School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences College of Science

Higher-Education

• 2012 Ph.D. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University
• 2004 B.S. Biological Sciences with Environmental Studies minor, Loyola University New Orleans

Research Overview

Ultimately, our goal is to understand and ameliorate different aspects of global change that are major contributors to the current rapid decline in global biodiversity and ecosystem function. A unifying theme in our work is understanding how variability in environmental conditions and variability in the environmental tolerances of dominant or important species interact to structure plant communities. As a result, we employ a lot of large field experiments that incorporate multiple sites along climatic or abiotic gradients.

Our research is heavily field-based, and spans a variety of terrestrial and aquatic habitats, but we focus mainly on coastal ecosystems of the southeastern United States and the Gulf of Mexico. Our work also spans a wide range of spatial and organizational scales, for example, from local- and individual-scale studies on invasive plant physiology to landscape- and ecosystem-scale studies on how climate influences plant community structure. We utilize a combination of manipulative field, mesocosm and greenhouse experiments, univariate and multivariate statistics, and mathematical modeling.

Publications

• James Stilley and Christopher Gabler. Effects of Patch Size, Fragmentation, and Invasive Species on Plant and Lepidoptera Communities in Southern Texas. Insects. 12, no. 9 (September 2021): 777. https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/12/9/777
• Paula Luera, Kimberly Wahl-Villarreal, Bradley Christoffersen, Abeny Treviño, Pushpa Soti, and
  Christopher Gabler. Effects of Scarification, Phytohormones, Soil Type, and Warming on the
  Germination and/or Seedling Performance of Three Tamaulipan Thornscrub Forest Species. Plants. 10, no. 8 (August 2021): 1489. https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/10/8/1489
• Samuel Ortiz, Christopher Gabler, and Timothy Brush. Continued eastward range expansion of black phoebes (Sayornis nigricans) in southernmost Texas. Southwestern Naturalist. 64, no. 3-4 (January (1st Quarter/Winter) 2021): 231-232. https://doi.org 10.1894/0038-4909-64.3-4.231
• Michael Osland, Christopher Gabler, James Grace, Richard Day, Meagan McCoy, Jennie McLeod,
  Andrew From, Nicholas Enwright, Laura Feher, Camille Stagg, and Stephen Hartley. Climate and
  plant controls on soil organic matter in coastal wetlands. Global Change Biology. (June 2018)
  onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcb.14376
• Pile, L. S., Wang, G. G., Stovall, J. P., Siemann, E., Wheeler, G. S., Gabler, C. A. (2017). Mechanisms of Chinese tallow (Triadica sebifera) invasion and their management implications – A review. Forest Ecology and Management, 404(C), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2017.08.023
• Xie, L.-N., Guo, H.-Y., Liu, Z., Gabler, C. A., Chen, W.-Z., Gu, S., Ma, C.-C. (in press). Shrubs facilitate recruitment of Caragana stenophylla: microhabitat amelioration and protection against herbivory. Annals of Forest Science. 10.1007/s13595-017-0668-4 https:// doi.org/ 10.1007/s 13595-017 -0668-4
• Feher, L. C., Osland, M. J., Griffith, K. T., Grace, J. B., Howard, R. J., Stagg, C. L., Enwright, N. M., Krauss, K. W., Gabler, C. A., Day, R. H., Rogers, K. (2017). Linear and nonlinear effects of temperature and precipitation on ecosystem properties in tidal saline wetlands. Ecosphere, 8(10), e01956. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1956
• Gabler, C. A., Osland, M. J., Grace, J. B., Stagg, C. L., Day, R. H., Hartley, S. B., Enwright, N. M., From, A. A., McCoy, M. L.*, McCleod, J. L.* (2017). Macroclimatic change expected to transform coastal wetland ecosystems this century. Nature Climate Change, 7(2), 142-147. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3203
• Xie, L.-N., Chen, W.-Z., Gabler, C. A., Han, L., Guo, H.-Y., Chen, Q., Ma, C.-C., Gu, S. (2016). Effects of grazing intensity on seed production of Caragana stenophylla along a climatic aridity gradient in the Inner Mongolia Steppe, China. Journal of Arid Land, 8(6), 890-898. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-016-0050-7
• Osland, M. J., Enwright, N. M., Day, R. H., Gabler, C. A., Stagg, C. L., Grace, J. B. (2016). Beyond just sea-level rise: considering macroclimatic drivers within coastal wetland vulnerability assessments to climate change. Global Change Biology, 22(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13084
• Yang, Q., Wei, S., Shang, L., Carrillo, J., Gabler, C. A., Nijjer, S., Li, B., Siemann, E. (2015). Mycorrhizal associations of an invasive tree are enhanced by both genetic and environmental mechanisms. Ecography, 38(11), 1112–1118. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.00965
• Xie, L.-N., Guo, H.-Y., Gabler, C. A., Li, Q.-F., Ma, C.-C. (2015). Changes in spatial patterns of Caragana stenophylla along a climatic drought gradient on the Inner Mongolian Plateau. PLoS ONE, 10(3), e0121234. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121234
• Yang, Q., Carrillo, J., Jin, H., Shang, L., Hovick, S. M., Nijjer, S., Gabler, C. A., Li, B., Siemann, E. (2013). Plant–soil biota interactions of an invasive species in its native and introduced ranges: Implications for invasion success. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 65, 78–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2013.05.004
• Gabler, C. A., Siemann, E. (2013). Timing of favorable conditions, competition and fertility interact to govern recruitment of invasive Chinese tallow tree in stressful environments. PLoS ONE, 8(8), e71446. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071446
• Gabler, C. A., Siemann, E. (2013). Rapid ontogenetic niche expansions in invasive Chinese tallow tree permit establishment in unfavourable but variable environments and can be exploited to streamline restoration. Journal of Applied Ecology, 50(3), 748–756. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12071
• Wundrow, E. J., Carrillo, J., Gabler, C. A., Horn, K. C., Siemann, E. (2012). Facilitation and competition among invasive plants: a field experiment with alligator weed and water hyacinth. PLoS ONE, 7(10), e48444. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048444
• Gabler, C. A., Siemann, E. (2012). Environmental variability and ontogenetic niche shifts in exotic plants may govern reinvasion pressure in restorations of invaded ecosystems. Restoration Ecology, 20(5), 545–550. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-100X.2012.00901.x
• Siemann, E., Carrillo, J. A., Gabler, C. A., Zipp, R., Rogers, W. E. (2009). Experimental test of the impacts of feral hogs on forest dynamics and processes in the southeastern US. Forest Ecology and Management, 258(5), 546–553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2009.03.056
• Whitney, K. D., Gabler, C. A. (2008). Rapid evolution in introduced species, ‘invasive traits’ and recipient communities: challenges for predicting invasive potential. Diversity and Distributions, 14(4), 569–580. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2008.00473.x
• Horn, K. C., Johnson, S. D., Boles, K. M., Moore, A., Siemann, E., Gabler, C. A. (2008). Factors affecting hatching success of golden apple snail eggs: effects of water immersion and cannibalism. Wetlands, 28(2), 544–549. https://doi.org/10.1672/07-11.1

Present Courses

• BIOL 3408 - Plant Morphology
• BIOL/MARS 4410 - Marine Botany
• EEMS 6100 - Systems Science and Applications Seminar
• EEMS 6350 - Novel Ecosystems and Built Environments
  
  Irregularly Taught:
  
  
• BIOL 1407 - General Biology II
• ENVR 1402 - Intro to Environmental Science II