Jim Bever
[email protected] Much of the conceptual basis of ecology and evolution was developed with animals in mind. Plants and fungi differ from animals in important ways, including their motility, their nutrient acquisition systems and their genetic systems. Conceptual frameworks building on these peculiarities can be very useful in exploring the dynamics of population and communities of plants and fungi. Developing, testing, and exploring the implications of these models has been the goal of my work. https://eeb.ku.edu/james-bever |
Peggy Schultz
[email protected] My research extends from understanding factors that underlie the re-establishment of prairies to environmental education. One focus of our lab is the interaction between the soil community and the prairie plant community. We consider the impact of members of the soil community on plant survival and growth. Generally we study arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). This is a group of soil fungi that associates with plant roots. They mine soil nutrients and water and transport them back to their hosts. We address questions related to the benefits and costs of these relationships to both plants and fungi. Some of our work tests whether AMF can enhance host plant survival and growth in prairie restorations. https://biosurvey.ku.edu/directory/peggy-schultz |
Post-Docs
Alice Tipton
[email protected] My research focuses on plants’ interactions with other organisms, specifically microbes, and how these interactions impact plant communities and populations. I specifically work in North American grasslands, where I am interested in how mycorrhizal fungi impact plant community succession and in turn grassland restoration. I also enjoy communicating science to broad audiences, and this includes implementing student driven research projects in both college level and K-12 classrooms. |
Johnathan Bauer
[email protected] I am a post-doctoral fellow working with Jim Bever (U of Kansas) and Lars Brudvig (Michigan State). My current research tests how plant-microbial interactions shape community ecology, especially secondary succession. I am also investigating the mechanisms that shape plant and microbial community assembly within ecological restorations and the consequences of these processes for ecosystem services. https://sites.google.com/site/jonathantbauer/ |
Tanya Cheeke
[email protected] My research interests are broadly in the ecology and evolution of plant-microbe interactions and specifically in plant-mycorrhizal relationships. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Bever/Schultz lab, I have been investigating the role of plant-soil feedbacks within a restoration ecology context and evaluating plant-fungal specificity across a gradient of plant successional stages. Using a genomics approach, I am also testing the efficacy of using mycorrhizal fungi isolated from remnant prairies to help native plants establish in invaded grasslands. My research aims to characterize the functional and taxonomic diversity of soil microbial communities in both managed and natural ecosystems. https://tanyacheeke.com/ |
Liz Koziol
[email protected] My graduate work focused on native prairie mycorrhizal fungi. I collected prairie mycorrhizae from old-growth prairies and cultured the for use in restoration. Through this work, I found that inoculation with prairie microbes including mycorrhizal can help prairie seedlings and seeded species establish in a restoration. I found that some late successional plant species--those that are most often only found in late successional, remnant and undisturbed prairie communities--will only establish in restorations with the inclusion of their below ground prairie mycorrhizae. I was so impressed with what prairie fungi could do to improve restoration, that I began a small business called MycoBloom so that I can provide these prairie fungi to others. My current research is sponsored the Kansas Biological Station, the Land Institute, and the Malone Family Land Preservation Foundation. I am working with the perennial plant species that the Land Institute has been conducting research on including Kernza, Silphium, perennial wheat and perennial Sorghum. Some of these plants, Silphium for example, are later successional prairie species. Based on my research in the prairie, these species are likely to be strongly dependent on mycorrhizal fungi. Currently, I am isolating mycorrhizal fungi from prairies in Kansas to inoculate perennial crop species in field and greenhouse studies at the new greenhouse and field stations in Lawrence, Kansas. |
Doctoral Students
Geoffrey House
[email protected] I am interested in two broad areas related to plant ecology and communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. First, I am testing the multiple year effects of inoculating AM fungi and adding biochar (partially burned plant material) into the soil of plant restorations. Second, I am interested in better determining the range of DNA sequence variation that exists in AM fungi at different taxonomic level (including within a single cell), and also using rRNA gene sequencing to determine AM fungal species composition in the field with the goal of tracking the spread of inoculated AM fungi through the soil of prairie restorations. |
Camille Delavaux
[email protected] My research goal is to understand how humans are impacting the most diverse places in the world. For me, that means tropical South America, primarily Ecuador. My PhD thesis is on microbially mediated plant invasion from mainland Ecuador to the Galapagos Islands. I'm interested in how microbes (both mycorrhizal fungi and pathogens) drive this plant invasion and what this means for native plants, ecosystem function, and restoration. http://camilledelavaux.weebly.com/ |
Rob Ramos
[email protected] Evolutionary Biology has always been central to my research focus. I am specifically interested in the evolution and persistence of symbiotic relationships. Mycorrhizal fungi are a vital vital part of the soil community with strong symbiotic relationships with many prairie plants. Having grown up in the Midwest, I have always been fond of prairie systems. The high rate of both natural and anthropogenic disturbances create an intriguing research venue. I also have a background in geospatial analysis and would like to apply geospatial modeling techniques to prairie systems and symbiotic mycorrhizal relationships. |
Visiting Scholars
Jun Yu
[email protected] I am a visiting scholar from the Institute of Applied Ecology Chinese Academy of Sciences. I am interested in using arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi to enhance the resistance of plants to environmental stress (e.g., salinity, drought, and heavy metal contamination), and, consequently, facilitate the vegetation rehabilitation of disturbed habitats such as desertified grassland and mine tailings. In the growth season of 2017, I will set up a greenhouse experiment to investigate the impact of AM fungi on the competitiveness of native plant species against a non-native invasive grass. |
Guangzhou Wang
[email protected] I am a visiting doctoral student from the Chinese Agricultural University (CAU) working with James Bever and Peggy Schultz. My interests focus on the roles of soil microbes, mainly mycorrhizal fungi and soil pathogens, in influencing plant interactions, coexistence and plant community productivity in both agricultural intercropping system and natural prairie grassland. From the perspective of plant-soil feedbacks, I am trying to dig out some general rules applicable to both systems in instructing agriculture practice and ecological restoration. |
Affiliated Researchers
Theo Michaels
[email protected] I love thinking about restoration in the context of culture, science and management. I am particularly interested in grasslands because of their subtle beauty, the way they play with wind, and because they often intersect wild and working spaces. My research goal is to find innovative ways to interface with ecosystem processes to drive restoration efforts.Specifically, I am interested in plant-soil interactions because they represent a mechanism that inherently creates feedbacks that we may be able to use and manipulate as tools for restoration. Jacob Hopkins
[email protected] |
Courtney Masterson
[email protected] Courtney Masterson's research focuses on the effects of deer herbivory on tallgrass prairie plant communities. Her thesis was published in August of 2016. She is assisting the Schultz Lab with plant identification while continuing her research in the remnant prairies of Eastern Kansas. |
Undergraduate Students
Austin Yoder
[email protected]
I am a student studying Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology with an interest in ecological genetics, especially in an agricultural sense. I assist many of our PhD candidates and post-doctoral researchers in many ways, including field work, DNA extractions, and other downstream DNA applications. My hope is to one day work with common agricultural crops in an effort to design larger, healthier, more resistant plants to feed our ever growing population.
[email protected]
I am a student studying Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology with an interest in ecological genetics, especially in an agricultural sense. I assist many of our PhD candidates and post-doctoral researchers in many ways, including field work, DNA extractions, and other downstream DNA applications. My hope is to one day work with common agricultural crops in an effort to design larger, healthier, more resistant plants to feed our ever growing population.
Collin Bruey
[email protected]
I am a junior pursuing a degree in biochemistry and a minor in astrobiology. I am also working on graduating through the KU University Honors Program.
[email protected]
I am a junior pursuing a degree in biochemistry and a minor in astrobiology. I am also working on graduating through the KU University Honors Program.
Grace Parker
[email protected] Hard working, goal oriented undergraduate student partnering with the Bever-Schultz laboratory researchers in order to gain knowledge and experience of working in an academic environment with similar students and alike goals. To learn and be molded by my peers in order to develop as a truly skillful and acknowledged student on the Biology, Pre-Vet graduate track. |
Alumni