(Photo credit to either Keith Perchemlides or Olivia Duren)
My research has focused broadly on effects of stress and disturbance on plants. I aim to both advance basic scientific understanding and to do work that has application for land managers or policy makers. Early work centered on effects of air pollutants on plants (particularly acidic deposition and ozone) and on characterizing the chemistry of fog water.
More recent work has focused on consequences of various land management practices for plants and plant communities. Nearly all of this work has been carried out in conjunction with graduate students, most of whom are authors on publications that resulted from the work (see list of publications). The various studies can be grouped loosely:
My research has focused broadly on effects of stress and disturbance on plants. I aim to both advance basic scientific understanding and to do work that has application for land managers or policy makers. Early work centered on effects of air pollutants on plants (particularly acidic deposition and ozone) and on characterizing the chemistry of fog water.
More recent work has focused on consequences of various land management practices for plants and plant communities. Nearly all of this work has been carried out in conjunction with graduate students, most of whom are authors on publications that resulted from the work (see list of publications). The various studies can be grouped loosely:
- Assessment of effects of various degrees of forest canopy removal on tree growth, understory species composition and reproduction, and growth and survival of lichens and bryophytes in forests of the Pacific Northwestern US
- Assessment of sustainability of "moss" (bryophyte) harvesting from forests of the Pacific Northwestern US and attempts to determine how much moss is being harvested and sold from the Pacific Northwest and the Appalachians
- Evaluating consequences of fuel reduction treatments in chaparral and oak woodlands of southwestern Oregon for native plants and invasion by nonnative species. This work also included fundamental examination of the assumption that fire suppression has altered these ecosystems, such that treatments can be viewed as accomplishing both fuel reduction and ecosystem restoration
- Analysis of relationships between rangeland management practices and populations of both uncommon and invasive species in the Snake River Plain and surrounding uplands of Idaho