Office: Biology Physics Building, Room 125

Tel: 860-486-1889

Fax: 860-486-6364

E-mail: robert.capers@uconn.edu

Postal Address:
The University of Connecticut
75 N. Eagleville Road, Unit 3043
Storrs, CT 06269-3043
U.S.A.

Research

I study plant community structure and dynamics - what plants occur in particular areas (and why others do not) and how (and why) that changes over time. I do this research in temperate marshes and lakes, focusing on the relatively simple communities of submerged aquatic plants, and in tropical forests, focusing on the hyperdiverse communities of tree seedlings, which represent the future of the forest. Most recently, I have begun to study alpine and subalpine plant communities of the Northeast. Here we are looking for evidence of changes in species composition that might be related to warming, nitrogen deposition or changes in precipitation.
   

Publications Chazdon, R.L., B. Finegan, R.S. Capers, B. Salgado-Negret, F. Casanoves, V. Boukili, and N. Norden. Functional group composition of trees during tropical forest succession in Northeastern Costa Rica. In press with Biotropica. Capers, R.S., R. Selsky, and G.J. Bugbee. In review. Integrating environmental and spatial processes in aquatic plant communities. Les, D.H. and R.S. Capers. Glossostigma treatment. In press with Flora of North America. Vol. 17. Capers, R.S., R. Selsky, G.J. Bugbee and J. White. 2009. Species richness of native and invasive aquatic plants responds to abiotic environmental variables, human activity. Botany 87:306-314.Download pdf Capers, R. S. 2008. Review of Flora of the Northeast: A Manual of the Vascular Flora of New England and Adjacent New York, D.W. Magee and H.E. Ahles, University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst. Plant Science Bulletin 54: 172-173. Capers. R. S. 2008. Glossostigma cleistanthum text and photographs. Maine Field Guide to Invasive Aquatic Plants. Maine Center for Invasive Aquatic Plants. Capers, R.S., R. Selsky, G.J. Bugbee and J. White. 2007. Aquatic plant community invasibility and scale-dependent patterns in native and invasive species richness. Ecology 88:3135-3143.Download pdf Les, D. H., R. S. Capers, and N. P. Tippery. 2006. Introduction of Glossostigma (Phrymaceae) to North America: a taxonomic and ecological overview. American Journal of Botany 93:927-939.Download pdf Capers, R.S., and D. H. Les. 2005. Plant community structure in a freshwater tidal wetland. Rhodora 107:386-407.Download pdf Capers, R.S., R.L. Chazdon, A. Redondo B. and B. Vilchez A. 2005. Successional dynamics of woody seedling communities in wet tropical secondary forests. Journal of Ecology 93:1071-1084.Download pdf. Capers, R.S., G.J. Bugbee, R. Selsky and J.C. White. 2005. A guide to the invasive aquatic plants of Connecticut. Bulletin No. 997, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven. 26 pp.Download pdf. Capers, R.S., R. Selsky, G.J. Bugbee and J. White. 2005. Aquatic plants among most destructive invasives. Frontiers of Plant Science 55:7-9. Capers, R.S., and R.L. Chazdon. 2004. Rapid assessment of understory light availability in a wet tropical forest. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 123:177-185. Capers, R.S. 2003. Macrophyte colonization in a freshwater tidal wetland (Lyme, CT, USA) Aquatic Botany 77:325-338.Download pdf. Capers, R.S. 2003. Six years of submerged plant community dynamics in a freshwater tidal wetland. Freshwater Biology 48:1640-1651.Download pdf. Capers, R.S., and D.H. Les. 2001. An unusual population of Podostemum ceratophyllum (Podostemaceae) in a tidal Connecticut river. Rhodora 103:219-223. Capers, R.S. 2000. A comparison of two sampling techniques in the study of submerged macrophyte richness and abundance. Aquatic Botany 68:87-92. Download pdf. Les, D.H., and R.S. Capers. 1999. Limnobium spongia (Hydrocharitaceae) discovered in New England. Rhodora 101:419-423. Click here to download a CV.