Research

In the Baer lab, I investigate broadly how environmental heterogeneity and soil resource availability affect plant community structure (e.g., diversity, richness, composition) and ecosystem functioning in a long-term restored prairie.

I also look at how drought (i.e., reduced precipitation) affects the plant community structure and aboveground primary productivity of a portion of this experimental prairie that has varying long-term fertilization treatments. I have also measured soil microbial biomass, enzyme activity, pH and organic matter in this portion of the restored prairie experiment.

I also have an interest in phenology (timing of seasonal plant events) and was able to explore this with Anna Krause for their senior thesis. We observed plant phenology stages of all species found in this prairie restoration every week across the growing season. We have presented our findings at several conferences and I have created a science outreach activity that corresponds to our prairie plant phenology data. Anna was a rock start undergraduate and continued post-graduation to continue to improve their thesis into a published manuscript!