9316316 Burnham PI will investigate modern and fossil angiosperm climbers (lianas). Objectives are to determine the diagnostic foliage characteristics of climbing angiosperm families, to correlate basic climatic, habitat, and forest structure characteristics with climber diversity, abundance, and morphology, and to use these features of systematics and ecology to characterize the forested habitats of two distinct sites in the early Tertiary of western North America (Paleocene Raton Formation, NM; Eocene Puget Group, WA). Studies of modern sites include field work in Central and South America. Results will be important to studies of plant community evolution, with implications for the impact of deforestation and global climate change on vegetation.
