Dr. Autumn Sabo’s research interests center on how human-caused stressors affect plant communities, conservation, and restoration options. Her recent work has focused on how deer and silvicultural techniques impact forest understories and rare plant management but future projects will likely extend to invasive plant biology as well as climate change adaptation.

She is happy to advise undergraduate students who are passionate about ecology or biostatistics. She is also interested in co-advising graduate students but is currently unable to serve as the primary graduate advisor because of being based at an undergraduates-only campus.  For a motivated graduate student willing to conduct fieldwork in western PA, limited project funding might be available to work on the competition experiment mentioned below with additional support from a co-advisor at the University Park campus. You are encouraged to contact Dr. Sabo at axs182@psu.edu to write a grant proposal together, or to discuss independent research or honors credits. Continue reading for possible research topics that students can explore in the lab.

Research underway in the lab:

• How deer and canopy conditions affect the quality/form of trees (Flambeau River State Forest, WI, in collaboration with Dr. Jodi Forrester and Dr. David Mladenoff and other researchers from NCSU and UW-Madison)
• The effects of treating competing vegetation and reducing deer herds on tree regeneration and understory plant communities (Bald Eagle, Rothrock, Susquehannock State Forests, PA, as part of the Deer-Forest Study, a Penn State/state agency collaborative effort)
• How deer and invasive earthworms influence the genetic diversity of ramps (across PA, in collaboration with Dr. Sarah Nilson and Dr. Eric Burkhart, both Penn State faculty)
• The effects of aboveground and belowground competition from woody plants on herbaceous communities (W. PA, in collaboration with Art Gover, a private consultant, Dr. Phillip Jones, Penn State, Dr. Emily Lavely, Michigan State Extension, Charles Bier, Western PA Conservancy and Michael DiRinaldo, PA State Parks)
• How to better conserve blue lupine – investigation into prescribed fire, deer exclusion and genetic diversity (across PA, in collaboration with Dr. Margarita López-Uribe, Penn State)
• Factors affecting establishment success of forest patches in former lawn (in Beaver County, in collaboration with Jeff Karwoski, Reforest Our Future, and many other local community members)
• Understory community change over 16 years across National Parks of the Mid-Atlantic region

Camera traps are useful for collecting data on deer abundance and activities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Potential avenues for additional research:

• Dynamics of native v. invasive species establishment depending on the surrounding plant community and disturbances
• Seed bank variation with long-term deer pressure
• Insect community variation with long-term deer pressure
• History of species expansions into W. PA and onto Penn State Beaver campus
• Deer activity and behavior in response to hunting and habitat characteristics
• Restoration of old fields and degraded woodlots