Emily Rauschert
I am interested in understanding the mechanisms behind plant species invasion, and how this can lead to improved management of highly invaded systems. I am also interested in the role that humans play in the spread of invasive species. My work aims to combine modeling, experimental and observational techniques.
I am currently working with data from a large-scale survey of multiple invasive species in a forest along the Pennsylvania-Maryland border. The aim of this work is to identify the factors associated with invasive species presence, and then to predict areas where invasive species are more likely to occur, in order to focus management efforts. I am also working on modeling the spatial spread of an invasive grass, Microstegium vimenium, using data from a three year experiment on establishment in different habitats.
I recently finished my Ph.D. in the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, with Dr. Katriona Shea. My dissertation work focused on interactions between Carduus nutans and C. acanthoides, two congeneric invasive thistle species. It was hypothesized that their observed spatial segregation was due to interspecific competition. I developed spatially-explicit simulation models of competitive interactions between these species at both the landscape and the field levels, to explore the range of behaviors predicted, and compared these to the results of a series of response-surface experiments on competition between these species. In order to understand natural patterns of co-occurrence, I quantified the thistle distribution patterns at two resolutions: the regional level in an area of overlap, and the field level in four fields of natural co-occurrence. I examined their interactions with the existing vegetation in two ways: by quantifying their vegetative associations in four fields of co-occurrence, and by experimentally examining their germination and establishment response to microsite characteristics. Combining the results from these different approaches demonstrates that the observed distributional pattern is unlikely to be due to interactions between thistle species, and is more likely due to their spread history and their difficulty competing with established species.
My other previous projects include a review of the mechanisms underlying the intermediate disturbance hypothesis with Katriona Shea and Stephen Roxburgh. I received my undergraduate degree in Physics and German from Case Western Reserve Universtiy, and I afterwards spent two years at the University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximillians-Universitaet München), studying geology and ecology. I worked with Beate Nürnberger modeling the maintenance of genetic variation in a metapopulation.
Outside of work, I am interested in hiking, camping, learning the guitar, knitting, art history and reading (as well as crazy house projects like rewiring our house, built in 1890). Sadly, I am not currently involved in Hungarian folk dancing, as there are very few Hungarians in central PA.
Contact Emily.
Publications
- Skarpaas, O., J. T. Dauer, C. M. Schwarz, E. S. J. Rauschert, E. Jongejans, R. Jabbour, D. A. Mortensen, S. A. Isard, D. A. Lieb, Z. Sezen, A. G. Hulting, M. J. Ferrari, K. Shea, and E. S. Long. 2007. Dispersal: a synthesis of concepts, patterns and processes across organisms. Ecology Letters (in review).
- Spatial models of the coexistence of two invasive thistles (E. Rauschert and K. Shea). 7th International Conference on the Ecology and Management of Alien Plant Invasions, Fort Lauderdale (November 2003).
- Competition an coexistence of two congeneric invasive thistles (E. Rauschert and K. Shea). 90th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America, Montreal, Canada. (August 2005).
- Shea, K., S. H. Roxburgh and E. S. J. Rauschert (2004). Moving from pattern to process: coexistence mechanisms under intermediate disturbance regimes. Ecology Letters 7(6): 491-508.