Philipson, Christopher David, Dr.

Research Interests

I am interested by the diversity of natural ecosystems and understanding the processes that maintain biodiversity. I study how individual trees, their traits and rates, respond to environmental gradients. Understanding how individuals respond to altered environmental gradients will help us predict how forests will respond to environmental change. I aim for our research to be used to inform management of ecosystems for both biodiversity and maximizing many different ecosystem services such as carbon storage. My predominant area of research is Malaysian Borneo where I study the growth, survival and traits of Dipterocarpaceae seedlings and trees with a view to improved management of degraded forest systems.

Publications

• Melissa A. Dawes, Christopher D. Philipson, Patrick Fonti, Peter Bebi, Stephan Hättenschwiler, Frank Hagedorn and Christian Rixen (2015) Soil warming and CO2enrichment induce biomass shifts in alpine tree line vegetation. Global Change Biologycall_made. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12819
• Christopher D. Philipson, Daisy H Dent, Michael J O'Brien, Juliette Chamagne, Dzaeman Dzulkifli, Reuben Nilus, Sam Philips, Glen Reynolds, Philippe Saner & Andy Hector (2014). A trait‐based trade‐off between growth and mortality: evidence from 15 tropical tree species using size‐specific relative growth rates. Ecology & Evolution.vertical_align_bottom
  
• O’Brien, M.J., Leuzinger, S., Philipson, C. D., Tay, J. and Hector, A. (2014). Plant non-structural carbohydrates delay drought-induced mortality by prolonging hydraulic function. Nature Climate Changecall_made
  
  
• Alain F Zuur, Christopher D Philipson, Andy Hector, Elena N Ieno & Joseph M Hilbe Chapter 6 in ‘A Beginner's Guide to GLM and GLMM with R’. Highland Statistics Ltd. GLMM for strictly positive data: biomass of rainforest trees.call_made
  
• Lars Gamfeldt, Tord Snäll, Robert Bagchi, Micael Jonsson, Lena Gustafsson, Petter Kjellander, María C. Ruiz-Jaen, Mats Fröberg, Johan Stendahl, Christopher D. Philipson, Grzegorz Mikusiński, Erik Andersson, Bertil Westerlund, Henrik Andrén, Fredrik Moberg, Jon Moen & Jan Bengtsson. (2013) Higher levels of multiple ecosystem services are found in forests with more tree species. Nature Communications 4, 1340call_made.DOI:10.1038/ncomms2328
• Turnbull LA, CD Philipson, DW Purves, RL Atkinson, J Cunniff, A Goodenough, Y Hautier, J Houghton, TR Marthews, CP Osborne, C Paul-Victor, KE Rose, P Saner, SH Taylor, FI Woodward, A Hector and M Rees. (2012) Plant growth rates and seed size: a re-evaluation. Ecology 93, 1283-1289call_made.DOI:10.1890/11-0261.1
• Christopher D. Philipson, Philippe Saner, Toby R. Marthews, Reuben Nilus, Glen Reynolds, Lindsay A. Turnbull, Andy Hector (2012) Light-based regeneration niches: evidence from 21 dipterocarp species using size-specific RGRs. Biotropica.call_made doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2011.00833.x
• Robert Bagchi, Christopher D. Philipson, Eleanor M. Slade, Andy Hector, Sam Phillips, Jerome F. Villanueva, Owen T. Lewis, Christopher H. C. Lyal, Reuben Nilus, Adzley Madran, Julie D. Scholes, and Malcolm C. Press (2011). Impacts of logging on density-dependent predation of dipterocarp seeds in a South East Asian rainforest. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 366 (1582) 3246-3255call_made. doi:10.1098/rstb.2011.0034
• Andy Hector, Christopher Philipson, Philippe Saner, Juliette Chamagne, Dzaeman Dzulkifli, Michael O'Brien, Jake L. Snaddon, Philip Ulok, Maja Weilenmann, Glen Reynolds and H. Charles J. Godfray (2011). The Sabah Biodiversity Experiment: a long term test of the role of tree diversity in restoring tropical forest structure and functioning. Phil Trans R Soc B 366 (1582): 3303 - 3315call_made. doi:10.1098/rstb.2011.0094
• Saner P, Philipson C, Ong RC, Majalap N, Egli S, Hector A. (2011) Positive effects of ectomycorrhiza on growth of seedlings of a tropical tree across a range of forest floor light conditions. Plant and Soil 338: 411 - 421call_made. doi:10.1007/s11104-010-0555-3
• Hautier Y, Saner P, Philipson C, Bagchi R, Ong RC, Andy Hector (2010) Effects of Seed Predators of Different Body Size on Seed Mortality in Bornean Logged Forestcall_made. PLoS ONE 5(7): e11651. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011651
  

Curriculum Vitae

2014 – current Visiting Scientist at WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF. Mountain Ecosystems group,  Community Ecology.

2009 - 2013 Post-doctoral research assistant, Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Switzerland

2004 - 2009 Ph.D. student at the Institute of Environmental Sciences, University of Zurich

2000 - 2004 Bachelors degree (Honors) University of Aberdeen