Ruddell Benjamin L.

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Last Name
Ruddell
First Name
Benjamin L.
ORCID
0000-0003-2967-9339

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  • Article
    Building a global ecosystem research infrastructure to address global grand challenges for macrosystem ecology
    (American Geophysical Union, 2022-04-25) Loescher, Henry W. ; Vargas, Rodrigo ; Mirtl, Michael ; Morris, Beryl ; Pauw, Johan C. ; Yu, Xiubo ; Kutsch, Werner ; Mabee, Paula M. ; Tang, Jianwu ; Ruddell, Benjamin L. ; Pulsifer, Peter L. ; Bäck, Jaana K. ; Zacharias, Steffen ; Grant, Mark ; Feig, Gregor ; Zhang, Leiming ; Waldmann, Christoph ; Genazzio, Melissa A.
    The development of several large-, “continental”-scale ecosystem research infrastructures over recent decades has provided a unique opportunity in the history of ecological science. The Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) is an integrated network of analogous, but independent, site-based ecosystem research infrastructures (ERI) dedicated to better understand the function and change of indicator ecosystems across global biomes. Bringing together these ERIs, harmonizing their respective data and reducing uncertainties enables broader cross-continental ecological research. It will also enhance the research community capabilities to address current and anticipate future global scale ecological challenges. Moreover, increasing the international capabilities of these ERIs goes beyond their original design intent, and is an unexpected added value of these large national investments. Here, we identify specific global grand challenge areas and research trends to advance the ecological frontiers across continents that can be addressed through the federation of these cross-continental-scale ERIs.
  • Article
    Homogenization of plant diversity, composition, and structure in North American urban yards
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2018-02-15) Pearse, William D. ; Cavender-Bares, Jeannine ; Hobbie, Sarah E. ; Avolio, Meghan L. ; Bettez, Neil D. ; Roy Chowdhury, Rinku ; Darling, Lindsay ; Groffman, Peter M. ; Grove, J. Morgan ; Hall, Sharon J. ; Heffernan, James B. ; Learned, Jennifer ; Neill, Christopher ; Nelson, Kristen ; Pataki, Diane E. ; Ruddell, Benjamin L. ; Steele, Meredith K. ; Trammell, Tara
    Urban ecosystems are widely hypothesized to be more ecologically homogeneous than natural ecosystems. We argue that urban plant communities assemble from a complex mix of horticultural and regional species pools, and evaluate the homogenization hypothesis by comparing cultivated and spontaneously occurring urban vegetation to natural area vegetation across seven major U.S. cities. There was limited support for homogenization of urban diversity, as the cultivated and spontaneous yard flora had greater numbers of species than natural areas, and cultivated phylogenetic diversity was also greater. However, urban yards showed evidence of homogenization of composition and structure. Yards were compositionally more similar across regions than were natural areas, and tree density was less variable in yards than in comparable natural areas. This homogenization of biodiversity likely reflects similar horticultural source pools, homeowner preferences, and management practices across U.S. cities.