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Ecology and Evolution
Panama
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
127
Citations
63204
World Ranking
76
National Ranking
1

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in Panama Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in Panama Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in Panama Leader Award

Overview

S. Joseph Wright is affiliated with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and has a substantial body of work in environmental science and agricultural and biological sciences. Their research primarily focuses on ecology, vegetation dynamics, and plant science within tropical forest environments.

The scientist's publication record features frequent contributions to journals such as New Phytologist, Ecology, OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information), Journal of Ecology, and bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory).

Coauthors with whom they have frequently collaborated include Helene C. Muller-Landau, Jess K. Zimmerman, María Uriarte, Nancy C. Garwood, and Stuart J. Davies.

Their work is concentrated in these major fields of study:

  • Environmental Science
  • Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Subfields of study within these areas include:

  • Nature and Landscape Conservation
  • Global and Planetary Change
  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Ecological Modeling
  • Plant Science

The main research topics covered in their publications are:

  • Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
  • Plant and animal studies
  • Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
  • Forest ecology and management
  • Species Distribution and Climate Change
  • Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
  • Rangeland and Wildlife Management

Selected recent papers include:

  • Benchmarking and parameter sensitivity of physiological and vegetation dynamics using the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (FATES) at Barro Colorado Island, Panama, 2020, Biogeosciences
  • Hydraulically-vulnerable trees survive on deep-water access during droughts in a tropical forest, 2021, New Phytologist
  • Functional recovery of secondary tropical forests, 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset, 2022, Scientific Data
  • The interspecific growth-mortality trade-off is not a general framework for tropical forest community structure, 2020, Nature Ecology & Evolution

In addition to articles, S. Joseph Wright has contributed to book publications. A notable publication is The First 100 Years of Research on Barro Colorado: Plant and Ecosystem Science (Volumes 1 and 2), published in 2024 by Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.

Best Publications

  • The global spectrum of plant form and function

    Sandra Myrna Díaz;Jens Kattge;Johannes H. C. Cornelissen;Ian J. Wright

  • TRY - a global database of plant traits

    J. Kattge;S. Díaz;S. Lavorel;I. C. Prentice

  • Light-Gap Disturbances, Recruitment Limitation, and Tree Diversity in a Neotropical Forest

    S. P. Hubbell;R. B. Foster;S. T. O'Brien;K. E. Harms

  • TRY plant trait database : Enhanced coverage and open access

    Jens Kattge;Gerhard Bönisch;Sandra Díaz;Sandra Lavorel

  • Plant diversity in tropical forests: a review of mechanisms of species coexistence

    Joseph S. Wright

  • The Phenology of Tropical Forests: Adaptive Significance and Consequences for Primary Consumers*

    Carel P. van Schaik;John W. Terborgh;S. Joseph Wright

  • Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

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

  • Pervasive density-dependent recruitment enhances seedling diversity in a tropical forest

    Harms Ke;Wright Sj;Calderón O;Hernández A

  • Functional traits and the growth–mortality trade-off in tropical trees

    S. Joseph Wright;Kaoru Kitajima;Kaoru Kitajima;Nathan J. B. Kraft;Peter B. Reich

  • Tropical Forests in a Changing Environment

    S. Joseph Wright

  • Plastic Phenotypic Response to Light of 16 Congeneric Shrubs From a Panamanian Rainforest

    Fernando Valladares;S. Joseph Wright;Eloisa Lasso;Kaoru Kitajima

  • Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on competition

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

  • ARE FUNCTIONAL TRAITS GOOD PREDICTORS OF DEMOGRAPHIC RATES? EVIDENCE FROM FIVE NEOTROPICAL FORESTS

    L. Poorter;S. J. Wright;H. Paz;D. D. Ackerly

  • The Future of Tropical Forest Species

    S. Joseph Wright;Helene C. Muller-Landau

  • Potassium, phosphorus, or nitrogen limit root allocation, tree growth, or litter production in a lowland tropical forest

    S. Joseph Wright;Joseph B. Yavitt;Nina Wurzburger;Nina Wurzburger;Benjamin L. Turner

  • Relationships between phyllosphere bacterial communities and plant functional traits in a neotropical forest.

    Steven W. Kembel;Steven W. Kembel;Timothy K. O’Connor;Holly K. Arnold;Stephen P. Hubbell

  • 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

  • A global method for calculating plant CSR ecological strategies applied across biomes world-wide

    Simon Pierce;Daniel Negreiros;Bruno E. L. Cerabolini;Jens Kattge

  • Multiple nutrients limit litterfall and decomposition in a tropical forest.

    Michael E. Kaspari;Michael E. Kaspari;Milton N. Garcia;Kyle Edward Harms;Kyle Edward Harms;Mirna Santana

  • Global patterns of leaf mechanical properties

    Yusuke Onoda;Mark Westoby;Peter B. Adler;Amy M.F. Choong

  • Poachers Alter Mammal Abundance, Seed Dispersal, and Seed Predation in a Neotropical Forest

    S. Joseph Wright;Horacio Zeballos;Ivan Dominguez;Marina M. Gallardo

Frequent Co-Authors

Helene C. Muller-Landau
Helene C. Muller-Landau Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Stephen P. Hubbell
Stephen P. Hubbell University of California, Los Angeles
Kaoru Kitajima
Kaoru Kitajima Kyoto University
Benjamin L. Turner
Benjamin L. Turner Gyeongsang National University
Richard Condit
Richard Condit Independent Scientist / Consultant, US
Patrick A. Jansen
Patrick A. Jansen Wageningen University & Research
Kyle E. Harms
Kyle E. Harms Louisiana State University
Matteo Detto
Matteo Detto Princeton University
Joseph B. Yavitt
Joseph B. Yavitt Cornell University
Stefan A. Schnitzer
Stefan A. Schnitzer Marquette University

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