People

People (in order of appearance)

Dr. Justin Wright

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 the questions that interest me. I have 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. Visit our Research page for more information on my current research project.

                                                           CV and contact information:
                                                       jw67 (at) duke.edu
                                                      Department of Biology Duke University
                                                        Box 90338 Durham, NC 27708
                                                          Office BioSci 255 | Lab BioSci 256
                                                        Tel (919) 613-8096 | Fax (919) 660-7293

Bonnie McGill, lab manager

I joined the Wright lab in September 2007. My role involves assisting with Justin's research, i.e. planning logistics, collecting and managing data, analyzing samples, building equipment, and helping the graduate students. Everyday is different from the next. Other important duties include: color-coding labels, decorating the lab with treasures I find in the field (wood, bones, seeds, glass bottles, etc.), making biomass wreaths for Justin's door, and drawing pictures on the white board. Working in the Wright lab continues to be a formative experience for me as a scientist-- Justin has mentored me to develop my first research talk for an ESA meeting and write a research article; I've learned how to run numerous analytical machines and carry out many lab and field protocols; I've worked with fun and interesting people in a number of labs and audited a few graduate courses. In the future, I hope to pursue my own research interests in graduate school, which meld what I've learned here regarding biodiversity and ecosystem function in the context of sustainable agriculture and its effects on water quality.
bonnie.mcgill [at] duke.edu

Amanda Koltz, Ph.D. candidate

I'm interested in the relationship between biological communities and ecosystem functioning. My PhD research is focused on the influences of spider predation and warming on community structure and function in the Alaskan Arctic.

CV
amanda.koltz [at] duke.edu

Marissa Lee, Ph.D. student

Invasive plants can impact native communities and ecosystem functioning in dramatic ways. Many studies report that particular exotic plant species tend to alter soil microbial communities and nutrient cycling in invaded areas. Such alterations can feedback to affect the success of the exotic plant and competitive interactions between the exotic plant and co-occurring native species. However, few studies identify patterns in invasion-induced changes based on conditions in the invaded area. Understanding determinants of variability in plant effects on and responses to soil microbial communities and nutrient cycling regimes is key to predicting invasion success across a landscape.

To develop a predictive framework of exotic plant invasive success in a heterogenous environment, my studies will focus on the invasive grass, Microstegium vimineum. Native to Asia, M. vimineum establishes and persists in a wide range of conditions across the eastern and midwestern U.S., occupying riparian areas, roadsides, and mature forest understory. Numerous studies have reported elevated soil net nitrification potentials and nitrate pools in invaded areas, but invaded areas are not equivalent.

Differences among invaded areas may shed light on the factors that control the magnitude and impact of observed alterations in nitrogen cycling regime and potentially other shifts in microbial-mediated processes. I will conduct field and greenhouse experiments to get at the importance of environmental contingency for exotic plant-induced ecosystem alterations and invasive success. Examining components of invasibility will help explain a central question in invasion biology: why are plants more invasive in some environments than others? Additionally, it will lend predictive power to land managers targeting locations that are likely to suffer most from invasion and inform restoration efforts about the forces that must be overcome if native species are to re-establish in exotic-dominated systems.
marissaruthlee [at] gmail.com

Steve Anderson, lab technician

Advocating for the indisputable value of natural ecosystems, my desire is to study threats human over-exploitation and inadequate management practices have on biological diversity in a wide range of habitats. In particular, I find myself fascinated with habitat demography and plant ecological knowledge as a foundation for the conservation of threatened species and diminished landscapes. Recently, I've been particularly interested and involved in the practical applications of community ecology, ecological restoration, invasive physiology (e.g. Phragmites australis photosynthesis), horticulture, and land-use.

I relocated from Syracuse, New York to join the Wright lab in May of 2011 to further pursue my interests, and join a wonderful group of researchers! Although my responsibilities in the lab are broad, my primarily focus is on the ecological resilience of plant communities to altered fire regimes in the North Carolina Sandhills, and the influence of climate, soil fertility and species composition on old field succession along the Eastern Deciduous Forest.
sa165 [at] duke.edu

Greg Ames, Post-doctoral Associate

I am broadly interested in understanding how the functional traits of individual organisms scale up to produce the spatial and temporal dynamics in species composition that we observe at higher levels of ecological organization. I am particularly interested in understanding: 1) Which organismal traits most strongly impact ecosystem productivity in a particular system? 2) How does the relative importance of these traits change along environmental gradients? 3) How is productivity impacted by the level of functional diversity in the system? I am currently working to understand how the structure of pine savannah communities in the Sand Hills of North Carolina are influenced by the interaction between plant traits and fire frequency.
greg.ames [at] duke.edu

Lab alumni

Jenny Wang with her dog, Chester.

Sarah Diehl in the greenhouse.

Graduate students:
Eileen Thorsos, M.S. defended Dec 2011
Dr. Si-Yi "Jenny" Wang defended June 2011
Dissertation title: "Causes and functional consequences of denitrifying bacteria community structure in streams affected to varying degrees by watershed urbanization."

Undergraduate students:
- 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 '07Honors thesis title: "Functional diversity and the invasibility of an exotic grass (Microstegium vimineum)
- Andrew Gloterman, Duke class '07Honors thesis title: "Predictors of Microstegium vimineum and their implications in stream restorations of central North Carolina."

Technicians:
Allison Rowe, Boris Senatorov, Malia Losordo, Kirsten Moy, and Kirin Riddell

And a big thank you to our amazing crew of past and present work study students: Ansel Bubel, Kiki Contreras, Emma Loewe, Haylee Newton, Rachel Workin, Kathy Zhou, Tuana Phillips, Matt Barnett, Sharon Luong, Joseph Lozier, Samir Arora, Josh Unghire, and Kristin Vaughn.

People (in order of appearance)Dr. Justin Wright