Isabel Ashton
Postdoctoral Research AssociateEducation:
Ph.D., State University of New York at Stony Brook 2005
Research Interests:
I am broadly interested in global change and plant ecology, especially in the interface of physiological, community, and ecosystem ecology. In particular, I am interested in understanding how plant species affect community and ecosystem processes and whether these effects are better predicted by plant traits or species identity. I also work to understand how global change may alter plant community structure and ecosystem function.
During my Dissertation Work, I conducted both observational and manipulative studies in field and greenhouse settings to investigate the physiological and ecological characteristics that confer invasion success in temperate woody plant invaders. Through work in plant-insect interactions and decomposition dynamics, I explored how these invasive species impact community and ecosystem processes in Northeastern forests.
As a postdoctoral researcher, I am collaborating with the suding lab on work in the alpine tundra at the niwot ridge long-term ecological research site (NWT-LTER) in the front range of the Colorado Rockies. We are conducting a number of field experiments that aim to determine the role of plant-microbe-resource feedbacks in maintaining diversity in the alpine tundra and how global change may alter these interactions. We Are also exploring how the two dominant members of the moist meadow community, Deschampsia caespitosa and Acomastylis rossii, affect ecosystem processes and how n-deposition may alter the abundance of these plants and thus alter community structure and function in the alpine, we are Also investigating if plant diversity is enhanced via plants partitioning different forms of N (organic, inorganic) and whether plants can influence the soil microbial community to enhance availability of the preferred N form. Finally, we are testing whether feedbacks between increased snowpack, warming temperatures, the microbial community, and increased nitrogen availability are driving the encroachment of woody species into the alpine tundra.
Recent Awards:
NASA Graduate Student Fellowship in Earth System Science 2003-2005
Graduate Council Fellowship, SUNY at Stony Brook 1994-2004
Torrey Botanical Society Student Award 2003
US Fish & Wildlife Service, Upton Ecological Preserve Research Grant 2002-2005
New England Botanical Club Graduate Research Award 2002
Friday Harbor Laboratories Scholarship 2000
Academic-All Ivy Women’s Rowing 1998
I.I. Rabi Fellowship of Columbia University 1994-1998
Recent Presentations:
Aug 2006 Competition alters nitrogen portioning in alpine plants via rhizosphere dynamics. Ecological Society of America, Memphis, Tennessee
Oct 2005 Invasive vines, litter decomposition, and alpine ecology: linking plant traits to ecosystem function. University of California, Irvine. Irvine, California
Sept 2005 How resilient is the alpine tundra to species loss? Guild of Rocky Mountain Ecologists and Evolutionary Biologists. Nederland, Colorado
Aug 2005 Can tolerance to simulated and real mammal herbivory explain the invasion success of temperate vines? Ecological Society of America. Montreal, Canada
June 2005 Are fragmentation and herbivory promoting woody vine invasions? Long Island Weed Management Area, The Nature Conservancy. Islip, New York
Mar 2005 The link between invasion success and growth rates: a meta-analysis of native and invasive plants. Integrating Scales in Biology, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico
Recent Publications:
Ashton, I.W., L.A. Hyatt, K.M. Howe, J. Gurevitch, and M. Lerdau. (2005) Invasive species accelerate decomposition and litter nitrogen loss in a mixed deciduous forest. Ecological Applications 15:1263-1272.
Kay, A., I.W. Ashton, E. Gorokhova, D. Kerkhoff, A. Liess, and E. Litchman. (2005) Towards a stoichiometric framework for evolutionary biology. Oikos 109: 6-17.
Wetterer, J.K., S.E. Miller, D.E. Wheeler, C.A. Olsen, D.A. Polhemus, I.W. Ashton, M. Pitts, A.G. Himler, M. Yospin, K.R. Helms, E.L. Harken, J. Gallaher, M. Nelson, J. Littsinger & T.L. Burgess. 1999. Ecological dominance by Paratrechina longicornis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), an invasive tramp ant, in Biosphere 2. Florida Entomologist 82 (3): 381-388.
Favorite Plant:
Prunus serotina