Karen King

During this era of rapidly changing climate, we face new environmental challenges that require a better understanding of the complex spatiotemporal variability of climate conditions and subsequent responses of vegetation communities. As a biogeographer, my research interests focus on Quaternary landscape dynamics and paleoenvironmental reconstruction from intra-annual to multi-century time scales. I use dendrochronology and spatial analysis as research tools to investigate landscape‐scale dynamics (those initiated and/or controlled by both human and natural processes), which I believe must be tempered with a historical perspective. My research integrates present‐day climatic and ecological processes with those that functioned in the past and those that are likely to become altered in the near‐future due to human‐induced changes. Currently, my research program emphasizes gaining a better understanding of how hydrologic intensification and other impacts of a warming climate are impacting montane forest communities across North America and the Caribbean.