PI
Sara Hotchkiss | Professor
Research Interests
Studies of vegetation history, climate history, ecosystem response to climate change, disturbance and landscape dynamics, and paleoecology.
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Courses taught
Current graduate students
Shana Ederer | PhD Candidate
Current Projects
1) A survey of boreal bryophytes in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin for cyanobacterial associates. 2) A study of bryophyte-cyanobacterial nitrogen fixation across a substrate-age gradient at The Ridges, Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. 3) An analysis of bryophyte-cyanobacterial community composition using DGGE across a substrate-age gradient at The Ridges.
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Soo Hyun Kim | PhD Candidate
Current Projects
1) Reconstructing the late Quaternary history of Asian dust accumulation rates from montane peat bog deposits (the Kohala mountain, Hawaii). 2) Interpreting temporal relationships between Hawaiian paleodust records and relevant climate changes.
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Tom Thein | PhD Student
Current Projects
Transforming ethnobotanical beginnings to live in the ecology of my new home
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Michael Peyton | PhD Candidate
Current Projects
1). Investigating the role of plant functional traits and spatial scale in understory responses to pig activity in Hawaii, 2). Using peat archives to identify the timing of pig encroachment and effects on forest resilience in Hawaiian montane wet forests, 3) Modeling pig dietary niche breadth in response to environment and human activity
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Joan Chimezie | MS Student
Research Focus
Reconstructing past climate and vegetation during the Holocene using fossil pollen and other paleoecological multi-proxies; using paleoecological approaches to understand the links between past changes in climate and vegetation; peatland ecology.
Research affiliates
Randy Calcote | Research Associate
Current Projects
I am involved in several projects in the Western Great Lakes region to study the effects of Holocene climate changes on forests growing on different soil types, in different hydrological positions on the landscape, and in patches surrounded by varying abundances of lakes and wetlands that limit the spread of fire.
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Patricia Sanford | Honorary Fellow
Current Projects
Climate and freshwater aquatic organism shifts on leeward Hawaii Island before, during, and after human settlement
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Marjeta Jeraj | Honorary Fellow
Current Projects
1) European Late Glacial and Holocene vegetation and climate history, 2) beginning of agriculture in Europe, 3) human ecodynamics of the Hawaiian ecosystem, 4) impact of early settlers on the environment, 5) ethnobotanical values of archaeobotanical remains, and 6) the use of wood in archaeological contents.
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Kevin D. Barrett | PhD Graduate, Honorary Fellow
Current Projects
1) Ecological trends and climate history of Hawaiian montane peatland – wet forest mosaics. 2) Biogeography of wetland testate amoebae and zooplankton. 3) Automated through-put imaging of microfossils for climate history research.
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Current undergraduate students
Jeffery Meyer (Botany)
Cassandra Kaplon (Biology and Environmental Studies)
Emma Dressel (Botany and Environmental Studies)
Alumni, past affiliates, and old friends
Dr. Kevin D. Barrett, PhD Botany (2019)
Dissertation: “Hawaiian montane peatland ecology and history through analysis of testate amoebae and Cladocera”
Danielle Gygi, BS Geoscience (2019)
Senior Thesis: “Ecosystem implications of Sphagnum moss expansion in Kohala, Hawai’i”
Dr. Kristin Michels, PhD Botany (2018)
Dissertation: “Disturbances over space and time: Edge effects on the Sylvania Wilderness old–growth forest”
Lisa Schomaker, MS Botany (2017)
Thesis: “The Moss that ate Kohala: Plant diversity loss across a Sphagnum palustre gradient in Hawaiian montane wet forest”
Katie Laushman, MS Environment & Resources (2017)
Thesis: “Investigating a Novel Invasion: Jumping Worms in Wisconsin”
Bridget Gilmore, BS Conservation Biology (2017)
Senior Thesis: “Sphagnum palustre: A Moss Bogging Down the Competition in Kohala Forest, Hawaiian Island, USA”
Dr. Avni Malhotra, Post-doc Fellow Center for Climatic Research (2015 – 2016)
Postdoctoral research: Drought as a trigger for changes in biogeochemistry and carbon accumulation in kettlehole ecosystems
Rachel Brunner, MS Botany (2015)
Thesis: “40 years of vegetation change in an east Maui cloud forest”
Emily Blessing, MS Botany (2015)
Senior thesis: “Edge effects on vegetation at Sylvania Wilderness Area, Michigan”
Jennifer Schmitz, PhD candidate Limnology and Marine Sciences
Dissertation: “Lake ecosystem responses to drought and watershed disturbance, Northern Highlands Lake District, Wisconsin, USA”
Jake Siewert, BS Botany (2013)
Senior thesis: “Sensitivity of fire regimes to climatic variation over the past 13,000 years in northwestern Wisconsin”
Dr. Paul Reyerson, Post-doc fellow Botany (2012 – 2013)
Postdoctoral research: Phytolith analysis in dryland forests and agricultural systems on the Island of Hawai‘i
Dr. Shelley Crausbay, PhD Botany (2012), Post-doc Fellow Botany (2011-2014)
Dissertation: “Vegetation-climate relationships across space and time at high elevations in Hawai‘i”
Postdoctoral research: Predicting future distribution of cloud forest and high-elevation species in Hawai‘i: integrating modern and paleoecological data to plan for climate change
Dr. Michael Tweiten, PhD Botany (2008), Post-doc Fellow Botany (2008-2011)
Dissertation: “The history and ecology of jack pine budworm populations in Northwestern Wisconsin”
Postdoctoral research: “Patterns of disturbance, succession, and nutrient availability in Hawaiian wet forests”
Sara Bogen, MS Land Resources (2007)
Thesis: “Vegetation and fire history of Founders Pond, Effigy Mounds National Monument”
Corie Yanger, BS Botany (2007)
Senior thesis: “Morphology of fern sporangia for greater taxonomic resolution in Hawaiian vegetation history”
David Rogers, Post-doc fellow Botany (2005-2007)
Postdoctoral research: “Historical ecology of high-elevation ecosystems on Haleakala, Maui”
David Alexander, MS Botany (2005)
Thesis: “An analysis of late Holocene vegetation and fire in the Northwestern Wisconsin Sand Plains”
Dr. Mara Alexander, PhD Limnology & Marine Sciences (2005)
Dissertation: “Lake ecosystem changes across landscape position and human development gradients in Vilas County”
Dr. Robert Booth, Post-doc fellow and associate scientist Center for Climatic Research(2003 – 2005)
Postdoctoral research: “Testate amoebae, ecology of tree species, and climate history”