Dr Jill Thompson, FRGS

Dr Jill Thompson, FRGS

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Bush Estate
Penicuik
Midlothian
EH26 0QB
T: +44 (0)131 4454343
F: +44 (0)131 4453943
E-mail: Dr Jill Thompson
 

Research interests

I joined CEH in February 2009 as a plant ecologist to work with the CEH Biodiversity programme, after working for several years in Puerto Rico, Ghana and Brazil.  My main research focus is forest regeneration, plant community dynamics and factors that influence plant distribution and biodiversity. My research has been mainly carried out in tropical forest and includes the effect of human and natural disturbances, ecosystem processes and plant ecophysiology.  

In Puerto Rico I was Director of the 16 ha Luquillo Forests Dynamics Plot for the Luquillo LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) site, and will continue to collaborate with the LTER and the Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) network of large forest plots.  I have broad interests covering many aspects of plant ecology and conservation.  Prior to my tropical work I studied plant populations growing on heavy metal contaminated soil, and worked for an environmental consultancy company in the UK. 

Brief CV

  • Education: BSc Biology and plant physiology, Stirling University, Scotland. PhD, Plant ecology, University of Liverpool, England.
  • 1995-2008: Director of the Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot studying effects of hurricane disturbance and land use history on tropical forest dynamics and biodiversity.  Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies, University of Puerto Rico (based in Puerto Rico). In association with Luquillo Long Term Ecological Research Programme of USA and Center for Tropical Forest Ecology, Smithsonian Institute.
  • 1991-1995: Studies in Ghanaian tropical forest including tree seed germination, seedling establishment and forest fire ecology. Technical Cooperation Officer, DFID, London (based in Ghana at Forest Research Institute, Kumasi, and Aberdeen University, Scotland).
  • 1987-1991: Studies in Brazilian tropical forest ecology including forest regeneration in gaps, nutrient cycling and soil processes. Maracá Rainforest Project (based at Maracá Island, Roraima Brazil, and Stirling University, Scotland). Project led by the Royal Geographical Society London.

 

 

Selected publications

Uriarte, M. Canham, C. Thompson, J., Zimmerman, J.K., Murphy, L., Sabat, A.M., Fetcher, N., and Haines, B.L. (2009) Understanding natural disturbance and human land use as determinants of tree community dynamics in a subtropical wet forest: results from a forest simulator Ecol. Mono. (in press).

Zimmerman, J. K., Thompson, J., and N. Brokaw. (2008)  Large tropical forest dynamics plots: laboratories for testing ecological theory. Chapter 7 in W. Carson and S. Schnitzer (eds.). Tropical Forest Community Ecology. Blackwell Publications Oxford, p 98-117.

Swenson, N.G. Enquist, B.J., Pither, J., Thompson, J. and Zimmerman, J.K. (2006) The problem and promise of scale dependency in community phylogenetics. Ecology, 87: 2418-2424.

Wills C., Harms, K.E, Condit, R.S., David King, D., Thompson, J., He, F., Muller-Landau, H.C., Ashton, P., Losos, E., Comita, L., Hubbell, S., LaFrankie, J., Bunyavejchewin, S., Dattaraja, H.S., Davies, S., Esufali, S., Foster, R., Gunatilleke, N., Gunatilleke, S., Hall, P., Itoh, A., John, R., Kiratiprayoon, S., Loo de Lao, S., Massa, M., Nath, C., Nur Supardi Noor, Md., Rahman Kassim, A., Sukumar, R., Satyanarayana. S.H., Sun, I.F., Tan, S., Yamakura T., and Zimmerman J.K. (2006) Non-random processes Contribute to the Maintenance of Diversity in Tropical Forests. Science, 311, 527-531.

Thompson, J., Brokaw, N., Zimmerman, J.K., Waide, R.B., Everham, III, E.M., and Schaefer, D.A. (2004) Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot. Pages 540-550 in E. Losos and E.G. Leigh, Jr. (eds.). Tropical Forest Diversity and Dynamism: Results from a Long-Term Tropical Forest Network.  University of Chicago Press, Chicago, USA.

Thompson, J., Brokaw, N., Zimmerman, J.K., Waide, R.B., Everham, III, E.M., Lodge, D.J., Taylor, C.M., García-Montiel, D. and Fluet, M. (2002) Land use history, environment, and tree composition in a tropical forest. Ecological Applications 12, 1344-1363.