Brody Sandel

Dr. Brody Sandel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Santa Clara University, where he researches human impacts on ecosystems using biodiversity databases, satellite measurements, and field studies. His work spans plants, mammals and birds, examining climate change since the Last Glacial Maximum and plant evolution over millions of years.

Education includes:

• PhD in Integrative Biology from University of California, Berkeley
• BA in Biology from Carleton College

Research examines global patterns of biodiversity, plant functional traits, and ecological responses to climate change. He contributes to large collaborative databases including sPlot (global vegetation), BIEN (biodiversity), and TRY (plant traits), and develops analytical tools for ecological and evolutionary analysis.

Publications show strong focus on macroecology, phylogenetic diversity, and trait-environment relationships. Recent work emphasizes global patterns in vascular plant diversity and functional trait variation across environmental gradients.

Leads the Sandel Lab, collaborating with computer scientists to develop novel analytical approaches for complex ecological datasets. Research integrates paleoclimatology, biogeography, and community ecology to understand long-term ecosystem dynamics.