Shahid Naeem
Professor and Chair, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University
sn2121@columbia.edu
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Ph.D., Zoology, University of California, Berkley, 1989
Naeem studies the ecological and environmental consequences of biodiversity loss and is interested in how
changes in the distribution and abundance of plants, animals, and microbes affect ecosystem functioning and
services.
This work has demonstrated how the loss of species from ecosystems affect their ability to resist invasion by other species, affect production and nutrient cycling, and affect the reliability and stability of ecosystems. His theoretical work examines how mathematical engineering reliability models can be used to understand the effects of biodiversity loss, global change, management, and environmental degradation on ecosystem reliability.
His current fieldwork is concerned with how extrinsic factors, such as soil fertility and disturbance interact with plant biodiversity to regulate the spread of invasive plant species in old fields at the Cedar Creek Long Term Ecological Research in Minnesota; he plans to expand this work to Black Rock Forest here in New York.
Naeem also coordinates a group effort to predict the local, regional, and global impacts of biodiversity loss across a wide variety of ecosystems, and he is actively involved in bringing the science of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning to conservation, restoration, and policy development.