Current Projects
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DIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM CHANGE IN ALPINE TUNDRA What is the role of plant-microbe-resource feedbacks in maintaining dominance and diversity? Does resource partitioning of N forms stabilize coexistence? How will environmental change, particularly increased levels of nitrogen deposition, affect these interactions?
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| ENVIRONMENTAL
CHANGE IN CALIFORNIA How will environmental change impact Southern California’s ecosystems? Along a 150-km climate transect, can we predict how different mechanisms (shifts in plant physiology, demography, community composition, biogeochemistry) influence the rate and direction of response?
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REGIME SHIFTS, INVASION, AND
RESTORATION Can we use a multiple state framework to understand habitat conversion and widespread invasion? Are there environmental conditions where local multiple stable equilibria (MSE) between native and exotics exist? Do positive feedbacks mediated by species effects on litter and soil microbial processes contribute to invasion dynamics? How do differences in colonization rates between natives and exotics influence local interaction dynamics?
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GRAZING AND RESILIENCE IN CALIFORNIA RANGELANDS Does grazing management influence the resilience and threshold dynamics in California rangelands? Can we identify critical thresholds that can stymie sustainable rangeland management and tools to retain efficient functioning in rangeland systems?
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BARRIERS TO OAK RECRUITMENT Why are so few oaks able to recruit in oak woodlands? Is a demographic bottleneck to blame? How do seasonal grazing practices and interactions with annual grasses influence this bottleneck?
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| NATIVE RECOVERY: BREAKING THE CYCLE OF INVASION Following the removal of a problematic exotic, when does passive restoration of natives occur and when does an area get stuck in a viscous cycle of exotic replacement? Does the removal of the exotic have to reach some threshold reduction for sustainable restoration to occur?
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