Justin Bagley is a postdoc co-advised with Margaret Torn at Berkeley Lab studying land-atmosphere interactions in the heterogeneous agricultural landscape of the Southern Great Plains. He completed his PhD in 2011 at University of Wisconsin.
Andrea Campanella has been a research associate for the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment since May 2014. He is a native of Rome, Italy where he received his Bachelor and Masters degrees in Biology. He worked at several research projects in Europe, South America, and since 2001, the US where he also pursued a PhD (ABD) at New Mexico State University. He is especially interested in understanding how climate affects plant and animal dynamics. He now lives in Colorado and in his spare time he is a rock guide and outdoor photographer.
Cristina Castanha works at Lawrence Berkeley Lab where she conducts field- and laboratory-based research on terrestrial biogeochemical cycling. She also leads the demography effort for the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment.
Erin Conlisk is a postdoctoral researcher using spatially explicit demographic models to estimate the effects of climate change on subalpine tree populations as part of the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment. Previously, Erin combined SDMs and population models to predict extinction risks due to climate change, altered fire regime, and urban growth in Southern California plants. Erin's empirical work involves experimentally manipulation of shrub species richness and functional trait diversity across large scale plots, exploring their impact on restoration success in coastal sage scrub. Before working at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Erin worked in the Applied Plant Ecology Division of the San Diego Zoo's Institute for Conservation Research, in Helen Regan's lab at UC Riverside, and was a short-term postdoctoral fellow with the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. Working in John Harte's lab at UC Berkeley, Erin's dissertation focused on statistical spatial ecology.
Meredith Jabis is a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley working on the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment located at Niwot Ridge in Colorado. She is currently interested in species interactions and their role in community assembly within the alpine tundra. Specifically she is interested in how climate warming may modify these interactions to buffer or enhance the potential for local extinction. Her background is in rare plant and community ecology with a focus in California's eastern Sierra Nevada.
Dianne Quiroz is a research assistant quantifying rates of nitrogen fixation by bacteria associated with conifer foliage in Western U.S. forests. She was an LBNL SULI/BLUR student after graduating from UC Berkeley in 2015. Dianne is broadly interested in the dynamics of community-level responses to anthropogenic global change and intends to pursue graduate study in ecology.
Tom Powell is a postdoc at Berkeley Lab working with NGEE Tropics team to model tropical forest dynamics in response to climate variability and change. More generally, Tom is a Forest ecologist that studies how disturbances, climate change and land management impact forest ecosystem function and services. He completed his PhD in 2015 at Harvard University.
Lab Alumni
Yaqiong Lu completed her Ph.D in 2013, modeling climate-ecosystem feedbacks in agricultural systems and was a postdoc with Lara and with Elliott Campbell investigating effects of climate changes on crop yields. She is currently a postdoc at NCAR.
Andrew Moyes was a postdoc on the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment, investigating physiological responses of establishing conifers to climate variation, and a researcher with Lara and with Carolin Frank studying nitrogen fixation by bacteria associated with subalpine trees. He is currently a researcher at UC Berkeley.
Kaitlin Lubetkin completed her PhD in 2015 on conifer encroachment into subalpine meadows in the Sierra Nevada. She is currently the acting field station director, Sierra Nevada Research Station, Yosemite National Park.
Ethan Brown was a research associate for the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment from 2011-2014 and is now working in the private sector.
Daniel Winkler's M.S. research focused on the effects of climate change on alpine plant productivity as part of the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment on Niwot Ridge in Colorado. He is now a PhD student at UC Irvine studying effects of climate change in deserts.
Miguel Fernandez completed his PhD in 2013 and is now a postdoc at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research in Leipzig. He uses spatio-temporal tools, such as GIS, remote sensing and species distribution modeling, to understand the effects of global change on biodiversity patterns.
Ramona Butz established GLORIA sites at RMBL as part of her postdoc and is currently the Northern Province Ecologist for the Klamath, Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity, and Six Rivers National Forests, US Forest Service.
Akasha Faist was a research associate on the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment and is now pursuing a PhD at University of Colorado, Boulder investigating vernal pool plant community dynamics with Dr. Sharon Collinge.
Scott Ferrenberg was a staff research associate with the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment. He completed his PhD at the University of Colorado, Boulder studying plant-insect interactions with Dr. Jeff Mitton and is now a postdoc at USGS.
Gina Radieve was a research associate in the lab and is now working for the California Department of Fish and Game in Sacramento.
Jennifer Wolf completed her M.S. in Environmental Systems in 2011. Her research focused on characterizing limber pine physiological response to climate change. She currently breeds golden-doodle dogs and volunteers for climate adaptation organizations in Berkeley.
Undergraduate Research Students
Dianne Quiroz was a 2015 LBNL SULI program student and is currently a research assistant with Lara and with Carolin Frank.
Lucille Watkins was a 2015 LBNL SULI program student and is currently a MS student at University of Florida.
Rick Thomas was a 2014 LBNL SULI program student and is currently a MS student UC Santa Barbara.
Greg Vose was a 2013 UC Merced REU Program student and is currently a PhD student at UC Irvine.
Alex Lau graduated from UC Merced in Cognitive Science and is currently employed at CBF Electric.
Melanie Wiederhold was a 2012 University of Colorado REU Program student.
Alan Hong completed his BS in Earth Systems Science from UC Merced in 2012 and completed a MS in Chemistry at CSU Fullerton.
Ana Becerril graduated from UC Merced in Earth Systems Science and is current staff at UC Merced.
Daniella Rodriguez was a 2010 University of Colorado REU Program student.
Renee Rozaieski was a 2010 University of Colorado REU Program student and is now Assistant Rowing Coach at Merion Mercy Academy in Philadelphia.
Marc Wasserman was a 2010 UC Merced REU Program student and is now employed at CLEAResult.
Ruth Xochihua graduated with a B.S. in Earth Systems Science from UC Merced in 2010. After working in the Peace Corps’ Environmental Education program, she is now at NSF International.
Alyssa Carrell was an undergraduate in the lab who went on to complete a PhD student in Environmental Systems at UC Merced, working with Carolin Frank. She is now a postdoc at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Paul Samelson