I am a plant ecologist conducting research on consequences of global environmental change at the interface of plant community and ecosystem ecology with experience in a range of biomes and ecosystem types. My research examines both broad patterns of ecosystem responses to global change as well as mechanisms for how plant communities may confer stabilizing or amplifying feedbacks thereby impacting ecosystem responses to environmental change. My research focuses on three main areas of inquiry and is applicable across natural ecological and agroecological systems, with ongoing projects presently focused in grasslands of both North America and Australia: 1) Drivers of plant community and ecosystem resistance and recovery in the face of global change, 2) Shifts in plant-plant resource interactions and impacts on ecosystem function, and 3) Seasonal community dynamics and consequences for ecosystem services under global change. My post-doc experiences  addressed these themes in pastures of Eastern Australia under field manipulations of combined extreme temperature and drought, and in examining the impacts of extreme drought along an old-field successional chronosequence to examine drivers of ecosystem resistance. ​New research in New York will focus on mixed pastures and global change- at a new facility at Nuthatch Hollow!

Exciting News!
Our lab group is joining the Department of Environmental Studies at Binghamton University!
The new Churchill lab will be developing new projects examining the role that species plant interactions play in promoting pasture ecosystem functions under global change drivers 
Expect updates on our new field facility at Nuthatch Hollow in the coming weeks and months!