The loss of natural habitat from conversion to human dominated uses is the major cause of the decline of terrestrial biodiversity. The formation of networks of natural reserves is a cornerstone conservation strategy, but existing reserve networks are nowhere near what is necessary to protect existing biodiversity. Much of the existing literature on systematic conservation planning is within a static context even though both conservation planning and habitat loss via development are ongoing processes which unfold over time.

How will anticipated changes in climate interact with grassland plant community composition and diversity to affect the performance of seedlings? We ask this question for two reasons. 1) If plant species are to track spatial shifts in the locations of suitable climatic conditions, plant species must invade communities by means of seedling establishment; more diverse plant communities have been shown to be less invasible, but it is not known how warming will interact with diversity to affect invasion.

If long-term responses of plant photosynthesis to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels are similar or predictably different among species, functional types, and ecosystem types, general global models of CO₂ fertilization effects can effectively be developed. To address this issue we measured gas exchange rates of 13 perennial grassland species from four functional groups exposed to eleven years of long-term free-air CO₂ enrichment (eCO₂, +180 ppm above ambient CO₂, BioCON).

Plant diversity has been studied extensively for its impact on a few basic measures, such as biomass production. However, relatively little is understood about interactions between plant diversity and microbial communities. Through removal of natural enemies with pesticide treatments, we found that foliar fungi have a significant impact on plant productivity, and that the impact is greater at higher than at lower plant diversity.

 Biogeochemical fluxes through urban residences contribute significantly to the overall biogeochemical cycles of cities and of the nation. However, little is known about how biogeochemical fluxes that contribute to environmental pollution vary among households, nor what factors contribute to that variation. We quantified the fluxes of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) through households along an urban to exurban gradient in the Saint Paul-Minneapolis, Minnesota metropolitan area.

The Cedar Creek LTER (CDR) is housed at the University of Minnesota’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (CCESR), an internationally renowned ecological research and education facility, located 35 miles north of the Twin Cities. Established in 1942, Cedar Creek encompasses 2,200 hectares of land comprised of a unique and diverse mosaic of forests, savannas, prairies, wetlands, and open water.

It has been hypothesized that the range limits of woody plants are determined by a trade-off between freezing tolerance and growth rate, such that species with high freezing tolerance have low growth rates. However, willows (genus Salix) appear to be an exception to this pattern as they have high growth rates and high freezing tolerance. To determine whether there is evidence for this trade-off in willows, I compared the growth and freezing tolerance of twenty-eight  willow species collected across North America.