Kara A. Moore, Lab Alumni
The focus of my research is to understand the limits on species' distributions and population persistence at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Both edaphic tolerance and interactions with other species can affect plant reproductive fitness, with cascading effects on population abundance, density, and landscape diversity patterns. I am especially interested in how population ecology and adaption generate distributional patterns over time, particularly how the edges of distributions are maintained and what factors contribute to the persistence of rare species.
Local distributional limits in California grasslands
Currently I am a post-doctoral researcher in the lab of Maureen Stanton in the Department of Evolution and Ecology at UC Davis. We are examining the local scale ecological and evolutionary constraints on the distribution of Gilia tricolor. Patchy annual populations, such as Gilia’s, present excellent opportunities to examine constraints on populations over short spatial and temporal scales. Our objective is to understand how environmental and genetic factors affect local expansion of plant species’ ranges. Although in recent years many theoretical models have been developed to address this issue, little has been done to test empirically test developed theories. Our work combines multi-year field experiments and modeling (with collaborator Richard Gomulkiewicz at Washington State University) understand how range expansion in plants may be influenced by adaptation at population margins, by changes in environmental variability across population boundaries, and by dispersal of dormant seeds beyond those boundaries.
Applying species distribution models
In collaboration with Pat McIntyre I am working on a project that directly applies species distribution modeling techniques and field validation to the conservation of rare taxa. Our goal is to develop methods by which predictive habitat models can be built for desert rare plant taxa, and to assess the accuracy and usefulness of such models in identifying habitat areas beyond those places where modeled taxa are currently known to exist. Imminent large-scale solar and wind utility installations in the Mojave and Colorado Desert Region pose a threat to many rare species, including rare plants. However, a significant challenge in analyzing the biological resource impacts of solar development in the region is the lack of detailed distribution information for sensitive plants and animals. Species distribution models have previously been used to identify potential new localities of rare taxa and to model potential shifts in habitats with global warming, but the usefulness of these models in applied conservation settings has yet to be evaluated. If the models developed for this project prove accurate in identify new localities of rare taxa after assessment via ground-truthing field surveys, our methods may yield a foundation for applying species distribution models in applied conservation settings.
Reproductive biology of rare desert plants
For the past three years I have been working with Bruce Pavlik of Mills College on reproductive biology of eleven rare plant taxa at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in the Amargosa Desert of Nevada. The focus of our research has been linking multiple kinds of data on plant reproductive biology, phenology, and pollinator activity and abundance to determine an index of population vulnerability for the suite of rare species at the refuge that can be used in restoration planning. We have also found that herbivory by both insects and mammals poses a significant constraint on the reproduction of several of these rare taxa and is an important management concern.
