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Ecology and Evolution
Taiwan
2025

D-Index & Metrics

Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
47
Citations
12324
World Ranking
4354
National Ranking
4

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2025 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in Taiwan Leader Award

Overview

I-Fang Sun is affiliated with National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan and has contributed extensively to the field of Environmental Science. Their research primarily focuses on the dynamics of ecology and vegetation, forest ecology and management, and the interactions within plant and animal studies. The scientist's work intersects key topics including species distribution and climate change, plant water relations and carbon dynamics, animal ecology and behavior studies, and wildlife ecology and conservation.

The scientist's recent publications cover a range of topics related to forest and community ecology. These include:

  • The interspecific growth-mortality trade-off is not a general framework for tropical forest community structure (2020, Nature Ecology & Evolution)
  • Arbuscular mycorrhizal trees influence the latitudinal beta-diversity gradient of tree communities in forests worldwide (2021, Nature Communications)
  • Distribution of biomass dynamics in relation to tree size in forests across the world (2022, New Phytologist)
  • Closing the life cycle of forest trees: The difficult dynamics of seedling-to-sapling transitions in a subtropical rainforest (2021, Journal of Ecology)
  • Consequences of spatial patterns for coexistence in species-rich plant communities (2021, Nature Ecology & Evolution)

I-Fang Sun collaborates frequently with a number of coauthors, with the most common partners including:

  • Chia-Hao Chang-Yang
  • Stuart J. Davies
  • Sean M. McMahon
  • Sisira Ediriweera
  • Jess K. Zimmerman

The scientist's publications appear regularly in several academic venues, notably:

  • Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
  • Nature Communications
  • Journal of Ecology
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
  • Nature Ecology & Evolution

Within Environmental Science, I-Fang Sun's scholarly contributions span multiple subfields that shape the understanding of ecosystems and their management. These subfields include Nature and Landscape Conservation, Global and Planetary Change, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Ecology, and Ecological Modeling.

Best Publications

  • Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

    William F. Laurance;William F. Laurance;D. Carolina Useche;Julio Rendeiro;Margareta Kalka

  • Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size.

    N. L. Stephenson;A. J. Das;Richard S. Condit;S. E. Russo

  • Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on competition

    Georges Kunstler;Georges Kunstler;Daniel Falster;David A. Coomes;Francis Hui

  • Partitioning beta diversity in a subtropical broad-leaved forest of China

    Pierre Legendre;Xiangcheng Mi;Haibao Ren;Keping Ma

  • CTFS-ForestGEO: A worldwide network monitoring forests in an era of global change

    Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira;Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira;Stuart J. Davies;Stuart J. Davies;Amy C. Bennett;Erika B. Gonzalez-Akre

  • Global importance of large‐diameter trees

    James A. Lutz;Tucker J. Furniss;Daniel J. Johnson;Stuart J. Davies

  • An estimate of the number of tropical tree species

    J. W. Ferry Slik;Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez;Shin-Ichiro Aiba;Patricia Alvarez-Loayza

  • Testing metabolic ecology theory for allometric scaling of tree size, growth and mortality in tropical forests

    Helene C Muller-Landau;Richard S Condit;Jerome Chave;Sean C Thomas

  • Scale-dependent relationships between tree species richness and ecosystem function in forests

    Ryan A. Chisholm;Helene C. Muller-Landau;Kassim Abdul Rahman;Daniel P. Bebber

  • Plant diversity increases with the strength of negative density dependence at the global scale.

    Joseph A. LaManna;Scott A. Mangan;Alfonso Alonso;Norman A. Bourg;Norman A. Bourg

  • Nonrandom Processes Maintain Diversity in Tropical Forests

    Christopher Wills;Kyle E. Harms;Richard Condit;David King

  • Species-area relationships explained by the joint effects of dispersal limitation and habitat heterogeneity.

    Guochun Shen;Mingjian Yu;Xin-Sheng Hu;Xiangcheng Mi

  • Comparing tropical forest tree size distributions with the predictions of metabolic ecology and equilibrium models

    Helene C Muller-Landau;Richard S Condit;Kyle E Harms;Kyle E Harms;Christian O Marks

  • ForestGEO: Understanding forest diversity and dynamics through a global observatory network

    Stuart J. Davies;Iveren Abiem;Kamariah Abu Salim;Salomón Aguilar

  • Relations of soil properties to topography and vegetation in a subtropical rain forest in southern Taiwan

    Zueng-Sang Chen;Chang-Fu Hsieh;Feei-Yu Jiang;Tsung-Hsin Hsieh

  • Spatial distributions of tree species in a subtropical forest of China

    Lin Li;Zhongliang Huang;Wanhui Ye;Honglin Cao

  • The variation of tree beta diversity across a global network of forest plots

    Miquel De Cáceres;Pierre Legendre;Renato Valencia;Min Cao

  • Point patterns of tree distribution determined by habitat heterogeneity and dispersal limitation

    Yi-Ching Lin;Li-Wan Chang;Kuoh-Cheng Yang;Hsiang-Hua Wang

  • Topographic and biotic regulation of aboveground carbon storage in subtropical broad-leaved forests of Taiwan

    Ryan W. McEwan;Yi-Ching Lin;I-Fang Sun;Chang-Fu Hsieh

  • Linking functional traits and demographic rates in a subtropical tree community: the importance of size dependency

    Yoshiko Iida;Yoshiko Iida;Yoshiko Iida;Takashi S. Kohyama;Nathan G. Swenson;Sheng-Hsin Su

  • Temporal variability of forest communities: empirical estimates of population change in 4000 tree species

    Ryan A. Chisholm;Ryan A. Chisholm;Richard Condit;K. Abd. Rahman;Patrick J. Baker

  • Temporal coexistence mechanisms contribute to the latitudinal gradient in forest diversity

    Jacob Usinowicz;Chia-Hao Chang-Yang;Yu-Yun Chen;James S Clark

Frequent Co-Authors

Stephen P. Hubbell
Stephen P. Hubbell University of California, Los Angeles
Stuart J. Davies
Stuart J. Davies Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
David Kenfack
David Kenfack Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Keping Ma
Keping Ma Chinese Academy of Sciences
Fangliang He
Fangliang He University of Alberta
Richard Condit
Richard Condit Independent Scientist / Consultant, US
Zhanqing Hao
Zhanqing Hao Northwestern Polytechnical University
S. Joseph Wright
S. Joseph Wright Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Sylvester Tan
Sylvester Tan Smithsonian Institution
Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin
Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin Royal Forest Department

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Related Online Degrees & Career Pathways

Studying Ecology and Evolution can open doors to a wide range of interdisciplinary careers in the USA. Many related fields now offer flexible, accredited online programs that let you specialize further or pivot into applied roles. For example, those interested in community and environmental health may be drawn to social work online master's programs, which often include coursework on societal impacts of environmental issues.

If you’re fascinated by animal or human behavior and statistics, consider a masters in psychology online degree. Those attracted to counseling and support roles can explore an online masters degree in mental health counseling, which may be relevant for professionals addressing eco-anxiety or trauma related to environmental change.

For students keen on environmental law and policy enforcement, forensic psychology masters programs offer specialized training, highlighting how ecological science intersects with justice systems. These pathways showcase the diverse options for further study and meaningful careers beyond traditional ecology and evolution roles.

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