FULL PROFESSOR
Department of Integrative Biology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Email: damschen [at] wisc.edu
Phone: 608-262-2636

damschenlab_ellen

As an ecologist and conservation biologist, I am interested in how local and regional ecological processes affect species diversity with a particular emphasis on how human-induced global changes affect their relative importance. My approach lies at the intersection of basic and applied ecology, using long-term datasets and large-scale experiments from terrestrial plant communities to test basic theory with relevance to applied conservation management. Current projects in the Damschen Lab include:

  1. How connectivity affects plant community dynamics
  2. How habitat arrangement affects seed dispersal
  3. How local and landscape factors affect community restoration
  4. Understanding ecological contingency in climate change effects
  5. Using functional traits to predict responses to global change
  6. Relationships among functional traits

Our study sites include tallgrass prairies and oak savannas of the Midwest and southeastern longleaf pine woodlands.

Portrait courtesy of Liz Kozik.