Schwinning Lab

Plant Ecology

Yang Tse

Texas Ecolab

Roadcut
A road cut exposes the complex below-ground environment tree roots must navigate.

The Plant Ecology Lab is participating in the Texas Ecolab Program, a partnership between land owners and the university to provide access to ecologically valuable, privately owned land for the purpose of conducting research. We are grateful to all our individual sponsors who have welcomed us over the years.

Our research has focused on examining landscape variability in water resources for tree growth and survival during drought. We are making our findings available to the landowners and the general public through our short Ecolab Reports. You are invited to peruse our first report below and we appreciate any feedback you may have.

Ecolab Report I : Patterns of tree mortality in the aftermath of the 2011 Texas Drought.

Ecolab Report II : The water sources of common trees in the Texas Hill Country.

 

 

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Lab News

Recent student presentations

Evan Simon presented his research at the 2022 TXSER in Austin entitled "The Relationship Between Elevation and Response of Trees of the Edwards Plateau to Drought." He won the first prize for an Oral Presentation by an Undergraduate Student.

Highlighted publications

A long-awaited Special Feature in the Journal of Ecology has finally been completed. These are our lab's contributions:

Schwinning, S., DeFalco, L.A., Esque, T.C. 2021.What common-garden experiments can tell us about climate responses in plants. Journal of Ecology 110: 986-996 pdf

Custer, N.A., Schwinning, S., Lortie, C.J., Esque, T.C., DeFalco, L.A. 2021. Local climate adaptations in two ubiquitous Mojave Desert shrub species, Ambrosia dumosa and Larrea tridentata. Journal of Ecology 110: 1072-1089. pdf

Other lab news

The following students have received research awards in 2022:

Evan Simons, who conducted research towards an undergraduate honors thesis, was awarded an undergraduate research followship by the College of Science and Engineering. He also won the first prize for the 'Best Undergraduate Oral Presentation' at the TXSER conference (Society for Ecological Restoration, Texas Chapter).

Owen Moorhead won the Ann Miller Gonzalez Graduate Research Grant from the Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT) to conduct an experiment in prairie restoration in collaboration with the Native Prairies Association of Texas (NPAT).

Silas Jenkins won the Ann Miller Gonzalez Graduate Research Grant from the Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT) to investigate the importance of mycorrhizal fungi for the survival of oak seedlings under drought.

Contact information
Susan Schwinning
601 University Drive
312 Supple Science Bldg
Texas State University
San Marcos, TX 78666, USA
Email: schwinn@txstate.edu

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Texas State University

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Comments on the contents of this site should be directed to Susan Schwinning