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AS PLANT ECOLOGISTS, WE ARE INTERESTED in the broad topic of how plants interact with other plants, with animals, and with the physical environment around them. We also strive to understand how these interactions affect ecological processes at multiple scales.Our efforts are evenly divided between terrestrial and wetland ecosystems, including linkages between them.
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| Research Highlights |
Jitka Klimesova has joined the lab as a visiting Fulbright Scholar. Jitka and her family have travelled from the Czech Republic where she heads the Department of Plant Ecology at the Academy of Sciences in Trebon. The main objective of her stay at SERC is to develop a database of clonal traits for plants growing in disturbed areas (wetlands and forests) that are subject to invasion. Both of these systems are similar to the temperate zone in Central Europe and share similar plants, often the same genera and species, which will allow for comparisons of trait variability on both continents.
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 Madeleine Rubenstein, a graduate of Barnard College joins the Lab as an intern for Spring 2013. Madeleine is researching information on the characteristics, phenology and habitats of orchids native to the mid-Atlantic region. This information will be used in the development of the interactive website, Go Orchids, the first public effort of the North American Orchid Conservation Center. She is also exploring the use of cryopreservation as a long-term method to store the symbiotic fungi associated with orchids. This fall, Madeleine will begin work on her Master of Environmental Science at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental studies. |
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 Eric Hazelton, Ph.D. student at Utah State University, joined the Lab as part of the five-year, $5 million NOAA grant. Eric's focus on this project is the impact of Phragmites australis, an invasive species that threatens the sensitive coastal habitats in the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. His project will include the impact of Phragmites removal on native vegetation and how land use patterns affect the likelihood for restoration success.
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Liza McFarland, recent graduate of Tufts University, will continue in the Plant Lab throughout the 2012 field season. Liza originally joined the lab as a student intern- part of a team that investigated the effectiveness of conservation measures for wetlands in agricultural landscapes throughout the mid-Atlantic region. This summer Liza will be working on our Isotria and NAOOC projects and spending time in Phragmites wetlands as part of the NOAA grant. She plans to continue her interest in wetlands next spring as she pursues graduate studies with Andy Baldwin, a mentor on her intern project.
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Small Whorled--Big Mission
The Lab has joined forces with the National Park Service and the US Military to evaluate a range of ecological characteristics of Isotria medeoloides (small whorled pogonia) to develop techniques to be used to manage and reintroduce this federally threatened orchid. details
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ALIEN ALERT!!! update
Will this Asian invasive earthworm threaten SERC's forest?
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Recent Publications
Ikegami, Makihiko, Whigham, Dennis F. and Werger, Marinus J. A. 2012. Effects of local density of clonal plants on their sexual and vegetative propagation strategies in a lattice structure model. Ecological Modelling, 234: 51-59. doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.03.026
Laanbroek, Hendrikus J., Keijzer, Rosalinde M., Verhoeven, Jos T. A. and Whigham, Dennis F. 2012. The effect of hydrology on the distribution of ammonia-oxidizing betaproteobacteria in impounded black mangroves (Avicennia germinans). Frontiers in Microbiology,3:153. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2012.00153
McCormick, M.K., D.L. Taylor, K. Juhaszova, R.K. Burnett Jr., D.F. Whigham and J.P. O’Neill. 2012. Limitations on orchid recruitment: not a simple picture.
Molecular Ecology 21:1511–1523. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2012.05468.x
Meyerson, L. A., Lambertini, C., McCormick, M. K. and Whigham, Dennis F. 2012. Hybridization of common reed in North America? The answer is blowing in the wind. AoB Plants. doi:10.1093/aobpla/pls022
Szlavecz, Katalin, Pitz, Scott L., Bernard, Michael J., Xia, Lijun, O'Neill, John P., Chang, Chih-Han, McCormick, Melissa K. and Whigham, Dennis F. 2012. Manipulating earthworm abundance using electroshocking in deciduous forests. Pedobiologia, doi:10.1016/j.pedobi.2012.08.008
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