Faculty Profile
Martin Dovciak

Professor

Department of Environmental Biology
459 Illick Hall

[email protected]
315-470-6459

Biosketch

Dr. Dovciak is a Professor, Curriculum Coordinator for the Environmental Biology Major, and a National Science Foundation Mid-Career Advancement Awardee. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota and post-doctoral training from the University of Washington, both in forest ecology, and his first degree, in forest engineering, from Technical University in Zvolen, Slovakia. He has held visiting appointments at the Yale School of the Environment, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), and he studied as an exchange student at Bangor University, UK, and Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His current research focuses on responses of forest ecosystems and plant communities to various global change drivers and on ecological applications in forest ecosystem management. Dr. Dovciak has served the Ecological Society of America (ESA) from 2021 to 2023 as a Council member and Vegetation Section's Chair, and he currently serves as a Subject Matter Editor for Ecological Applications. 

Research Interests: Plant Ecology, Forest Ecosystems, Global Environmental Change, Biodiversity, Ecosystem Management and Restoration.

Dovciak Lab News: LinkedIn and BlueSky

Dovciak Lab in the Media: 

Martin Dovciak Believes in the Power of Botany | Meet the Faculty (ESF Video Interview; 2025/12/17)

Missing mycorrhizae - a barrier to tree migration in a warming climate | Ecological Society of America Research News (Press Release: 2024/11/07)

Dr. Martin Dovciak Receives NSF Mid-Career Advancement Award (Press Release: 2022/12/07)

Selected Courses Taught

• Plant Ecology & Global Change 
• Flowering Plants: Diversity, Evolution & Systematics
• Tropical Ecology (Co-taught)
• Global Patterns of Forest Understory Diversity (Co-taught at Yale University & SUNY ESF)
• Impacts of Deer on Forests Seminar (Co-taught)
• Natural Resource Management

Selected Recent Grant Awards

• Northeastern States Research Cooperative; $389,996; 2024-2027. “The effects of seed dispersal and seedling establishment limitations on climate-driven tree species range shifts in the northeastern U.S." M. Dovciak (PI), N. Kiel, L. Kenefic.
• Northeastern States Research Cooperative; $365,261; 2024-2027. “Using a functional trait approach to inform assisted migration for climate adaptation in the Northern Forest Region.” H. Asbjornsen (PI), J. Butnor, M. Vadeboncoeur, Jay Wason, M. Dovciak.
• USDA McIntire-Stennis Program; $245,158; 2023-2025. “Reversing mesophication and burning ticks: Prescribed fire’s role in a One Health approach to forest management in New York” A.L. Vander Yacht (PI), M. Dovciak, B.F. Leydet.
• National Science Foundation; $293,033; 2023-2025. “Data Science for Global Change -- Does Plant Diversity Imply Forest Resilience?” M. Dovciak (PI).
• National Science Foundation; $322,992; 2018-2023. “Linking Forest Regeneration, Plant Distributions, and Ecotone Dynamics in Changing Mountain Environments”. M. Dovciak (PI)

Selected Publications

10 Selected Recent Papers:

* undergraduate, ** graduate, or *** postdoctoral mentee

• Kiel NG ***, Tourville  JC, Wason JW, Dovciak M (2026). Conspecific adult dominance interacts with microsite factors to influence forest regeneration patterns across elevation.” Journal of Biogeography 53 (1): e70153. DOI: 10.1111/jbi.70153.
• Lumbsden-Pinto J **, Green T, Schwager K, Dovciak M (2025). Microclimate vulnerability under coupled effects of changing climate and forest structure. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 375 (110853). DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110853.
• Tourville JC**, Dovciak, M (2025). Patterns of herbivory and resource utilization of tree seedlings along an altitudinal gradient. Ecosystems 28, 50. doi.org/10.1007/s10021-025-00994-5.
• Gilvarg SC**, Leydet B, Dovciak M, Smith AMS, Miller DL, Luckhart S, Lashley MA, Vander Yacht AL (2025). Pyrohealth synchrony: Integrating wildland fire into One Health to benefit plants, animals, ecosystems, and people, BioScience, doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf068.
• Zarfos MR**, Lawrence GB, Beier CM, Page BD, McDonnell TC, Sullivan TJ, Garrison-Johnston M, Dovciak M (2024). Environmental change drivers reduce sapling layer diversity in sugar maple-beech forests of eastern North America. Ecosystems 27, 1021–1039. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-024-00930-z
• Tourville JC**, Horton TR, Dovciak M (2024) Mycorrhizal fungi as critical biotic filters for tree seedling establishment during species range expansions. Ecological Monographs 94(4): e1634. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecm.1634
• Tourville J**, Publicover D, Dovciak M (2023) Forests on the move: tracking climate-related treeline changes in mountains of the northeastern United States. Journal of Biogeography, 50, 1993–2007. DOI: 10.1111/jbi.14708
• Cortese AM**, Drake JE, Dovciak M, Cohen JB, Horton TR (2023) Proximity to an old-growth forest edge and ectomycorrhizal tree islands enhance ectomycorrhizal fungal colonization of Betula lenta L. (black birch) seedlings in secondary forest soils. Plant and Soil 493, 391–405. DOI: 10.1007/s11104-023-06237-7
• Finley D**, Dovciak M, Dean J (2023) A data driven method for prioritizing invasive species to aid policy and management. Biological Invasions 25, 2293-2307.
• Berdugo MB**, Dovciak M, Kimmerer RW, Driscoll CT (2023) The roles of the moss layer in mediating tree seedling environmental stress, mercury exposure, and regeneration in high-elevation conifer forests. Ecosystems 26, 909–92

10 Selected Frequently Cited Papers:

* undergraduate, ** graduate, or *** postdoctoral mentee

• Wason JW**, Dovciak M (2017) Tree demography suggests multiple directions and drivers for species range shifts in mountains of Northeastern United States. Global Change Biology, 23: 3335–3347.
• Alvarez-Yepiz JC**, Burquez A, Martinez-Yrizar A, Teece M, Yepez EA, Dovciak M (2017) Resource partitioning by evergreen and deciduous species in a tropical dry forest. Oecologia 183: 607–618.
• Dovciak M, Brown J* (2014) Secondary edge effects in regenerating forest landscapes: vegetation and microclimate patterns and their implications for management and conservation. New Forests 45: 733–744.
• Frelich LE, Peterson RO, Dovciak M, Reich PB, Vucetich JA, Eisenhauer N (2012) Trophic cascades, invasive species, and body-size hierarchies interactively modulate climate change responses of ecotonal temperate-boreal forest. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 367: 2955–2961.
• Halpern CB, Halaj J, Evans SA, Dovciak M (2012) Level and pattern of overstory retention interact to shape long-term responses of understories to timber harvest. Ecol. Appl. 22: 2049–2064.
• Dovciak M, Halpern CB (2010) Positive diversity-stability relationships in forest herb populations during four decades of community assembly. Ecology Letters 13: 1300–1309.
• Dovciak M, Hrivnak R, Ujhazy K, Gomory D (2008) Seed rain and environmental controls on invasion of Picea abies into grassland. Plant Ecology 194: 135-148.
• Dovciak M, Frelich LE, Reich PB (2005) Pathways in old-field succession to white pine: seed rain, shade, and climate effects. Ecological Monographs 75: 363–378.
• Dovciak M, Reich PB, Frelich LE (2003) Seed rain, safe sites, competing vegetation, and soil resources spatially structure white pine regeneration and recruitment. Can. J. For. Res. 33: 1892–1904.
• Dovciak M, Frelich LE, Reich PB (2001) Discordance in spatial patterns of white pine (Pinus strobus) size-classes in a patchy near-boreal forest. Journal of Ecology 89: 280–291.