Breadcrumb

Bio
Plant community ecology; restoration, invasion biology, environmental change, and conservation.
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.
Education
- PhD: University of Michigan, 1999
- BS: Williams College, 1994
Awards
- 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
Research
Visit the Suding Lab web site. We are plant community ecologists working at the interface of ecosystem, landscape and population biology. Our goal is to apply cutting-edge science to the challenges of restoration, invasion, and environmental change.
Publications
Recent publications
Opportunities and Constraints in Characterizing Landscape Distribution of an Invasive Grass from Very High Resolution Multi-Spectral Imagery
Publication Date: 2017-05-30
Type: Journal Article
Ecosystem function in complex mountain terrain: Combining models and long-term observations to advance process-based understanding
Publication Date: 2017-04-01
Type: Journal Article
Separating sources of density-dependent and density-independent establishment limitation in invading species
Publication Date: 2017-03-01
Type: Journal Article
Lagging behind: have we overlooked previous-year rainfall effects in annual grasslands?
Publication Date: 2017-03-01
Type: Journal Article
Climate Variability Structures Plant Community Dynamics in Mediterranean Restored and Reference Tidal Wetlands
Publication Date: 2017-03-01
Type: Journal Article
Can community structure track sea-level rise? Stress and competitive controls in tidal wetlands
Publication Date: 2017-02-01
Type: Journal Article
INVASIVE SPECIES AND ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION
Type: Chapter
Positive litter feedbacks of an introduced species reduce native diversity and promote invasion in Californian grasslands
Publication Date: 2017-01-01
Type: Journal Article
Functional diversity increases ecological stability in a grazed grassland
Publication Date: 2017-01-01
Type: Journal Article
Can functional traits predict plant community response to global change?
Publication Date: 2016-12-01
Type: Journal Article
Prescribed Fire Effects on Population Dynamics of an Annual Grassland
Publication Date: 2016-11-01
Type: Journal Article
Ecological dynamics and ecological restoration
Type: Chapter
Stronger effect of gastropods than rodents on seedling establishment, irrespective of exotic or native plant species origin
Publication Date: 2016-10-01
Type: Journal Article
Teasing apart plant community responses to N enrichment: the roles of resource limitation, competition and soil microbes
Publication Date: 2016-10-01
Type: Journal Article
Incorporating biotic factors in species distribution modeling: are interactions with soil microbes important?
Publication Date: 2016-10-01
Type: Journal Article
Neotropical rainforest restoration: comparing passive, plantation and nucleation approaches
Publication Date: 2016-10-01
Type: Journal Article
Transitions and invasion along a grazing gradient in experimental California grasslands
Publication Date: 2016-09-01
Type: Journal Article
Conditional vulnerability of plant diversity to atmospheric nitrogen deposition across the United States
Simkin SM; Allen EB; Bowman WD; Clark CM; Belnap J; Brooks ML; Cade BS; Collins SL; Geiser LH; Gilliam FS...
- Simkin SM
- Allen EB
- Bowman WD
- Clark CM
- Belnap J
- Brooks ML
- Cade BS
- Collins SL
- Geiser LH
- Gilliam FS
Publication Date: 2016-04-12
Type: Journal Article
Scaling up the diversity-resilience relationship with traitdatabases and remote sensing data: the recovery ofproductivity after wildfire
Publication Date: 2016-04-01
Type: Journal Article
Optimizing Available Network Resources to Address Questions in Environmental Biogeochemistry
Hinckley E-LS; Anderson SP; Baron JS; Blanken PD; Bonan GB; Bowman WD; Elmendorf SC; Fierer N; Fox AM; Goodman KJ...
- Hinckley E-LS
- Anderson SP
- Baron JS
- Blanken PD
- Bonan GB
- Bowman WD
- Elmendorf SC
- Fierer N
- Fox AM
- Goodman KJ
Publication Date: 2016-04-01
Type: Journal Article
Grassland compost amendments increase plant production without changing plant communities
Publication Date: 2016-03-01
Type: Journal Article
Embracing variability: environmental dependence and plant community context in ecological restoration
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Type: Journal Article
Cattle as Dispersal Vectors of Invasive and Introduced Plants in a California Annual Grassland
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Type: Journal Article
Stewardship, Conservation, and Restoration in the Context of Environmental Change
Type: Chapter
Top of the World Collaborations: Lessons from above Treeline
Type: Chapter
Pages
Teaching
Courses
- 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.
Current postdocs and students
Alumni
Outreach
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