Martin DovciakAssociate Professor

459 Illick Hall
1 Forestry Drive
Syracuse, NY 13210

315-470-6749 | 315-470-6743
mdovciak@esf.edu

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

CV and Lab Homepage

Selected Courses Taught:

• Plant Ecology & Global Change
• Flowering Plants: Diversity, Evolution & Systematics
• Tropical Ecology (Co-taught)   
• Impacts of Deer on Forests Seminar (Co-taught)
• Natural Resource Management

Examples of Current and Recent Support:

• National Science Foundation; $322,992; 2018-2021. “Linking Forest Regeneration, Plant Distributions, and Ecotone Dynamics in Changing Mountain Environments”. M. Dovciak (PI).
• USDA McIntire-Stennis Program; $61,784; 2018-2020. "Recent Changes and Future Trajectories of an Ecosystem at the Crossroads: Implications for Planning, Management, and Conservation of Long Island Pine Barrens". M. Dovciak (PI), T. Green, K. Schwager.
• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; $312,213; 2013-2018. “Evaluating Deer Impacts on Forests of New York State”. M. Dovciak (PI), J. Frair, J. Hurst, P. Curtis, P. Smallidge.
• NYSERDA; $200,000; 2015-2017. “Effects of acidic deposition and soil acidification on forest understory plant biodiversity in the Adirondack Mountains”. T. Sullivan (PI), M. Dovciak, G. Lawrence, T. McDonnell ($87,001 to M. Dovciak).
• Electric Power Research Institute; $414,551; 2012-2016. “Cost effectiveness of cleaning techniques for controlling human-based transport of invasive exotic plants on electric transmission line rights-of-way across New York”. C. Nowak (PI), M. Dovciak ($176,184 to M. Dovciak).

Selected Publications (* undergraduate, ** graduate, or *** postdoctoral mentee; Complete publication list is here):

• Langdon SF**, Dovciak M, Leopold DJ (2020) Tree encroachment varies by plant community in a large boreal peatland complex in the boreal-temperate ecotone of northeastern USA. Wetlands (2020). doi: 10.1007/s13157-020-01319-z
• Wason JW**, Beier CM, Battles JJ, Dovciak M (2019) Acidic deposition and climate warming as drivers of tree growth in high-elevation spruce-fir forests of the Northeastern US. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change 2: 63, doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2019.00063.
• Lesser MR***, Dovciak M, Wheat R, Curtis C, Smallidge P, Hurst J, Kramer D, Roberts M**, Frair J (2019) Modelling white-tailed deer impacts on forest regeneration to inform deer management options at landscape scales. Forest Ecology and Management 448: 395–408.
• Berdugo MB**, Dovciak M (2019) Bryophytes in fir waves: Forest canopy indicator species and functional diversity decline in canopy gaps. Journal of Vegetation Science, 30: 235–246.
• Zarfos MR**, Dovciak M, Lawrence GB, McDonnell TC, Sullivan TJ (2019) Plant richness and composition in hardwood forest understories vary along an acidic deposition and soil-chemical gradient in northeastern United States. Plant and Soil 438: 461–477.
• Berdugo MB**, Quant JM**, Wason JW**, Dovciak M (2018) Latitudinal patterns and environmental drivers of moss layer cover in extratropical forests. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 27: 1213–1224.
• 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.
• Wason JW**, Bevilacqua E, Dovciak M (2017) Climates on the move: Implications of climate warming for species distributions in mountains of the northeastern United States. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 246: 272–280.
• 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.
• Jaloviar P, Saniga M, Kucbel S, Pittner J, Vencurik J, Dovciak M (2017). Seven decades of change in a European old-growth forest following a stand-replacing wind disturbance: A long-term case study. Forest Ecology and Management 399: 197–205.
• Dovciak M, Hrivnak R, Ujhazy K, Gomory D (2015) Patterns of grassland invasions by trees: insights from demographic and genetic spatial analyses. Journal of Plant Ecology 8: 468–479.
• Alvarez-Yepiz JC**, Dovciak M (2015) Enhancing ecosystem function through conservation: threatened plants increase local carbon storage in tropical dry forests. Tropical Conservation Science 8: 999–1008.
• 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. Ecological Applications 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, 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, 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.