
Department of Zoology, University of Florida
Dr. Jarrod Thaxton, Postdoctoral Researcher,
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Hilo Hawaii
Graduate Students
Becky Carmichael
Raelene Crandall, e-mail
Darin Ellair
Paul Gagnon, e-mail
Demetra Kandalepas
Erin Lawrence
Ellen Liechty, e-mail
Mindy McCallum
Yalma Vargas-Rodriguez, e-mail