Biography
I am a community ecologist that loves working in grasslands!
I am particularly interested in understanding whether global change and increased climate variability will lead to more difficult to reverse transitions in plant communities, including long-term changes in plant diversity.
During graduate school I studied mechanisms that promote or prevent diversity loss after nutrient enrichment and cessation in Midwestern grasslands. As a postdoc I am now studying potential mechanisms facilitating shrub expansion in the Southwest.
Research
At UGA I am developing individual based models to understand the role of plant-soil interactions at the ecotone transition between grasslands and shrublands at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico.
With my mentor, Anny Chung, I am co-leading a cross-site synthesis working group to develop and inform theory on these difficult to reverse ecosystem transitions. Our group is funded by the Long-Term Ecological Research Network and hosted at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.
Selected Publications
Education
PhD Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (2020)
BS Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. University of Texas at Austin (2014)
BS Biochemistry. University of Texas at Austin (2014)
