Research in Dr. Cara Nelson's Restoration Ecology Lab focuses on
four primary areas: 1) effects of large-scale disturbance on
understory plants and trees, 2) conceptual basis for ecological
restoration, 3) efficacy and ecological impacts of restoration
treatments, and 4) sampling methods for detecting changes in
understory plant abundance. These topics are being explored at
landscape, population, and organism scales, through field
experiments, retrospective studies, and meta-analyses. Cara and
her students are particularly interested in projects that both
contribute to basic knowledge of plant and restoration ecology
and provide managers with timely information about the
ecological effects of management interventions. Effects of
disturbance on plants– This area of research focuses on how
plants respond to changes in biotic and abiotic environments.
During the last four years, Cara and her students have
investigated: plant physiological and demographic responses to
disturbance, including whether plants of simi