Dr. Ian Ramsey McFadden

Research interests

I'm broadly interested in understanding, predicting and conserving the dynamics of biodiversity across large scales of space and time. In my research I combine fieldwork, lab work and big data to create statistical and mechanistic models of biodiversity dynamics. I study both plants and animals, either in isolation or via their interactions, and perform detailed local studies in tropical forests, as well as eco-evolutionary analyses of biotas at continental and global scales. My current research areas are:

• The global ecology of species interactions, with a focus on seed dispersal 
• How processes interact to create local, regional and global patterns of biodiversity 
• Using science to guide biodiversity conservation, restoration and policy decisions

Education

PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2019

BS, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2008

HS, Visual and Fine Arts, San Francisco School of the Arts, 2004

Research positions

Swiss NSF postdoctoral fellow, University of Amsterdam, starting September 2022

Postdoctoral researcher, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 2019 - present 

Long-term visitor, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zürich, 2019 - present

NSF graduate research fellow, UCLA and University of Maryland, 2012 - 2016

Research assistant, University of California Berkeley, ESPM Dpt., 2010 - 2011

Independent researcher, Borneo, funded by Harvard Deland Award, 2008 - 2009
 

Publications, reports and preprints  [Google Scholarprofile]

2022

Ian McFadden, Susanne Fritz, Niklaus Zimmermann, Loïc Pellissier, Daniel Kissling, Joseph Tobias, Matthias Schleuning, Catherine Graham. Global plant-frugivore trait matching is shaped by climate and biogeographic history. Ecology Letters, 25:686-696. [ Link ]
*Invited for special issue on avian functional traits featured on the cover; WSL press release

Alke Voskamp, Susanne Fritz, Valerie Köcke, Matthias Biber, Timo Brockmeyer, Bastian Bertzky, Matthew Forrest, Angela Gaylard, Allie Goldstein, Scott Henderson, Thomas Hickler, Christian Hof, Thomas Kastner, Stefanie Lang, Peter Manning, Mike Mascia, Ian McFadden, Aidin Niamir, Monica Noon, Brian O’Donell, Mark Opel, Georg Schwede, Peyton West, Christof Schenck, Katrin Böhning-Gaese. How to resolve conflicting conservation objectives: A decision support tool for the global selection of multi-purpose protected areas. bioRxiv [ Preprint ]

2021

Ian McFadden, Susanne Fritz, Niklaus Zimmermann, Loïc Pellissier, Daniel Kissling, Joseph Tobias, Matthias Schleuning, Catherine Graham. Global plant-frugivore trait matching is shaped by climate and biogeographic history. bioRxiv. [ Preprint ]

Luiz de Queiroz, Carmela Doenz, Florian Altermatt, Roman Alther, Špela Borko, Martin Gossner, Catherine Graham, Blake Matthews, Ian McFadden, Loïc Pellissier, Thomas Schmitt, Oliver Selz, Soraya Villalba, Lukas Rüber, Niklaus Zimmermann, Ole Seehausen. The interaction of climate history and evolution impacts alpine biodiversity assembly differently in freshwater and on land. bioRxiv. [ Preprint ]

2020

Ian McFadden, Marco Coelho, Rafael Wüest, Fernanda Cassemiro, Niklaus Zimmermann, Loïc Pellissier, Thiago Rangel, Catherine Graham. Global hotspots of recent and ancestral turnover in birds. Research Square. [Preprint ]

Jens Kattge, Gerhard Bönisch, Sandra Díaz, Sandra Lavorel, Ian Prentice... Ian McFadden (729 authors total)... and Christian Wirth. TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access. Global Change Biology, 26: 119-188. [ Link ]
*Invited contribution to '25 years of Global Change Biology'; Commentary by Fraser 2020

2019

Ian McFadden, Brody Sandel, Constantinos Tsirogiannis, Naia Morueta-Holme, Jens-Christian Svenning, Brian Enquist, Nathan Kraft. Temperature shapes opposing latitudinal gradients of plant taxonomic and phylogenetic β diversity. Ecology Letters, 22: 1126–1135. [ Link ]
 *Selected as cover article

Claire Fortunel, Ian McFadden, Renato Valencia, Nathan Kraft. Neither species geographic range size, climatic envelope nor intraspecific leaf trait variability capture habitat specialization in a hyperdiverse Amazonian forest. Biotropica, 51: 304-310. [ Link ]

2018

Ian McFadden, Megan Bartlett, Thorsten Wiegand, Benjamin Turner, Lawren Sack, Renato Valencia, Nathan Kraft. Disentangling the functional trait correlates of spatial aggregation in tropical forest trees. Ecology, 100: E02591. [ Link ]

Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Mary Arroyo (Coordinating Lead Authors), Robin Abell, David Ackerly (and 20+ Lead Authors), Marcelo Aizen, Diva Amon... Ian McFadden (and 50+ Contributing Authors). Chapter 3: Status, trends and future dynamics of biodiversity and ecosystems underpinning nature’s contributions to people. In The IPBES Regional Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the Americas. Rice, J., Seixas, C. S., Zaccagnini, M. E., Bedoya-Gaitán, M., and Valderrama, N. (eds.). Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn, Germany, pp. 171-293. [ Link ]
*Commentary and news coverage by Nature, BBC, the Guardian, National Geographic

Before 2018

Alejandro Estrada, Ian McFadden, Rhett Butler. 2011. Beginning a 4th year of Tropical Conservation Science with a new publishing platform. Tropical Conservation Science, 4: i-iii. [ Link ]
*Introduced new journal logo designed by I. McFadden

In revision, in review and submitted

Ian McFadden, Marco Coelho, Rafael Wüest, Fernanda Cassemiro, Niklaus Zimmermann, Loïc Pellissier, Thiago Rangel, Catherine Graham. Global hotspots of recent and ancestral turnover in birds. In revision. [Preprint ]

Luiz de Queiroz, Carmela Doenz, Florian Altermatt, Roman Alther, Špela Borko, Jakob Brodersen, Martin Gossner, Catherine Graham, Blake Matthews, Ian McFadden, Loïc Pellissier, Thomas Schmitt, Oliver Selz, Soraya Villalba, Lukas Rüber, Niklaus Zimmermann, Ole Seehausen. The interaction of climate history and evolution impacts alpine biodiversity assembly differently in freshwater and on land. In revision. [ Preprint ]

Esteban Guevara, Carolina Bello, Cristian Poveda, Ian McFadden, Matthias Schleuning, Loïc Pellisier, Catherine Graham. Hummingbird community structure and nectar resources modulate the response of interspecific competition to forest conversion. In revision. 

Imran Khaliq, Christian Rixen, Florian Zellweger, Blake Matthews, Catherine Graham, Martin Gossner, Ian McFadden, Laura Antao, Jakob Broderson, Shyamolina Ghosh, Francesco Pomati, Ole Seehausen, Tobias Roth, Thomas Sattler, Sarah Supp, Niklaus Zimmermann, Anita Narwani. Warming-related community turnover is weaker in freshwater than in terrestrial ecosystems. In review.

Alke Voskamp, Susanne Fritz, Valerie Köcke, Matthias Biber, Timo Brockmeyer, Bastian Bertzky, Matthew Forrest, Angela Gaylard, Allie Goldstein, Scott Henderson, Thomas Hickler, Christian Hof, Thomas Kastner, Stefanie Lang, Peter Manning, Mike Mascia, Ian McFadden, Aidin Niamir, Monica Noon, Brian O’Donell, Mark Opel, Georg Schwede, Peyton West, Christof Schenck, Katrin Böhning-Gaese. How to resolve conflicting conservation objectives: A decision support tool for the global selection of multi-purpose protected areas. In review. 

Ian McFadden, Agnieszka Sendek, Morgane Brosse, Peter Bach, Marco Baity-Jesi, Janine Bolliger, Kurt Bollmann, Eckehard Brockerhoff, Giulia Donati, Friederike Gebert, Shyamolina Ghosh, Hsi-Cheng Ho, Imran Khaliq, Jelle Lever, Ivana Logar, Helen Moor, Daniel Odermatt, Loïc Pellissier, Luiz de Queiroz, Christian Rixen, Nele Schuwirth, Ole Seehausen, Ryan Shipley, Cornelia Twining, Yann Vitasse, Christoph Vorburger, Mark Wong, Niklaus Zimmermann, Martin Gossner, Blake Matthews, Catherine Graham, Florian Altermatt, Anita Narwani. Linking human impacts to community processes in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. Submitted. 

In preparation

Alex Skeels, Lydian Boschmann, Ian McFadden, Wilhelmine Bach, Oscar Hagen, Thomas Keggin, Walter Jetz, Loïc Pellissier. Mechanistic modelling of biotic exchanges across Wallace’s Line.

Loïc Pellissier, Lydian Boschman, Catherine Graham, Oskar Hagen, Roland Jansson, Lisha Lyu, Ian McFadden, Thiago Rangel, Christopher Scotese, Zhiheng Wang, Niklaus Zimmermann, Charles Novaes de Santana, Albouy Camille. Looking beyond latitude: Quantifying longitudinal diversity patterns to infer biodiversity dynamics through time.

Open datasets and code

Global avian frugivore bill gape size dataset, Dryad 
Data from: McFadden et al. Ecology Letters 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tqjq2bw05

Global plant-frugivore trait matching data and code, Zenodo / GitHub repository
Code and data to reproduce: McFadden et al. Ecology Letters 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5494437

Data from: McFadden et al. 2019 Ecology Letters, Dryad dataset 
New World plant phylogeny and occurence matrix 
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n42g840

Leaf Drought Tolerance and Mechanical Toughness Dataset, TRY online plant trait database
Trait data for 454 Amazonian tree species
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17871/TRY.19

Leaf Intraspecific Trait Variation Dataset, TRY online plant trait database (co-PI with N. Kraft)
Functional trait data for 43 Amazonian trees with high intraspecific sampling of individuals
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17871/TRY.22

Trait Correlates of Spatial Aggregation, code repository from McFadden et al. 2018 Ecology
Functions to implement decision tree for spatial point process models of tree stem patterns
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2092062

UCLA Trait Transects, GitHub data, code and figure repository
From UCLA EEB122 ‘discussion-lab’ curricula developed by I. McFadden
Link: https://github.com/IanMcFadden/UCLA_Trait_Transects