Bryan L. Foster

Associate Professor
Plant Community Ecology
Ph.D., Michigan State University
Phone: (785) 864-4361
Fax: (785) 864-5860

Areas 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

Long-term studies of secondary succession, community assembly and ecosystem restoration (click for details)
The roles of neutral- and niche-based assembly processes in regulating plant community response to environmental change
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
Microbial diversity of grassland soils
Landscape-scale restoration of Longleaf Pine Savanna

Opportunities For Graduate Research in the Foster Lab

Current Lab Members

Quinn Long (Ph.D. Candidate, Co-advised with Dr. Kelly Kindscher): Restoration ecology. qugalo@ku.edu

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

Sarah Hinman, M.S. (Senior Lab Technician). shinman@ku.edu

Alex Bittel (Undergraduate Lab Technician). abittel@ku.edu

Former Postdocs

Todd Aschenbach, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Grand Valley State University.

Gregory Houseman, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Wichita State University.

Suneeti Jog, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of Texas at Tyler.

Former Graduate Students

Todd Aschenbach, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Grand Valley State University.

Cathy Collins, Postdoctoral Researcher, Washington University

Timothy Dickson, Field Station Staff Scientist, Tyson Research Center, Washington University

Irene Khavin, M.A.

Erin Questad, Postdoctoral Researcher, USDA Forest Service, Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, Hilo Hawaii.

Selected Publications (in PDF format)

Foster. B. L., K. Kindscher, G. R. Houseman and Cheryl A. Murphy. (in press). Effects of hay management and native species sowing on grassland community structure, biomass and restoration. Ecological Applications.

Collins, C. D. and B. L. Foster. 2009. Community-level consequences of mycorrhizae depend on phosphorus availability. Ecology 90: 2567–2576.

Collins, C. D., B. L. Foster and R. D. Holt. 2009. Patch size effects on plant species decline in an experimentally fragmented landscape. Ecology 90: 2577—2588.

Aschenbach, T., B. L. Foster and D. W. Imm. 2009. The initial phase of a longleaf pine-wiregrass savanna restoration: species establishment and community responses. Restoration Ecology.

Collins, C. D., and B. L. Foster. 2008. The role of topography and soil characteristics in the relationship between species richness and primary productivity in a Kansas grassland. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 11: 105–117.

Dickson. T. L., and B. L. Foster 2008. The relative importance of the species pool, productivity and disturbance in regulating grassland plant species richness: a field experiment. Journal of Ecology 6: 937–946.

Questad, E. J. and B. L. Foster. 2008. Coexistence through spatio-temporal heterogeneity and species sorting in grassland plant communities. Ecology Letters 11: 717–726.

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 15: 652–661.

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.