Erick Lundgren

I am a postdoctoral researcher focused on the ecologies emerging in modern ecosystems, and how these contrast with those of the prehistoric past.

I am interested in studying these phenomena in the context of Earth's history and with an eye to the influence of cultural values on how we interpret biotic change. We are in the midst of the Great Reshuffling: a historically unprecedented shuffling of species, from introductions but also from the migration of species in response to climate and landscape change. This reshuffling is only going to accelerate: climate projections put us on a course to the Eocene—a time when Greenland was a warm-temperate forest and New Jersey was tropical. Will future novel, no-analog communities function similar to native, heirloom communities and will they support biodiversity and human societies?