Justin Wright, PI
While much of my research has focused on wetland plant communities, I am willing to study any organism and work in any ecosystem to answer questions that interest me. I've worked in systems ranging from tropical streams to desert shrublands and am always looking for ways to explore the causes and consequences of patterns of biological diversity across the planet. My research program combines observational and experimental approaches with modeling to develop and test hypotheses and build towards synthetic ecological theory.
CV | Google Scholar Profile
Email: jw67 (at) duke.edu
CV | Google Scholar Profile
Email: jw67 (at) duke.edu
Jeri L. Parrent, Lab Manager & Research Associate
Jeri (she/her) joined the lab in September 2022. But she is no stranger to Duke. Jeri received her PhD at Duke University in the Graduate Program in Ecology, where she studied the influence of elevated CO2 and nitrogen deposition on plant-mycorrhizal community dynamics. In addition to looking after the lab, she is also investigating how increasing salinity along the North Carolina coast affects foliar fungal endophyte community structure and function.
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
David De La Mater, PhD Candidate
David (he/him) joined the lab in August 2018. He studies how environmental conditions influence the form of individuals and their role in the systems they inhabit, often using biogeographic theory as a lens through which to study this problem. David's PhD research uses salt marsh communities as a system in which to investigate this topic. He hopes to use the insights gleaned from his research to help inform conservation efforts. David is co-advised by Brian Silliman.
Website: https://dsdelamater.weebly.com/
Email: dsdelamater@gmail.com
Website: https://dsdelamater.weebly.com/
Email: dsdelamater@gmail.com
Aeran Coughlin, PhD Candidate
Aeran (they/them) is interested in the ecosystem and community-level effects of interactions between plants and soil microbes, and how these processes are impacted by climate change. In their PhD, Aeran seeks to understand the role of plant-microbe interactions in community composition shifts and large-scale tree mortality events (ghost forests) in forested coastal wetlands caused by sea level rise and salt water intrusion. They also seek to understand how fire interacts with these mechanisms in both the formation of ghost forests and post-mortality regeneration.
Twitter: @aeran_coughlin
Email: aeran.coughlin [at] gmail.com
Richard Wong, PhD Candidate
Richard (he/him) joined the lab in August 2020. He is interested in climate change effects on food web structure and nutrient cycling within the fluid of pitcher plants. He hopes to use this unique system to inform conservation and preservation efforts regarding the response of larger aquatic systems to environmental change. He is co-advised by Jean Philippe Gibert.
Email: [email protected]
Yuyang Wang, PhD Candidate
Yuyang Wang (she/her) joined the Bernhardt and Wright labs in Fall 2024. Yuyang is broadly interested in the ecological causes and consequences of plant species invasions within a global change framework. Her research explores how climate change influences the introduction and establishment of invasive plant species into novel environments, and the resulting ecological and impacts on plant community dynamics and biogeochemistry. To explore these questions, Yuyang’s work focuses on the Asian reed Phragmites and North American cordgrass Spartina in North American and Asian salt marsh ecosystems.
Email: [email protected]
Undergraduate Lab Members
Tomás Delgado, Duke class of 2025
Tomás (he/him/they/them) is pursuing a BS in Biology and Computer Science and a minor in Bioinformatics. Tomás is interested in plant-fungal interactions and is conducting an honor's thesis examining competitive interactions between root-associated fungal cultures exposed to varying salt concentrations.
Summer Walker, Duke class of 2025
Summer Walker (she/her) is studying Environmental Science and Biology at Duke. She is interested in conservation biology and ecological restoration, and is conducting her senior independent research project in the Wright lab.
Lab Alumni
Research associates:
Steve Anderson (research associate/lab manager) worked in the Wright lab from 2011-2014. His primary focus was on Longleaf Pine savannah research at Fort Bragg, and managing laboratory operations. Steve continues to work at Duke as a research associate in the Bernhardt lab.
Bonnie McGill (lab manager) and Bowie-wan Kenobi (lab pup) worked with Justin from 2007-2012. During that time, Bonnie was a major contributor to Wright lab as a whole. She recently completed her Ph.D. at Michigan State University.
Post-docs:
Rachel Mitchell. Currently an Assitant Professor at Norther Arizona University
Greg Ames. Currently a data scientist at Novozymes
Graduate students:
Anna E. Nordseth, PhD defended May 2024. Dissertation title: "Fruiting, Frugivory, and Fieldwork: Ecological Interactions and Actors in a Changing World."
Anita Simha, PhD defended May 2024. Dissertation title: "History is Not the Past: Exploring Historical Contingency in Ecological Theory, Disturbance Recovery and Community Assembly."
Emily Ury, PhD defended 2021. Dissertation title: "Ecosystem Consequences of Sea Level Rise and Salinization in North Carolina's Coastal Wetlands."
Cari Ficken, PhD. defended March 2018. Dissertation title: "Scaling individual plant responses to fire and resource availability to community composition and disturbance-recovery"
Aspen Reese, Ph.D. defended May 2017. Dissertation title: "Ecological forces in microbial communities: experimental tests of community ecology theory in soil and the mammalian gut."
Marissa Lee, Ph.D. defended April 2016. Dissertation title: "Leaf traits, neighbors, and abiotic factors: ways that context can mediate the impact of invasive species on nitrogen cycling."
Amanda Koltz, PhD. defended May 2015. Dissertation title: "The changing structure and function of arthropod food webs in a warming arctic."
Si-Yi "Jenny" Wang, Ph.D. defended June 2011. Dissertation title: "Causes and functional consequences of denitrifying bacteria community structure in streams affected to varying degrees by watershed urbanization."
Eileen Thorsos, M.S. defended Dec 2011
Undergraduate students:
Courtney Hill, Duke class '19
Honor thesis title: "Hidden Stories of the Ground Layer: Potential Mechanisms Driving Community Changes in Invertebrates due to Microstegium vimineum"
Morgan Irons Duke class '17
Honors thesis title: "The Development of Ecological and Environmental Mechanisms to Drive Primary Succession in the Establishment of a Closed Ecological System on Mars"
James Cho, Duke class '16
Honors thesis title: "Island biogeography vs physiochemical controls on zooplankton diversity and communities"
Donnie Vineyard, Duke class '13
Honors thesis title: "Annual growth in a pine savanna is driven by interactions between fire and climate"
Jamie Peeler, Duke class '12
Honors thesis title: "Trait plasticity of tree species in response to changing disturbance regimes in the Kruger National Park"
Kiki Contreras, Duke class '12
Honors thesis title:"Effects of biotic and abiotic environments on the distribution, growth, and mortality of juvenile clams in the San Juan Islands, WA"
Sarah Diehl, Duke class '09
Honors thesis title: "Microstegium vimineum, an invasive grass, affects tree germination, soil communities, and nitrogen cycling in a riparian system."
Nate Emery, Duke class '07
Honors thesis title: "Functional diversity and the invasibility of an exotic grass (Microstegium vimineum)
Andrew Gloterman, Duke class '07
Honors thesis title: "Predictors of Microstegium vimineum and their implications in stream restorations of central North Carolina."
Technicians:
Fabio Baptista, Laureen Echiverri, Cherissa Dukelow, Malia Losordo, Hannah Kisley, Cinnamon Mittan, Kirsten Moy, Kirin Riddell, Allison Rowe, Boris Senatorov, and Samantha Walker.
A big thank you to our amazing crew of past work study students: Samir Arora, Rachel Bangle, Matt Barnett, Gaby Benitez, Ansel Bubel, Shanay Conaway, Kiki Contreras,
Ashley Green, Catherine Henry, Molly Johnson, Aimee Lansdale, Emma Loewe, Joseph Lozier, Sharon Luong, Libby Malcolm, Matthew McCann, Miles Muller, Haylee Newton, Cameron Oswalt, Tuana Phillips, Gabriel Sneed, Josh Unghire, Kristin Vaughn,
Rachel Workin, Cha Yang, and Kathy Zhou.
Steve Anderson (research associate/lab manager) worked in the Wright lab from 2011-2014. His primary focus was on Longleaf Pine savannah research at Fort Bragg, and managing laboratory operations. Steve continues to work at Duke as a research associate in the Bernhardt lab.
Bonnie McGill (lab manager) and Bowie-wan Kenobi (lab pup) worked with Justin from 2007-2012. During that time, Bonnie was a major contributor to Wright lab as a whole. She recently completed her Ph.D. at Michigan State University.
Post-docs:
Rachel Mitchell. Currently an Assitant Professor at Norther Arizona University
Greg Ames. Currently a data scientist at Novozymes
Graduate students:
Anna E. Nordseth, PhD defended May 2024. Dissertation title: "Fruiting, Frugivory, and Fieldwork: Ecological Interactions and Actors in a Changing World."
Anita Simha, PhD defended May 2024. Dissertation title: "History is Not the Past: Exploring Historical Contingency in Ecological Theory, Disturbance Recovery and Community Assembly."
Emily Ury, PhD defended 2021. Dissertation title: "Ecosystem Consequences of Sea Level Rise and Salinization in North Carolina's Coastal Wetlands."
Cari Ficken, PhD. defended March 2018. Dissertation title: "Scaling individual plant responses to fire and resource availability to community composition and disturbance-recovery"
Aspen Reese, Ph.D. defended May 2017. Dissertation title: "Ecological forces in microbial communities: experimental tests of community ecology theory in soil and the mammalian gut."
Marissa Lee, Ph.D. defended April 2016. Dissertation title: "Leaf traits, neighbors, and abiotic factors: ways that context can mediate the impact of invasive species on nitrogen cycling."
Amanda Koltz, PhD. defended May 2015. Dissertation title: "The changing structure and function of arthropod food webs in a warming arctic."
Si-Yi "Jenny" Wang, Ph.D. defended June 2011. Dissertation title: "Causes and functional consequences of denitrifying bacteria community structure in streams affected to varying degrees by watershed urbanization."
Eileen Thorsos, M.S. defended Dec 2011
Undergraduate students:
Courtney Hill, Duke class '19
Honor thesis title: "Hidden Stories of the Ground Layer: Potential Mechanisms Driving Community Changes in Invertebrates due to Microstegium vimineum"
Morgan Irons Duke class '17
Honors thesis title: "The Development of Ecological and Environmental Mechanisms to Drive Primary Succession in the Establishment of a Closed Ecological System on Mars"
James Cho, Duke class '16
Honors thesis title: "Island biogeography vs physiochemical controls on zooplankton diversity and communities"
Donnie Vineyard, Duke class '13
Honors thesis title: "Annual growth in a pine savanna is driven by interactions between fire and climate"
Jamie Peeler, Duke class '12
Honors thesis title: "Trait plasticity of tree species in response to changing disturbance regimes in the Kruger National Park"
Kiki Contreras, Duke class '12
Honors thesis title:"Effects of biotic and abiotic environments on the distribution, growth, and mortality of juvenile clams in the San Juan Islands, WA"
Sarah Diehl, Duke class '09
Honors thesis title: "Microstegium vimineum, an invasive grass, affects tree germination, soil communities, and nitrogen cycling in a riparian system."
Nate Emery, Duke class '07
Honors thesis title: "Functional diversity and the invasibility of an exotic grass (Microstegium vimineum)
Andrew Gloterman, Duke class '07
Honors thesis title: "Predictors of Microstegium vimineum and their implications in stream restorations of central North Carolina."
Technicians:
Fabio Baptista, Laureen Echiverri, Cherissa Dukelow, Malia Losordo, Hannah Kisley, Cinnamon Mittan, Kirsten Moy, Kirin Riddell, Allison Rowe, Boris Senatorov, and Samantha Walker.
A big thank you to our amazing crew of past work study students: Samir Arora, Rachel Bangle, Matt Barnett, Gaby Benitez, Ansel Bubel, Shanay Conaway, Kiki Contreras,
Ashley Green, Catherine Henry, Molly Johnson, Aimee Lansdale, Emma Loewe, Joseph Lozier, Sharon Luong, Libby Malcolm, Matthew McCann, Miles Muller, Haylee Newton, Cameron Oswalt, Tuana Phillips, Gabriel Sneed, Josh Unghire, Kristin Vaughn,
Rachel Workin, Cha Yang, and Kathy Zhou.
