Curriculum vitae

Matthew Kling, PhD

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Education

Ph.D. Integrative Biology, UC BerkeleyNSF Graduate Research Fellow; Berkeley Fellow; NSF NRT Data Science Fellow2020
B.A. Conservation Biology & Environmental Studies, Middlebury College2005

Positions

USGS Climate Adaptation Postdoctoral Fellow, College of Forestry & Conservation, University of Montana2025–present
Postdoctoral Fellow, Gund Institute for the Environment, and Postdoctoral researcher, Dept of Biology, University of Vermont2021–2025
Postdoctoral scholar, Dept of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley2020–2021
Graduate Student Instructor, UC Berkeley2019–2020
Consultant in Global Change Biology, NatureServe2015–2019
Bioclimate Analyst, NatureServe2013–2015
Science Analyst, Brighter Planet2008–2013
Supervisory Biologist, Institute for Wildlife Studies2007–2008
Canid Ecology Crew Leader, Yellowstone Ecological Research Center2005–2006
Plant Ecology Technician, US Geological Survey2005
Ungulate Ecology Technician, National Park Service2005
Environmental Intern, Administración Ambiental Cooperativa Chilena2004
Research Assistant, USDA National Wildlife Research Center2002

Publications27 articles

2026
Forest densification and pollution rival climate in driving US tree demographic change Kling, M., P. Burnham, M. Dube, B. McGill, B. McLaughlin, S. Miller, T. Waring, and N. Gotelli.
Global Change Biology, 32:e71124WebPDF
2026
Spatial phylogenetics with continuous data: an application to California bryophytes Kling, M., I. González-Ramírez, B. Carter, I. Borokini, and B. Mishler.
Systematic Botany, 51(1): 101-120WebPDF
2025
Sustaining species of the future: “climatic nuclei” for climate change adaptation McLaughlin, B., M. Kling, S. Jackson, E. Zavaleta, and D. Ackerly.
Global Change Biology, 31:e70253WebPDF
2025
phylospatial: an R package for spatial phylogenetic analysis with quantitative community data Kling, M.
Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 2025;00:1–9WebPDF
2025
Wind patterns influence the dispersal and assembly of North American soil fungal communities Pellitier, P., M. Kling, C. Qin, M. Van Nuland, K. Zhu, and K. Peay.
Ecology Letters, 28: e70130WebPDF
2025
Wind direction and strength determine the genetic structure of an insect-pollinated plant across heterogeneous landscape Deng, J.Y., R.H. Fu, S. Compton, C. Yuan, M. Kling, X.Y. Chen, Y.B. Song, K. Jiang, M. Liu, J. Greeff, and Y. Chen.
Journal of Biogeography, 0:e15119WebPDF
2024
Innovations through crop switching happen on the diverse margins of US agriculture Kling, M., C. Brittain, G. Galford, T. Waring, L. Hébert-Dufresne, M. Dube, H. Sabzian, N. Gotelli, B. McGill, and M. Niles.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(42)Web
2024
Stochastic diffusion using mean-field limits to approximate master equations Hébert-Dufresne, L., M. Kling, S. Rosenblatt, S. Miller, P. Burnham, N. Landry, N. Gotelli, and B. McGill.
arXiv preprint: arXiv:2408.07755Web
2024
A tree’s view of the terrain: downscaling bioclimate variables to high resolution using a novel multi-level species distribution model Kling, M., K. Baer, and D. Ackerly.
Ecography: e07131Web
2024
Topography influences diurnal and seasonal microclimate fluctuations in hilly terrain environments of coastal California Jon, A., J. Olden, M. Oldfather, M. Kling, and D. Ackerly.
PLoS ONE 19(3): e0300378Web
2023
Operationalizing cultural adaptation to climate change: contemporary examples from United States agriculture Waring, T., M. Niles, M. Kling, S. Miller, L. Hébert-Dufresne, HS. Papi, N. Gotelli, and B. McGill.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 378(20220397)Web
2021
Global wind patterns shape genetic differentiation, asymmetric gene flow, and genetic diversity in trees Kling, M., and D. Ackerly.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(17)Web
2021
Evolutionary relationships between drought-related traits and climate shaped large hydraulic safety margins in North American oaks Skelton, R., L. Anderegg, J. Diaz, M. Kling, P. Papper, L. Lamarque, S. Delzon, T. Dawson, and D. Ackerly.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(10)Web
2020
Global wind patterns and the vulnerability of wind-dispersed species to climate change Kling, M., and D. Ackerly.
Nature Climate Change, 10: 868-875WebPDF
2020
Topoclimates, refugia, and biotic responses to climate change Ackerly, D., M. Kling, M. Clark, P. Papper, M. Oldfather, A. Flint and L. Flint.
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 18(5): 288–297WebPDF
2020
Biogeography of fire regimes in western US conifer forests: a trait-based approach Stevens, J., M. Kling, D. Schwilk, M. Varner, and J. Kane.
Global Ecology and Biogeography, 29: 944-955WebPDF
2020
Multiple axes of ecological vulnerability to climate change Kling, M., S. Auer, P. Comer, D. Ackerly, and H. Hamilton.
Global Change Biology, 26: 2798-2813WebPDF
2020
Range edges in heterogeneous landscapes: Integrating geographic scale and climate complexity into range dynamics Oldfather, M., M. Kling, S. Sheth, N. Emery, and D. Ackerly.
Global Change Biology, 26: 1055-1067WebPDF
2019
Habitat Climate Change Vulnerability Index Applied to Major Vegetation Types of the Western Interior United States Comer, P., J. Hak, M. Reid, S. Auer, K. Schulz, H. Hamilton, R. Smyth, and M. Kling
Land 8(7): 108WebPDF
2019
No local adaptation in leaf or stem xylem vulnerability to embolism, but consistent vulnerability segmentation in a North American oak Skelton, R., L. Anderegg, P. Papper, T. Dawson, M. Kling, S. Thompson, J. Diaz, E. Reich, and D. Ackerly.
New Phytologist 223(3): 1296-1306Web
2019
Temperature controls phenology in continuously flowering Protea species of subtropical Africa Daru, B., M. Kling, E. Meineke, and A. van Wyk.
Applications in Plant SciencesWebPDF
2018
Facets of phylodiversity: evolutionary diversification, divergence, and survival as conservation targets Kling, M., B. Mishler, B. Baldwin, A. Thornhill, and D. Ackerly.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 374: 20170397WebPDF
2018
Best practices for reporting climate data in ecology Morueta-Holme, N., M. Oldfather, R. Olliff-Yang, A. Weitz, C. Levine, M. Kling, E. Riordan, C. Merow, S. Sheth, A. Thornhill, and D. Ackerly.
Nature Climate Change 8: 92-94WebPDF
2017
Spatial phylogenetics of the native California flora Thornhill, A., B. Baldwin, W. Freyman, S. Nosratinia, M. Kling, N. Morueta-Holme, T. Madsen, D. Ackerly, and B. Mishler.
BMC Biology 15(1): 96WebPDF
2017
Strong geographic and temporal patterns in the conservation status of North American bats Hammerson, G., M. Kling, M. Harkness, M. Ormes, and B. Young.
Biological Conservation 212: 144-152WebPDF
2017
Species richness and endemism in the native flora of California Baldwin, B., A. Thornhill, W. Freyman, D. Ackerly, M. Kling, N. Morueta-Holme, and B. Mishler.
American Journal of Botany, 104(3): 487–501WebPDF
2003
Oral rabies vaccination: reducing economic uncertainty via response surface analysis Sterner, R., M. Kling, S. Schwiff, and D. Slate.
Proceedings of the 10th Wildlife Damage Management Conference (K. Fagerstone, G. Witmer, Eds)

Software

terracesR package Aggregation-consistent raster disaggregation methods that preserve coarse-cell means
2026
analogsR package Toolkit for fast and flexible spatial climate analog modeling
2026
circuitscaperR package R interface to Circuitscape and Omniscape landscape connectivity models
2026
rawvignetteR package Precompiled vignette utilities for R packages
2026
phylospatialR package Toolkit for spatial phylogenetic analyses including alpha and beta phylodiversity metrics, phylo-regionalization, and conservation prioritization
2025
nullcatR package Null model algorithms for categorical and continuous community data
2025
ggcubeR package 3D plotting extension for ggplot2
2025
Seeds of ChangeShiny app Decision support tool for ecological restoration efforts, incorporating species distributions, climate change, and soils
2024
derangedR package Demographic RANGE modeling with dispersal: tools for mechanistic, spatially-explicit, environmentally-dependent species range simulation
2024
colors3dR package Data visualization functions to generate two-dimensional and three-dimensional color gradient legends
2023
windscapeR package Software for modeling landscape connectivity by wind, and testing statistical relationships between wind and ecological patterns
2021
WindshedsShiny app Interactive visualization of wind connectivity landscapes
2020
hydroR package Functions for computing climatic water balance variables such as actual evapotranspiration and climatic water deficit
2019
OmbrothermyShiny app Interactive global visualization of seasonal climate patterns
2019
CAPPAShiny app The California Plant Phylodiversity Atlas: an interface for exploring the biogeography, evolutionary relationships, and conservation status of California’s 5000+ native plant species
2018

Invited talks

2025
Decision support for climate-smart ecological restoration practices. NSF-ORCC workshop on climate change adaptation and assisted gene flow, Sausalito, California · Mar
2023
Panelist: Using species occurrence data in modeling, forecasting, and tool-building. Past-Present-Future Biodiversity Convening, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California · Nov
2022
Whither, whence, and whether: modeling the ability of plant biodiversity to track climate change. UVM Plant Biology department seminar, Burlington, Vermont · Feb
2021
Emigrate, Evolve, Endure, or go Extinct: climate change vulnerability modeling in biogeography. UVM Biology department seminar, Burlington, Vermont · Nov
2021
Windscape connectivity modeling for biogeography. BEYOND seminar series, INRAE, Avignon, France · Jun
2019
California plant conservation gaps: an evolutionary perspective. Mary Bowerman Science & Research Colloquium, Berkeley, California · Dec
2019
Winds of change: global wind patterns and the resilience of biodiversity to climate change. Carnegie Institution at Stanford, Palo Alto, California · Dec
2019
California plant conservation gaps: an evolutionary perspective. Half-Earth Day symposium, Berkeley, California · Oct
2019
Seeds of change: climate-smart seed collection for ecological restoration. Bay Area National Park Science Symposium, San Francisco, California · Sep
2019
Save the trees: informing conservation planning with multiple facets of phylodiversity. Hennig XXXVIII symposium, Berkeley, California · May
2019
Seeds of change: climate-smart seed provenancing for ecological restoration. US National Park Service workshop, San Francisco, California · May
2018
Future conservation priorities for the California flora: weighing alternative dimensions of evolutionary diversity. Botany Lunch seminar series, Berkeley, California · Sep

Awards

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship$102,000 + tuition2015–2020
Berkeley Fellowship$60,000 + tuition2015–2020
NSF National Research TraineeData Science for the 21st Century program
USGS-NatureServe EcoInforma student app award$2000 travel2015
EPA Apps for the EnvironmentNational runner-up2011
Departmental High Honors & Magna Cum Laude, Middlebury College2005