Research: I have very broadly defined research interests ranging from reproductive ecology to community ecology of plants. I have also become interested recently in human ecology. I am particularly interested in the development of new hypotheses and conceptual models for the interpretation of adaptive strategies for growth, survival and reproduction in plants along environmental gradients and how these strategies help to explain patterns in the abundance, distribution and diversity of organisms, taxa, biomass and productivity within and between habitats.

 
»» Lab Website »« email: aarssenl@queensu.ca »« telephone: 613-533-6133 ««

Some Recent Publications: 

• Dombroskie, S.L. and L.W. Aarssen 2012. The leaf size / number trade-off within species and within plants for woody angiosperms. Plant Ecology and Evolution 145: 38-45
• Yan, E-R., Milla, R. & L.W. Aarssen. 2012 Functional relationships of leafing intensity to plant height, growth form and leaf habit. Acta Oecologica 41: 20-29.
• Waugh, J.M. and L.W. Aarssen. 2012. Size distributions and dispersions along a 485-year chronosequence for sand dune vegetation. Ecology and Evolution 2: 719-726.
• Aarssen, L.W. 2012. Reducing size to increasing number: a hypothesis for compound leaves. Ideas in Ecology and Evolution 5: 1-5.
• Scott, S.L. and L.W. Aarssen. 2012. Within-species leaf size / number trade-offs in herbaceous angiosperms. Botany 90: 223-235.
• Waugh, J.M. and L.W. Aarssen. 2011. Spatial indicators of plant community assembly from a 453-yr sand-dune chronosequence. Plant Ecology and Diversity 4: 153-165.
• Tracey, A. and L.W. Aarssen. 2011. Competition and body size in plants: the between-species trade-off for maximum potential versus minimum reproductive threshold size. Journal of Plant Ecology 4: 115-122.
• Dombroskie, S. and L.W. Aarssen. 2010 Within-genus size distributions in angiosperms: Small is better. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 12: 283-293.
• Schamp, B. and L.W. Aarssen. 2010. The role of plant species size in invasibility: a field experiment. Oecologia 162: 995-1004.
• Whitman, T. and L.W. Aarssen. 2010. The leaf size/number trade-off in herbaceous angiosperms. Journal of Plant Ecology 3: 49-58.