Bradley Butterfield  

  

Assistant Research Professor
Email: Bradley.Butterfiel@nau.edu
Office: Peterson Hall, bldg. 22, room 316
More info: http://www.mpcer.nau.edu 

Research/teaching interests

• community ecology
• plant functional ecology
• ecosystem ecology
• biogeography

Academic highlights

• Postdoctoral Scholar: Environmental Science, University of California, Berkeley, 2009-2010
• PhD: Plant Biology, Arizona State University, Biology, 2009
• BA: Biology, Rice University, 2004

 

 

My research focuses on the intersection between processes that regulate biodiversity and the consequences of that diversity for ecosystem function, primarily in arid, semi-arid and alpine ecosystems.

Current projects include plant interaction networks, local adaptation in semi-arid grass species with applications for range management and conservation, testing predictive ecological models using fossil records from packrat middens, effects of biogeographic and evolutionary history on plant community structure and function, and biodiversity – ecosystem function relationships. 

Selected Publications

Butterfield, B.J. and J.M. Briggs. 2011. Regeneration niche differentiates functional strategies of desert woody plant species. Oecologia, 165:477-487.

Butterfield, B.J., Betancourt, J.L., Turner, R.M. and J.M. Briggs. 2010. Facilitation drives 65 years of vegetation change in the Sonoran Desert. Ecology, 91:1132-1139.

Butterfield, B.J. 2009. Effects of facilitation on community stability and dynamics: synthesis and future directions. Journal of Ecology, 97:1192-1201.

Butterfield, B.J. and J.M. Briggs. 2009. Patch dynamics of soil biotic feedbacks in the Sonoran Desert. Journal of Arid Environments, 73:96-102.