Abstract Narrative The student supported by this doctoral dissertation award will conduct fieldwork in north-central Peru to determine the relationship between forest fragmentation and tree population dynamics at the timberline. He will focus especially on obtaining measurements that will explain effects of the forest-grassland boundary on tree species composition, on the effects of altitude on forest mix, and on the responses of vegetation to natural and human disturbances. This project will yield important insights into processes of vegetational change in a fragile montane environment where small disturbances or changes in ecological conditions have major and far-reaching consequences. The anticipated findings will increase our understanding of the ecology of fragile and marginal environments; the results that will be obtained for the study area in Peru will be applicable to similar environments in other parts of the world.
