@article{mitchell_d'amico iii_trammell_frank_2023, title={Carabid specialists respond differently to nonnative plant invasion in urban forests}, volume={2}, ISSN={["1573-1642"]}, DOI={10.1007/s11252-022-01323-7}, journal={URBAN ECOSYSTEMS}, author={Mitchell, J. Christina and D'Amico III, Vincent and Trammell, Tara L. E. and Frank, Steven. D. D.}, year={2023}, month={Feb} }
 @article{mitchell_kashian_chen_cousins_flaspohler_gruner_johnson_surasinghe_zambrano_buma_2023, title={Forest ecosystem properties emerge from interactions of structure and disturbance}, volume={21}, ISSN={["1540-9309"]}, DOI={10.1002/fee.2589}, abstractNote={Forest structural diversity and its spatiotemporal variability are constrained by environmental and biological factors, including species pools, climate, land‐use history, and legacies of disturbance regimes. These factors influence forest responses to disturbances and their interactions with structural diversity, potentially creating structurally mediated emergent properties at local to continental spatial scales and over evolutionary time. Here, we present a conceptual framework for exploring the emergent properties that arise from interactions between forest structural diversity and disturbances. We synthesize and present definitions for key terms, including emergent property, disturbance, and resilience, and highlight various types and examples of emergent properties, such as (1) interactions with species composition, (2) interactions with disturbance frequency and intensity, and (3) evolutionary changes to communities. Although emergent properties in forest ecosystems remain poorly understood, we describe a foundation for study and applied management of forest structural diversity to enhance forest restoration and resilience.}, number={1}, journal={FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT}, author={Mitchell, J. Christina and Kashian, Daniel M. and Chen, Xiongwen and Cousins, Stella and Flaspohler, David and Gruner, Daniel S. and Johnson, Jeremy S. and Surasinghe, Thilina D. and Zambrano, Jenny and Buma, Brian}, year={2023}, month={Feb}, pages={14–23} }
 @article{mitchell_d'amico iii_trammell_frank_2023, title={Nonnative plant invasion increases urban vegetation structure and influences arthropod communities}, volume={8}, ISSN={["1472-4642"]}, DOI={10.1111/ddi.13755}, abstractNote={AbstractAimEcological theory and empirical evidence indicate that greater structural complexity and diversity in plant communities increases arthropod abundance and diversity. Nonnative plants are typically associated with low arthropod abundance and diversity due to lack of evolutionary history. However, nonnative plants increase the structural complexity of forests, as is common in urban forests. Therefore, urban forests are ideal ecosystems to determine whether structural complexity associated with nonnative plants will increase abundance and diversity of arthropods, as predicted by complexity literature, or whether structural complexity associated with nonnative plants will be depauperate of arthropods, as predicted by nonnative plant literature.LocationWe sampled 24 urban temperate deciduous and mixed forests in two cites, Raleigh, North Carolina and Newark, Delaware, in the eastern United States.MethodsWe quantified ground cover vegetation and shrub layer vegetation in each forest and created structural complexity metrics to represent total, nonnative and native understory vegetation structural complexity. We vacuum sampled arthropods from vegetation and quantified the abundance, biomass, richness and diversity of spiders and non‐spider arthropods.ResultsNonnative plants increase understory vegetation complexity in urban forests. In Raleigh and Newark, we found support for the hypotheses that dense vegetation will increase arthropod abundance and biomass, and against the hypothesis that nonnative vegetation will decrease arthropods. Urban forest arthropod abundance and biomass, but not diversity, increased with greater nonnative and native structural complexity.Main ConclusionsInvaded urban forests may provide adequate food in the form of arthropod biomass to transfer energy to the next trophic level, but likely fail to provide ecological services and functions offered by diverse species, like forest specialists. Urban land managers should survey urban forests for nonnative and native plant communities and prioritize replacing dense nonnative plants with native species when allocating vegetation maintenance resources.}, journal={DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS}, author={Mitchell, J. Christina and D'Amico III, Vincent and Trammell, Tara L. E. and Frank, Steven D.}, year={2023}, month={Aug} }
 @article{trammell_avolio_mitchell_moore_2020, title={Temperate deciduous forests embedded across developed landscapes: Younger forests harbour invasive plants and urban forests maintain native plants}, volume={108}, ISSN={["1365-2745"]}, DOI={10.1111/1365-2745.13400}, abstractNote={Abstract


Temperate deciduous forests in the United States are located in the most densely populated states across the northern and mid-Atlantic east coast. Land development and associated human activities result in small forests that are susceptible to anthropogenic influences, such as urbanization and non-native plant invasion.

The overall objective of this study was to assess spatial and temporal drivers of forest vegetation structure and diversity in small forests embedded across developed landscapes. We assessed woody plant composition across spatial gradients (i.e., urbanization and non-native plant invasion) and a temporal gradient (i.e., time since canopy closure) across 38 forests along the east coast of the United States in northern Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania.

Surprisingly, we found the invasion gradient was not related to the urban gradient across our forests. Across all forests, the canopy consisted of native species (98% of all trees), whereas the forest understory was most vulnerable to non-native plant invasion (65% of all woody plant stems). Greater native species richness in forest canopies and understories with increasing urbanization supports the conclusion that urban forests maintain native species and are not inherently degraded ecosystems. Non-native plant invasion has a strong influence on understory plant communities, and the duration of intact forest canopy had a strong negative correlation with non-native plant invasion suggesting intact forests can resist invasion.

Synthesis. This is the first study to compare simultaneously the importance of invasion and urbanization in determining plant community composition in forests embedded across developed landscapes, and to discover that younger forests harbor more invasive plants and urban forests maintain native plants.

}, number={6}, journal={JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY}, author={Trammell, Tara L. E. and Avolio, Meghan L. and Mitchell, J. Christina and Moore, Eric}, year={2020}, month={Nov}, pages={2366–2375} }