Lab members

Graduate Students

Stephanie McFarlane

I am interested in plant community assembly and restoration and related impacts on pollinators and pollination services. I am working to better understand how different management regimes affect restored tallgrass prairie plant and insect communities. This work is a collaboration between our lab and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) as well as Claudio Gratton and Jade Kochanski at UW-Madison.

Email: mcfarlane [at] wisc.edu

Katherine T. Charton

My research interests broadly lie in landscape and plant ecology, with particular emphasis on community response to disturbance, fragmentation and habitat connectivity, and use of emerging technologies. My current project investigates how climate change, other disturbances, and their interactions mediate critical tipping points between grassland and woodland alternative stable states. I seek to identify drivers and mechanisms of woody encroachment in tallgrass prairies, informing land management practices and maintaining native prairie biodiversity and ecosystem services into the future.

Email: charton [at] wisc.edu

angelica bautista

Angelica joined the lab in Fall 2020. More information to come! Welcome Angelica!

Email: abautista3 [at] wisc.edu

MICHELLE HOMANN

Michelle is joining the lab in Fall 2021. More information to come! Welcome Michelle!

Email: [at] wisc.edu

Undergraduate Research Technicians

Sam Ahler, LEAD RESEARCH TECHNICIAN

I am both the lead lab technician and a researcher in the lab. As the lead tech, I am in charge of lab logistics like ordering equipment and supplies and scheduling undergrads, but also managing the trait database for our Wisconsin and South Carolina collection sites. My current research is focused on how belowground reproductive structures (i.e. rhizomes and bud banks) respond to cooling temperatures and the result it has on perennial recruitment during the growing season. I hope to expand the scientific knowledge concerning belowground reproductive tissue and how it is impacted by climatic changes, while also keeping the lab running smoothly.