Kenneth Feeley

Dr. Kenneth Feeley is a Professor in the Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami. His research focuses on tropical ecology, climate change impacts on forests, and biodiversity conservation across elevational gradients.

• Specializes in species distribution shifts under warming
• Studies urban heat island effects on plant physiology
• Investigates forest resilience in Amazonian and Andean regions

Research highlights include long-term studies of 66,000 trees across 3,500m elevation gradients, discovery of reduced thermophilization rates in tropical forests, and analysis of plant endemism in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. His work on the Boiling River's thermal gradient revealed 11% diversity loss per 1°C temperature rise.

Current projects examine:

• Climate-driven growth patterns in South Florida species
• Functional trait composition across Amazonian forests
• Species migration dynamics in Mesoamerican cloud forests