Welcome!  We are a research lab at Duke University exploring the causes and consequences of patterns of biological diversity across the planet. We combine observational and experimental approaches with modeling to develop and test hypotheses and build towards synthetic ecological theory.  We hope you enjoy exploring our website! 

You can visit us in person at the Biological Sciences building room 256, 130 Science Drive, Durham NC 27708.

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Field and Lab Techs, 2013

We would like to thank Cinnamon Mittan, Laureen Echiverri, Rachel Bangle, Fabio Baptista, Cherissa Dukelow, and Hannah Kisley for their outstanding work this summer!

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News

October 2013 Marissa Lee has her work on AM fungal effects on Microstegium published in Biological Invasions


July 2013 Cari Ficken publishes her seed bank research in Wetlands Ecology and Management!

July 2013 Justin is quoted in a ScienceNow article about a paper describing beaver effects on carbon storage

June 2013 Aspen Reese publishes in PNAS!

May 2013 Amanda will be hosting PolarTREC teacher Nell Kemp in the field this July! Keep up to date with Nell's Arctic expedition here.

Apr 2013 Greg will be speaking at the UNC-CH Ecology Seminar Series on Thursday, April 4 at 4:00pm in Wilson 128.

Mar 2013 Justin's research is the focus of a podcast on the Functional Ecology website

Jan 2013 Aspen Reese publishes her undergraduate honors work in the Journal of Morphology.  Pikas are cool!!

Dec 2012 The 2nd Annual Lab-o-lympics with the Bernhardt and Heffernan labs results in sweet-sweet victory for the Wright lab! Hats off to Bob Shriver and Erin Seybold for their contributions to our success. Greg, Justin and Steve swept the winners podium!

Nov 2012 Justin and Ariana Sutton-Grier publish in Functional Ecology: Does the leaf economic spectrum hold within local species pools across varying environmental conditions?

Nov 2012 Marissa Lee has passed her prelims and is now a Ph.D. candidate. Congratulations Marissa!

Sept 2012 Bonnie McGill is now pursuing her Ph.D. with Stephen Hamilton at MSU in East Lansing, MI. Bonnie will be studying interactions between agroecosystem land management and water quality. We miss you and wish you all of the best, Bonnie!

July 2012 The NSF-funded SLaGNet is off to a strong start. The six sites are now set up! Thanks everybody for your help shoveling soil,wheel barrowing, and planting.
Read more

April 2012 Marissa Lee and others publish in Oecologia: Positive feedbacks to growth of and invasive grass through alteration of nitrogen cycle. pdf

April 2012 Justin and Jason Fridley publish in Oecologia: Drivers of secondary succession rates across temperate latitudes of the Eastern USA: climate, soils, and species pools. pdf