Overview
Clark’s lab uses using long-term experiments and monitoring studies to understand disturbance and climate controls on ecosystem dynamics. Clark is a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, which also recognized him with the William Skinner Cooper Award, for his research on barrier beach dynamics, and the George Mercer Award, for studies of climate change and fire. He is an ESA Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow. For excellence in teaching and research, he was one of 15 scientists recognized with the National Science Foundation’s five-yr Presidential Faculty Fellow Award. He is a recipient of the Humboldt Research Prize and a Lauréat of Emmanuel Macron’s Make Our Planet Great Again. Clark is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Among recent activities he led the National Assessment on Effects of Drought on Forests and Rangelands in the United States: A Comprehensive Science Synthesis, an effort involving 70 academic and government scientists that received the Chief of the Forest Service Science Award for 2016. Clark has authored more than 250 refereed scientific articles and published four books. Full publication list.
Clark has testified before congress on behalf of the Ecological Society of America and the NSF budget. He served on editorial boards for Ecology and Ecological Monographs, Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics, Global Change Biology, Ecosystems, Elementa, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, and the Journal for Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics. He has served on NSF Advisory panels for Ecology, Earth System History, LTER, Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease, and Ecosystem Science. He chaired ESA’s Mercer Award Committee and was Vice President for Science. He was a founding member of the Science Advisory Board of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Publications
Despite rapid warming, seed production is not leading poleward migration in North American and European forests.
Journal Article The New phytologist · July 2026 To survive climate change, forest trees will have to shift seed production poleward. However, warming will not stimulate tree fecundity in the north if it is limited by other habitat variables. We evaluated the responses of tree fecundity to climate change ... Full text CiteTree Type and Urban Growing Conditions Associated with Street Tree Stress: Lessons from Two US Cities
Journal Article Arboriculture and Urban Forestry · May 1, 2026 Background: Trees provide crucial ecosystem services for urban areas, but the stress of the urban environment can influence tree health and ecosystem service provision. Street trees grow in particularly stressful conditions, but often receive care from som ... Full text CiteGentrification and urban forest structure and stress: Lessons from two cities
Journal Article Urban Forestry and Urban Greening · March 1, 2026 Urban trees must be both present and healthy to provide vital ecosystem services, but there are documented inequities in tree canopy cover within U.S. cities. These inequities, like cities themselves, are not static. However, the influence of urban social ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Determining forest recruitment change through the integration of NASA Earth observation data and predictive modeling
ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Aeronautics and Space Administration · 2025 - 2029Determining forest recruitment change through the integration of NASA Earth Observation Data and predictive modeling
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Pennsylvania State University · 2024 - 2027Collaborative Research: Continent-wide forest recruitment change: the interactions between climate, habitat, and consumers
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2022 - 2026View All Grants