Research

UWBG Research Programs

• The Rare Care program partners with 10 federal and state land holding agencies to monitor 405 rare plant populations. In 2003 the only state-of-the-art climate controlled storage and lab facility for seeds of Washington’s rare plants was built at UWBG. The Miller Seed Vault currently stores seeds of 18 rare Washington species and has received 703 accessions (seed lots)
• Biology of invasive species, including assessment of invasive potential of introduced plants and impacts of current invaders

• Propagation of rare species for reintroduction into the wild
• Biology of rare plants
• Systematics of economic and other cultivated plants, especially citrus and Clerodendrum
• Restoration ecology research (collaboratively with the Restoration Ecology Network), using the Union Bay Natural Area as its outdoor laboratory
• Restoration and management of prairies, savannas, and forests
• Long-term vegetation dynamics
• Statistical methods for community ecology
• Ecology and restoration of prairies in San Juan National Historic Park
• Intertidal wetland restoration in Puget Sound
• Plant ecophysiology and climate change
• Physiological, developmental, and ecological responses of plants in urban environments

Other affiliated researchers work on:

• Human dimensions of urban forestry and urban greening
• Human response to land use change along the urban to wildland gradient, and the relationship between forest lands and the built environment
• Assessment of eelgrass (Zostera marina) in Westcott Bay, San Juan County due to a loss of eelgrass population from mysterious causes
• Forest soil microbiology (especially decomposition, nutrient cycling processes, and mycorrhizae) and forest pathology (especially root and canker diseases)
• Host selection behavior of bark beetles, aquatic entomology, and tropical forest insects
• Tissue to whole tree responses to environmental stresses, particularly in water and nutrient relations, carbon economy, and growth of trees from diverse ecosystems
• Plants as a medium for design and the unique spatial and temporal experiences that plants contribute to design