Faculty

Bryan L. Foster - Plant Community Ecology
Associate Professor
Ph.D., Michigan State University
Phone: (785) 864-4361

Area of Interest and Research

Broadly, research in our lab explores how biotic interactions, resource availability, and species pools interact to govern the assembly, diversity, and functioning of plant communities. We are also interested in understanding the impacts of management and human-induced global changes on biodiversity and ecosystem function and applying this understanding to the conservation and restoration of native plant communities.

Current research topics:

• The roles of neutral- and niche-based assembly processes in regulating plant community response to environmental change.
• Effects of environmental heterogeneity, disturbance and dispersal on grassland community assembly and ecosystem function
• The influence of grassland management on local and regional patterns of plant biodiversity and ecosystem function
• Effects of habitat fragmentation on plant community dynamics and biodiversity
• Landscape-scale restoration of Longleaf Pine Savanna

People

Gregory Houseman (USDA Postdoctoral Fellow): Plant community ecology; invasive species. Houseman@ku.edu

Cathy Collins (Ph.D. Student): Plant community ecology; mycorrhizas; restoration ecology. ccollins@ku.edu

Cheryl Murphy (Ph.D Student): Grassland ecology; soil microbial ecology. murphyc@ku.edu

Erin Questad (Ph.D. Student, NSF pre-doctoral fellow): Community ecology, plant-animal interactions, conservation biology. questad@ku.edu

Selected Publications (in PDF format)

Foster, B.L., C.A. Murphy, K. Keller, T. Aschenbach, E.J. Questad and K. Kindscher. 2007. Restoration of prairie community structure and ecosystem function in an abandoned hayfield: a sowing experiment. Restoration Ecology (in press).

Questad, E.J. and B.L. Foster. 2007. Vole disturbances and plant diversity in a grassland metacommunity. Oecologia 153 341-351.

Billings, S.A., C.M. Brewer and B.L. Foster. 2006. Incorporation of plant residues into soil organic matter fractions with grassland management practices in the North American Midwest. Ecosystems. 9:805-815.

Cook ,W. M., J. Yao, B. L. Foster, R. D. Holt  and L. B. Patrick. 2005. Secondary succession in an experimentally fragmented landscape: community patterns across space and time. Ecology 86:1267-1279.

Smith, V. H., B. L. Foster, J. P. Grover, R. D. Holt, M. A. Leibold, F. deNoyelles. 2005. Phytoplankton species richness scales consistently from laboratory microcosms to the world’s oceans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102:4393-4396.

Foster, B. L. and T. L. Dickson. 2004. Grassland diversity and productivity: the interplay of resource availability and propagule pools. Ecology 85:1541-1547.

Foster, B. L., T. L. Dickson, C. A. Murphy, I. S. Karel and V. H. Smith. 2004. Propagule pools mediate community assembly and diversity-ecosystem regulation along a grassland productivity gradient. Journal of Ecology 92: 435-449.

Foster, B. L. and D. Tilman 2003. Seed limitation and the regulation of community structure in Oak Savanna grassland. Journal of Ecology 91:999-1007.

Cook, W. M., K. T. Lane, B. L. Foster and R. D. Holt. 2002. Island theory, matrix effects, and species richness patterns in habitat fragments. Ecology Letters 5:619-623.

Foster, B. L. 2001. Constraints on colonization and species richness along a grassland productivity gradient: the role of propagule availability.  Ecology Letters 4:530-535.

Foster, B. L. and K. L. Gross. 1998. Species richness in a successional grassland: effects of nitrogen enrichment and plant litter. Ecology 79:2593-2602