Sustainability Leadership Fellowship Cohort: 2014-2015

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Biology

Research Summary: Kevin is a Ph.D. candidate who focuses on climate change effects on grasslands. Although predictions consistently point towards a world with altered total rainfall amounts which will come in bigger storms with longer dry periods in between, these predictions vary substantially among local regions. Additionally, the magnitude (i.e., sensitivity) with which each region will respond to these changes in precipitation regimes will vary as well. His research focuses on sensitivity patterns of productivity (i.e., how much grass growth will occur in an entire grassland in a year) across multiple grasslands, across multiple drivers (rainfall amount vs rainfall pattern), and across multiple plant assemblages within a grassland. His future research will focus on incorporating these patterns into current ecosystem models.