top of page

NSF GRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOW    SCHWEITZER LAB

As a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and Master of Science student at the University of Tennessee, my goal is to produce high-quality ecological research useful to conservation organizations and land-managing agencies as they manage contemporary ecological problems like climate change and species invasions.

 

From experience in federal, non-profit and academic settings (i.e., National Park Service, TN-EPPC and TN Tree Improvement Program), I am passionate about creating and maintaining networks among academic researchers and practitioners of science to produce meaningful changes in the conservation sphere. 

 

Currently, my graduate research explores species responses to global change and forest disturbances like increasing temperatures and non-native pest invasions. Because we now know that above- and belowground ecosystems are actually tightly linked, I often work at the interface of these two worlds. For example, I'm working on a project to understand the role of plant-soil feedbacks in shaping species response to the loss of a foundation forest tree species.

 

To develop a mechanistic understanding of the patterns we see on the landscape and community responses to large-scale disturbance, I design field- and greenhouse-based experiments. I am currently conducting a common garden experiment to explore genetic and non-genetic functional variation and plant-soil linkages within a dominant plant species across environmental gradients. I have also conducted a plant-soil feedback experiment to examine the role of plant-soil biota interactions in structuring vegetation response to the landscape-level mortality of foundation tree species. 

 

Find my full RESUME here (updated 2017/02/10).

 

Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

bottom of page