Alejandro A. Royo

USDA Forest Service
Northeastern Research Station
P.O. Box 267
Irvine , PA 16329-0267
Phone: (814) 563-1040
Fax: (814) 563-1048
E-mail: aroyo@fs.fed.us

Education:

• Ph.D. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; University of Pittsburgh, 2005

• M.S. Department of Biological Sciences; University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 1998

• B.A. Department of Biological Sciences; University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 1993

• Graduate Certificate of Latin American Studies; University of Pittsburgh, 2005

Career Summary:

I began my career with the Forest Service in 2002 as a participant in the Scientist Recruitment Initiative program with RWU NE-4152 in Warren, Pennsylvania. I am interested in testing basic ideas regarding the mechanisms that structure forest plant communities and forest succession. My main research focus investigates the role competition by understory plants and herbivory by ungulates and small mammals structure the diversity and abundance of tree seedlings in the understory prior to overstory gap formation. Additional research interests involve regeneration of forest systems following catastrophic wind disturbance and subsequent salvaging, the impact of soil-borne pathogens on early tree establishment, and elucidating the role mammalian herbivores play in the maintenance of herbaceous plant communities across a wide latitudinal gradient.  The majority of this work is in collaboration with other investigators and spans a large geographic gradient from the eastern deciduous forests of Pennsylvania and West Virginia as well as tropical forests in Costa Rica, and Panama.

Specific Experience:

• Research Ecologist, USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Branch Forestry Sciences Laboratory; Warren, PA. May 2002 - Present
• Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant, University of Pittsburgh, 1998-2002
• Teaching Assistant, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 1997 - 1998

Civic and Professional Affiliations:

• Ecological Society of America

Selected Publications:

• Royo, A. A. and W. P. Carson.  (2005).  The herb community of a tropical forest in central Panamá:  dynamics and impact of mammalian herbivores.  Oecologia. 145(1): 66 - 75.   

• Banta, J., A. Royo, and W.P. Carson (2005). Evidence for the ghost of herbivory past: Plant community refugia on boulders in the Allegheny National Forest. Natural Areas Journal. 25(1): 10 - 18.

• Comiskey, L., A. Royo, and W.P. Carson (2005). Deer browsing creates Rock Refugia Gardens on large boulders in the Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania. American Midland Naturalist. 154:201 - 206.

• Reinhart, K. O., A.A. Royo, W.H. van der Putten, and K. Clay (2005). Soil feedback and pathogen activity associated with Prunus serotina throughout its native geographic range. Journal of Ecology. 93:890 - 898.

• Lacey, E. P., A. Royo, R. Bates, D. Herr  (2001).  The role of population dynamic models in biogeographic studies: Illustrations from a study of Lobelia boykinii.  Castanea 66 (1-2):15-125.