Adrienne Ernst

Dr. Ernst uses her training as a community ecologist and invasion biologist to understand how we can improve ecosystem restoration and land management. She is especially interested in studying how the species composition and traits of restored plant communities affect management outcomes and ecosystem services delivered. Dr. Ernst combines field and greenhouse work to measure plant traits that help her characterize ecological strategies. She is also interested in understanding how we can get difficult to establish species to germinate more readily in restoration efforts. She has experience working in a number of different ecosystems from iconic tall grass prairies of the Midwest to lush woodland habitats around the Great Lakes to scenic wetlands in the Intermountain West.