Global Change Ecology
Global change encompasses many aspects of anthropologically driven environmental changes, including eutrophicaion, climate, land-use and pollution. These changes typically alter resources (e.g., nutrients and water). We are researching the extent to which novel environmental conditions change the composition of plant communities. Our research in this area mostly takes place at Konza Prairie Biological Station LTER. We are studying potential mechanisms of community change (e.g., altered interactions between mycorrhizal fungi and plants, turnover in species dominance, success of new functional traits) and linking community changes to ecosystem productivity.
Meghan is also co-leading a synthesis effort of 100+ global change experiments in plant communities worldwide using the CoRRE database, that she developed with Kim La Pierre.
Related Research and Collaborators: Community Responses to Resource Experiments, Konza Prairie, Kimberly La Pierre, Sally Koerner, Kevin Wilcox |
Relevant Publications
- Wilcox, KR, Tredennick, AT, Koerner, SE, Grman, E, Hallett, LM, Avolio, ML, La Pierre, KJ, Houseman, GR, Isbell, F, Johnson, DS, et al. 2017. Asynchrony among local communities stabilizes ecosystem function of metacommunities. Ecology Letters 20: 1534-1545.
- Koerner, SK, Avolio, ML, La Pierre, K, Wilcox, K, Smith, MD, Collins, S. 2016. Nutrient additions cause divergence of tallgrass prairie plant communities resulting in loss of ecosystem stability. Journal of Ecology 104: 1478-1487
- Avolio, ML, La Pierre, K, Houseman, G, Grman, E, Isbell, F, Johnson, D, Koerner, S, Wilcox, K. 2015. A framework for quantifying the magnitude and variability of community responses to global change drivers. Ecosphere 6: art280.
- Knapp, AK, Hoover, DL, Wilcox, KR, Avolio, ML, Koerner, SE, La Pierre, KJ, Loik, ME Luo, Y, Sala, EO, Smith, MD. 2015. Characterizing differences in precipitation regimes of extreme wet and dry years: Implications for climate change experiments. Global Change Biology. 21:2624-2633.
- Avolio, ML, Koerner, S, La Pierre, K, Wilcox, K, Wilson, GTW Collins, S, Smith, MD. 2015. Changes in plant community composition, not diversity, to a decade of nitrogen and phosphorus additions drive changes in aboveground productivity in a tallgrass prairie. Journal of Ecology 102: 1649-1660.
- La Pierre, KJ, Yaun, S, Chang, CC, Avolio, ML, Hallett, LM, Schreck, T, Smith, MD. 2011. Explaining temporal variation in aboveground productivity in a mesic grassland: the role of climate and flowering. Journal of Ecology 99: 1250-1262.
- Knapp, AK, Hoover, DL, Wilcox, KR, Avolio, ML, Koerner, SE, La Pierre, KJ, Loik, ME Luo, Y, Sala, EO, Smith, MD. 2015. Characterizing differences in precipitation regimes of extreme wet and dry years: Implications for climate change experiments. Global Change Biology 21:2624-2633.
- Smith, NG, Rodgers, VL, Brzostek, ER, Kulmatiski, A, Avolio, ML, Hoover, DL, Koerner, SE, Grant, K, Jentsch, A, Niyogi, D. 2014. Toward a better integration of biological data from precipitation manipulation experiments into Earth system models. Reviews of Geophysics 52: 412-434.