Research Projects
warmXtrophic: Effects of climate warming and herbivory on plant community dynamics This project takes place at the Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research site (KBS LTER) and the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS). Open-top chambers (OTCs) are used at both sites to mimic projected levels of climate warming for the plant communities within the chambers. An insecticide is also applied, creating a fully crossed experiment containing warming, herbivory, and control treatments.
Factors such as phenology, plant composition, leaf traits, and amount of herbivory have been measured during every field season since 2015. We currently have a paper in review in Ecology determining the effects of 7 years of warming and herbivory on the two distinct plant communities at KBS and UMBS. |
Collaborators: Phoebe Zarnetske, Moriah Young, Mark Hammond, Pat Bills, Kileigh Welshofer
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OTC Meta-Analysis: A global assessment of experimental temperature manipulation studiesOpen-top chambers (OTCs) are commonly used to warm plant communities to projected future temperatures. While these chambers effectively increase temperatures, it is unknown how these chamber studies are distributed across the globe (i.e., across different latitudes and ecosystems), and how and why plant responses to climate change may differ between studies. With this meta-analysis on OTC studies, I plan to 1. determine the global distribution of OTC studies to determine regions where they are commonly used (and therefore, regions where they may underused), 2. determine how OTCs affect multiple plant traits and community properties, and 3. determine what contributes to differences in plant responses to warming (i.e., latitude, functional type, plant family, etc.).
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Collaborators: Phoebe Zarnetske, Pat Bills, Kileigh Welshofer, Emily Parker, Jacklyn Alsbro |
Rain-Exclusion Experiment: The effects of drought and warming on plant volatile emissionsThe KBS-LTER Rain-Exclusion Experiment (REX) is a large scale project involving multiple labs, scientists, and staff across KBS. This project uses rainout shelters to manipulate rainfall and impose drought periods for the plants underneath the shelters. Within this project, the Zarnetske lab is also including a treatment with open-top chambers (OTCs) to mimic climate warming, for a factorial warming and drought experiment in six early successional plant communities. Within this project, I'm interested in determining how these climate change stressors of drought and warming, in combination and in isolation, affect VOC emissions from Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis).
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Collaborators: KBS-LTER crew, Phoebe Zarnetske, Mark Hammond, Moriah Young, Emily Parker, Kristin Wolford |
