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) plant-ecosystem nutrient cycling in response to eutrophication and climate change, 2) impacts of plant community change on ecosystem functions, 3) drivers of plant community and ecosystem resistance and recovery in the face of extreme climate. My first post-doc  addressed these themes in the pasturelands of Eastern Australia under field manipulations of combined extreme temperature and drought, and my latest position examines the impacts of extreme drought along an old-field successional chronosequence to examine drivers of ecosystem resistance. ​

Exciting News!
My USDA AFRI NIFA Post-doctoral Fellowship proposal was funded for 2020-2022
Exploring shifts in successional community interactions as a control on grassland ecosystem responses to climate extremes 
All field work almost finished! Final sampling in Sept/Oct 2022


Thanks to the amazing Isbell lab interns during the summer of 2022 for another excellent field season! Check out descriptions of Cedar Creek intern led research conducted as part of project e337 in 2022, as well as details from the 2021 projects on the 'My Team' page.