Jonathan A. Myers  |  Associate Professor

Jonathan Myers is an associate professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis. He has an associate degree in forestry from Paul Smith’s College, a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Cornell University, a master’s degree in ecology and botany from the University of Florida, and a Ph.D. in biological sciences from Louisiana State University. His dissertation explored community assembly theory and the maintenance of species diversity in high-diversity plant communities. In 2012 he joined the faculty in the Department of Biology after completing a postdoc at Washington University’s Tyson Research Center.

Jonathan’s research explores questions at the interface of community ecology, biogeography, and biodiversity. He is especially interested in how processes at different scales combine to shape patterns of biodiversity. He explores this question by studying the relative importance of biogeographic history, dispersal, niche selection, and ecological drift as drivers of biodiversity in natural and human-modified landscapes. He integrates theory with empirical studies in a wide variety of plant communities spanning temperate and tropical ecosystems, and has collaborated on studies of plant diversity at field sites in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and across the United States.

Jonathan’s current research interests include the assembly of high-diversity plant communities, the assembly of biodiversity gradients, species interactions across environmental gradients, the causes and consequences of plant functional diversity, and plant community responses to climate change, drought and fire.