Jonathan Myers

Jonathan Myers is a Professor of Biology and Program Director of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Washington University. He holds a PhD from Louisiana State University and leads research at Tyson Research Center, an 800-hectare environmental field station. His work focuses on understanding biodiversity patterns across scales, including community assembly, eco-evolutionary processes, and responses to environmental change. Myers utilizes field experiments, global forest networks (e.g., CTFS-ForestGEO), and synthetic datasets to explore how dispersal, niche selection, and species pools shape biodiversity gradients. His lab studies ecosystems ranging from temperate Ozark forests to Amazonian rainforests, emphasizing functional traits and mycorrhizal associations as drivers of diversity.

Key research themes include: 1) mechanisms of community assembly across scales; 2) biodiversity responses to climate change; 3) roles of negative density dependence in species coexistence; and 4) ecological metabolomics in plant interactions. Myers has published over 85 peer-reviewed articles in top journals like Science, Nature, and Ecology Letters. His work has received recognition including the 2022 SPEED grant and media coverage in Smithsonian Magazine and Washington University News. Current projects explore forest migration dynamics, chemical defense diversity, and climate refugia in Andean forests.

• Education: PhD in Ecology, Louisiana State University
• Lab Affiliations: Myers Ecology Lab, Tyson Research Center
• Grants: NSF grants, CTFS-ForestGEO collaborations