Lab PI, Ellen Damschen, received the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Inclusive Excellence. She is humbled and grateful to be honored in this way. You can read about the award here:
https://news.wisc.edu/distinguished-teaching-awards-2018/
And listen to her thoughts on teaching here:
Former undergraduate researcher, Shannon Grover, has just received the 2017 Richard and Minnie Windler Award for Ecology for the best ecological paper in the journal Castanea. Shannon published the paper, “Indirect Effects of Landscape Spatial Structure and Plant Species Richness on Pollinator Diversity in Ozark Glades,” based on the findings from her undergraduate research project in our lab with former Ph.D. student, Jesse Miller. Congratulations Shannon!
The paper can be found at: http://castaneajournal.org/doi/abs/10.2179/16-108
Undergraduate researcher, Genevieve Anderegg, and her graduate student mentor, Jon Henn, have received a grant from the Prairie Biotic Research Small Grants Program to ask whether the timing of disturbance and snow depth influence seed predator behavior and whether these impacts alter plant recruitment. Congratulations Genevieve and Jon!
Each semester, our lab provides mentored research experiences for undergraduates. These often occur through Biology 151/152 independent projects or independent research course credit (Zoology 299 or 699). If you are interested in working in our lab for Fall 2017, please email Dr. Laura Ladwig (Damschen Lab Postdoc) at lmladwig@wisc.edu to determine if there are openings available and if there is a good match between your interests and the work in our lab. Please include the following in your email:
Students must be self-motivated, able to work independently, keep open communication with other lab members about progress and problems, and seek creative solutions to challenges that arise. Basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel is helpful. We are especially interested in working with students who have career interests (or potential career interests) in ecology, botany, or related fields.
This summer has been a wonderful chance to work together and celebrate projects coming to fruition.
New papers led by Jesse Miller on how different flowering guilds respond to landscape spatial structure and the relationship between plant and consumer richness in the Ozark glades are coming out. Wonderful group of undergraduates in the lab measuring gazillions of functional traits. Incredible team sampled long-term change in our plant community assembly and restoration plots across the southeast.
Saw amazing flora and fauna – including gopher tortoises and the largest mosquitoes we have ever seen.
Was wonderful to have the whole lab together in the southeast. Dill Pickle potato chips kept us going in 100+ F, humid conditions! And, we built an impromptu plant press out of cutting boards. We love field work!
New paper out by Shannon Grover (former undergrad) and Jesse Miller (former Ph.D. student). Spatial habitat structure affects plant diversity, which in turn, affects pollinator diversity in the Ozark glades.http://castaneajournal.org/doi/full/10.2179/16-108
We have a new postdoc opening to study the assembly and limitations to recovery of longleaf pine understory plant communities. This project is in collaboration with John Orrock (University of Wisconsin) and Lars Brudvig (Michigan State University), and with funding from the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP). Full application details here: serdp-postdoc-ad-2017
