I am interested in restoration of plant and biological soil crust communities in arid lands. I grew up in northern New Mexico was always amazed by how many different plants could thrive when it was so darn hot and dry! Now I'm a masters student with Jon Bakker at University of Washington College of Forest Resources. My research focuses on plant community recovery after disturbance.

I am currently working on a project at the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve, formerly a pristine tract of sagebrush shrubsteppe that has now burned twice, in 2000 and 2007. Invasive annual species such as cheatgrass and tumbleweed have spread, threatening native plant communities.

Several researchers began sampling vegetation in the 1990s before the fires, and a Nature Conservancy project remonitored after the first fire. Matt Davies and I will monitor in 2009 and 2010 to determine if the community is returning to the grass- and forb- dominated state after the first fire, or if invasive species and repeat disturbance are creating a new trajectory of community development. I will be using nonparamentric multivariate analyses.

Biological Soil Crusts (BSC) are composed of cyanobacteria, lichens, bryophytes, and fungi that live on the soil surface in arid lands around the world. BSC provide ecosystem services such as soil stabilization and aggregation, photosynthetic activity, and nutrient input to the soil, and may aid in plant seedling establishment. Disturbance can lead to degradation and loss of BSC and of those services.

Requirements for recovery of BSC is poorly understood, so I will be investigating the factors of soil stability and dispersal in areas that had crust removed or severly damaged in the fires on the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve. I am developing experimental manipulations including reciprocal transplanting of crusts across a burn boundary, and planting bunchgrasses into a degraded area along with BSC innoculation.

I am hoping to set up a simple but long-term grazing exclosure experiment on my father's property in New Mexico to get a baseline of recovery for the plants and biological soil crust of the region so that I can provide him with recommendations for management and restoration.

I worked with Tim McCay for my undergraduate research, investigating behavior and physiology of shrews using radiotracking as well as ex situ experiments using an activity chamber.

I have worked or volunteered in a range of habitats on a variety of organisms, including small-mammal monitoring on the Seviella National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, conservation of the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow in New Mexico, and nitrogen fixation of leguminous trees at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institue in Panama. I have also worked on a post-graduate diploma in conservation studies at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.