The Team
Current Members
Elise Gornish
PI
Interests: Restoration, plant traits, drought effects, STEM inclusion, puns
Trace Martyn
Postdoctoral Researcher
In general, Trace is interested in plant community and quantitative ecology. She particularly enjoys studying semi-arid ecosystems; she has worked on grazing projects on the shortgrass steppe in Colorado, studied complex annual plant communities in Western Australia, and studied climate change impacts on the sagebrush steppe in the Western US. Trace is excited to combine her past experiences with the expertise in the Gornish lab to explore using plant functional traits to inform strategies for multiple management goals.
Katherine Hovanes
Postdoctoral Researcher
Katherine is interested in population and community ecology and diversity. She studies fine-scale spatial patterning of individuals within populations and wants to use demographic data to model long-term population growth under variable conditions and to study species coexistence. Katherine is also a fan of cooking and playing strategic board games.
Julea Shaw
PhD Student
My dissertation research focuses on integrating strip seeding, targeted grazing, and prescribed burns to promote native perennial grass establishment and reduce invasive annual grass cover in California grasslands. I am broadly interested in how invasive species alter ecosystem function, and the restoration of natural spaces for multiple benefits and land uses. I spend most of my time at UC Davis and am co-advised by Dr. Leslie Roche and Dr. Elise Gornish. Before my time at UC Davis, I earned a Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences with an emphasis in Conservation Biology and Ecology at Arizona State University. As an Arizona native, I have a particular fondness for arid and semi-arid systems.
Hannah Farrell
PhD Student
Hannah's research interests are on understanding vegetation community pathways and soil recovery following restoration projects, land management activities, and disturbances such as fire. She hopes her research can be used to establish better management practices.
Iris Rodden
PhD Student
Iris is interested in identifying and understanding aspects of, and interactions between, various edaphic and environmental factors that may influence the recovery outcomes of restoration efforts, such as why certain resultant plant communities may be favored over others. She is also interested in considering predicted climatic changes and anthropogenic pressures in order to help design feasible and realistic restoration targets. She hopes her research will contribute towards recreating ecosystems that are functional and sustainable, although perhaps different than their previous state.
Sierra Lauman
PhD Student
Sierra is broadly interested in plant community and restoration ecology. She has worked extensively in annual plant communities in Southern California. Her focus is on developing theory driven ecological restoration projects that can be used to inform and improve restoration success and management practices. She is a big fan of potlucks and karaoke.
@stlauman