Katharine Suding

  • Distinguished Professor
  • ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

Plant community ecology • Restoration and conservation • Invasion biology

I am a plant community ecologist working at the interface of ecosystem, landscape and population biology. My goal is to apply cutting-edge “usable” science to the challenges of restoration, species invasion, and environmental change. 

My research group and I work with a range of conservation groups, government agencies and land managers to provide evidence-based solutions that take into account biodiversity, human well-being, and management opportunities. We employ a combination of long-term monitoring, modeling and experimental approaches in settings that range from alpine tundra to oak woodlands to grasslands. Common themes include plant-soil feedbacks, functional traits, species effects on ecosystem processes, and non-linear and threshold dynamics.

Visit the Suding Lab web site. We are plant community ecologists working at the interface of ecosystem, landscape and population biology.

Visit the Suding Lab  News about Katie 

Education

  • PhD: University of Michigan, 1999
  • BS: Williams College, 1994

Awards

  • Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science, Franklin Institute, 2025
  • Eminent Ecologist, Journal of Ecology, 2023
  • Highly Cited Researcher (2016-2019), Web of Science Group, 2019
  • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2018
  • MacArthur Award, Ecological Society of America, 2018
  • BFA Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarly and Creative Work, Boulder Faculty Assembly, 2018
  • Fellow, Ecological Society of America, 2016

Students and postdocs

Alumni: See Suding Lab alumni.

Courses taught

  • EBIO 6100: Graduate Seminar in Critical Transitions & Resilience
    • It is increasingly clear that ecological systems, like many other complex systems, have critical thresholds at which they shift abruptly from one state to another--non-linear transitions that are abrupt and hard to reverse. We will explore the application of complexity theory to such issues as desertification in rangelands, dieback in coral reefs, and turbidly in lakes.

Publications