Beth A. Middleton

Global climate change potentially challenges the migration capabilities of species along latitudinal gradients. My research focuses on the biotic constraints of species to global climate change both from a functional and regeneration perspective, especially in baldcypress swamps. My studies on plant regeneration have looked at dispersal constraints at regional and local levels in the northern extreme of the cypress swamp region (southern Illinois), to predict how readily species may shift in the event of climate change. Many of my students have worked on plant regeneration dynamics, particularly as related to seed dispersal, seed bank and seedling relationships to seasonal hydrodynamics, i.e., floodpulsing. Also related to global climate change, we have studied production and decomposition and its relationship to carbon accumulation/sequestration in mangrove (Belize), baldcypress (southern Illinois), monsoonal (India) and forested wetlands (Turkey).

Invasive species continue to pose a threat to biodiversity worldwide. My students and I have studied the life history requirements of species in their native vs. invasive habitats. For example, purple loosestrife in its native Turkey grows in discrete patches along streams, whereas it is capable of achieving nearly mono-dominant states in wetlands in North America. Latitudinal studies of climatic constraints of invasive species are just underway.

My Ph.D. dissertation was on goose grazing in monsoonal wetlands in India, and I continue to study grazing dynamics and its relationship to succession in wetlands. One long term study examines the invasion of shrubby species (e.g., Cornus sericea) in sedge meadows in Wisconsin and the use of fire to reduce these shrubs. This study started with my senior thesis project as an offshoot of my earlier observations of cattle and the changes I observed in pastured sedge meadows. One of my students has worked on the effects of cattle in a national park in Madagascar, and another in Costa Rica. The project in Madagascar makes predictions of cattle grazing intensity using a GIS mapping procedure, and then testing that hypothesis in cloud forest bogs grazed by cattle.

Publications: Books:
  1. Middleton, B.A. (ed). 2002. Flood pulsing in wetlands: Restoring the balance. John Wiley and Sons, New York.
  2. Middleton, B.A. 1999. Wetland restoration, flood pulsing and disturbance dynamics. John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Articles:
  1. Middleton, B. A. Soil seed banks and the potential restoration of forested wetlands after farming. Journal of Applied Ecology: accepted.
  2. Middleton, B. A. 2002. Nonequilibrium dynamics of sedge meadows grazed by cattle in southern Wisconsin. Plant Ecology 161: 89-110.
  3. Xiao, N., D.A. Bennett, D.A., B. Middleton, and K. Fessel. 2002. SISM: a multiscale model cypress swamp regeneration. Geographical & Environmental Modelling 6: 99-116.
  4. Middleton, B.A. 2002. Winter burning and the reduction of Cornus sericea in sedge meadows in southern Wisconsin. Restoration Ecology 10:1-8.
  5. Middleton, B.A. and K.L. McKee. 2001. Degradation of mangrove tissues and implications for peat formation in Belizean island forests. Journal of Ecology 89:818-828.
  6. Middleton, B. A. 2000. Hydrochory, seed banks, and regeneration dynamics across landscape boundaries in a forested wetland. Plant Ecology 146:169-184.
  7. Middleton, B.A., 1999, Succession and herbivory in monsoonal wetlands. Wetland Ecology and Management 6: 189-202.
Feel free to contact me at:
Beth Middleton National Wetlands Research Center, 700 Cajundome Blvd., Lafayette, LA 70506, telephone (337) 266-8618.