Faculty Advisor
Karen Holl
Karen Holl is a Professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She received her B.S. in Biology from Stanford University, completed her Ph.D. in Biology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and did a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. Her research focuses on understanding how local and landscape scale processes affect ecosystem recovery from human disturbance and using this information to restore damaged ecosystems. She has studied restoration ecology in a range of ecosystems, including tropical rain forests, eastern hardwood forests, and chaparral, grassland and riparian systems in California. She is increasingly interested in the feedbacks between climate change and restoration. She advises numerous public and private agencies on land management and restoration. At UCSC she co-directs the Center for Tropical Research on Ecology, Agriculture, and Development and works to further efforts to conserve tropical forest, in part by training students from Latin American countries. In 2008 she was selected as an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow and is committed to communicating with policy makers and the public. She teaches courses in restoration ecology, conservation biology, and environmental problem solving, and chairs the Environmental Studies Department Curriculum Committee. She is the associated editor for the Island Press-Society for Ecological Restoration book series. Dr. Holl serves on the advisory board for WEBS, a program aimed at retaining female scientists. Additional Biographical Information. Selected Publications.
Current Graduate Students
Michael Vasey
My research is focused on the importance of the marine layer (coastal fog) to the ecology and diversity of chaparral vegetation and manzanitas (Arctostaphylos species). I also participate in research on tidal wetland ecosystems in the San Francisco Bay region and the role of habitat restoration in supporting an endangered beetle in moist coastal prairie in the Santa Cruz area. Decades of work with V.T. Parker and J.E. Keeley has resulted in two new treatments of Arctostaphylos. I’m having fun.
Daniella Schweizer
The Janzen-Connell hypothesis predicts that host-specific pathogens present in the soil around parent trees lead to higher disease-induced seedling mortality. Some authors have also argued that shared AM fungi among conspecifics can lead to greater survival. In addition to conspecifics, closely related plant species are more likely to share pathogens and mycorrhizal symbionts than are more distantly related species. The research proposes to test whether there is a phylogenetic signal in the way that established tree species can facilitate or deter the subsequent establishment of secondary tree species by the degree to which species share deleterious or beneficial organisms like pathogens and mycorrhizae. Research will take place within a pre-existing large-scale reforestation initiative that aims to test the viability of planting a variety of native tree species across a range of climatic and edaphic conditions within Panama (Prorena project). Results from this research will inform managers and researchers working in tropical regions about how to plan a multi-species restoration plantation based on the phylogenetic relationship of the tree species.
J. Leighton Reid
My research in southern Costa Rica focuses on the reciprocal interactions between frugivorous birds and bats and the tropical habitats that they occupy. Because of differences in food handling behavior and predation pressure, bird- and bat-mediated seed dispersal differ compositionally and spatially. These differences are likely to influence plant community assembly after disturbances, and the quality of this influence is likely to change over time. Abandoned Neotropical pastures are an ideal setting to test such hypotheses. The maintenence of seed dispersal and other ecosystem services provided by birds and bats are contingent upon the persistence of these animals in fragmented landscapes. Another facet of my research is the development of restoration techniques, such as artificial bat roost boxes, that can augment bat populations while maximizing their contribution to forest restoration.
Lewis Reed
My research has been focused on the ecology, management, and restoration of grasslands. My past research projects have included assessments of invasive species management in California grasslands, restoration in California grasslands and North American tallgrass prairie, and insect pollination of members of the Poaceae. I am currently developing a project on management of grasslands invaded by medusahead grass (Taeniatherum caput-medusae).
Past Graduate Students
Rebecca Cole
PhD 2009
Dissertation: Ecological and Socioeconomic Aspects of Restoring Forest in a Tropical Agricultural Landscape, Southern Costa Rica
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Townsend Lab, University of Colorado at Boulder
Prairie Johnston
MS, CSU Chico, 2009 (co-sponsored with Dr. David Wood)
Thesis: Effect of Distance to Forest, Overstory Cover, and Understory Grass Competition on Riparian Forest Understory Species
Current Position: Environmental Consultant
Martha Bonilla-Moheno
PhD 2008
Dissertation: Forest Recovery and Management Options in the Yucatan Peninsula
Current Position: Assistant Professor at Instituto Nacional de Ecología, A.C., Mexico
Charles McClain
MS, CSU Chico, 2008 (co-sponsored with Dr. David Wood)
Thesis: Understory Vegetation Dynamics in Restored Riparian Forest along the Sacramento River
Current Position: Environmental Consultant
Aaron Gabbe
PhD 2007
Dissertation: Evolution of Dilute Nectar in the Hummingbird Pollinated Plant, Ipomopsis aggregata
Current Position: Environmental Consultant
Liba Pejchar
PhD 2004
Dissertation: Ecology of an Endangered Hawaiian Honeycreeper and Implications for Conservation on Private Land
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Colorado State University
Grey Hayes
PhD 2002
Dissertation: Cattle Grazing Effects on California Coastal Prairie and Associated Annual Forbs
Current Position: Coordinator of Coastal Training Program at the Elkhorn Slough Foundation
Felicia Rein
Phd 1999
Dissertation: Vegetative Buffer Strips in a Mediterranean Climate
Current Position: Environmental Consultant
Visiting Scientists
Elise Buisson
Research Interests: Grassland Restoration
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France
Daniel Vieira
Research Interests: Tropical Dry Forest Restoration
Current Position: Research Scientist, EMBRAPA, Brazil
Alexandre Bonesso Sampaio
Research Interests: Tropical Dry Forest Restoration
David Morales
Research Interests: Tropical Landscape Ecology
Current Position: Executive Director, CEMEDE, Costa Rica