Adrian Monroe

Sustainability Leadership Fellowship Cohort: 2015-2016

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability

Research Summary: Agricultural intensification, primarily through heavy use of fertilizer and pesticides, has yielded substantial increases in food production, yet this has also come at an environmental cost, reducing biodiversity and increasing non-point source pollution. My dissertation work demonstrated that native warm-season grasses can be a sustainable alternative to exotic forages by reducing fertilizer inputs, increasing cattle gain, and providing more nesting opportunities for grassland birds. As a postdoctoral fellow I am examining landscape-scale responses of sage-grouse populations to grazing management on public lands, including interactions between the timing and intensity of grazing and precipitation.