About the talk

In a world of rapid environmental change and loss, scientific inquiry can point to creative approaches to maintain biodiversity. Here I focus on two biodiversity hotspots imperiled by land use and global change on the west coast of the United States – annual serpentine grasslands in California and oak-prairie savannas in Oregon – to identify novel ways to conserve them in the face of ongoing change. By combining a 40-year time series and experiments in the serpentine, I delineate how rainfall variability and nitrogen deposition lead to a cyclical, increasing state-shift from native to non-native species, and how integrating grazing in the system can halt this transition. By partnering with hazelnut growers and land managers in former oak-prairie savanna, I find that the combination of strategic grazing and the use of native species as cover crops can enhance biodiversity while also benefiting grower operations.

About the speaker

Lauren is a plant community and restoration ecologist at the University of Oregon. The goal of her lab is to produce "usable" science to improve ecosystem management. She uses a combination of long-term data analysis, population modeling and field experiments to this end. Research themes include: community assembly, functional traits, species coexistence, ecosystem stability, and resilience theory.