The Ecotype Team:
Baer LaboratorY
(SIU)
People and Interests
Sara Baer
Contact sgbaer@siu.edu
Rachel Goad
Contact rkgoad@siu.edu
Meredith Mendola
Contact mmendola@siu.edu
Research interests: role of roots in restoring ecosystem functioning, and their association with ecotypes of the dominant prairie grass Andropogon gerardii when planted across the North American tallgrass prairie precipitation gradient."
Rachel studies plant community level productivity response to different sources of a dominant C4 grass species during restoration. She is particularly interested in aboveground net primary productivity of our seeded plots across the precipitation gradient. This work allows comparison of the effect of climate and dominant grass source on restored communities, with implications for understanding effects of climate change. She is working on a separate project in which she investigates the effect of soil microbial communities as another driver of ecotypic variation.
