Mark Schwartz is a plant ecologist with diverse, primarily conservation-oriented interests. His main research projects include: (a) assessing patterns in the geographic and taxonomic distribution of rare plants in the US and Canada; (b) predicting the effect of habitat fragmentation on distribution shift potentials of trees under global warming scenarios; and (c) monitoring of rare plants and population viability analysis. Mark has ongoing long-term monitoring projects on mapped forest plot community dynamics (1986-present) and the population dynamics of the endangered tree, Torreya taxifolia, (1989-present), both in Florida. His research over the next several years will focus on: population persistence of rare plants in California urban areas; interactions among native herbivores, fire and livestock on forest stand structure in Tanzanian miombo; and dynamic modeling of mutualisms within the context of economic models.