2021 News

Congratulations to Elizabeth Forbes, who successfully defended her PhD dissertation on the effects of large wildlife loss on carbon cycles. Elizabeth will be beginning a prestigious NSF-funded postdoctoral fellowship at Yale this fall, working with Oz Schmitz. 

Congratulations to Maggie Klope who successfully completed her MA dissertation on the interacting effects of large wildlife loss and climate on plant functional traits. Maggie will be starting a PhD program here at UCSB working with Carla D'Antonio and  Lee Love-Anderregg.

Steph was the recipient of the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRF) to support her future research work with the Young Lab. The GRF provides three years of financial support in the form of tuition and stipend assistance to awardees. Steph is incredibly grateful to the NSF for this opportunity. She has an interest in human impacts to wildlife communities and vector-borne diseases.

Mike McFarlin is joining us from San Jose State University to collaborate on a DNA metabarcoding project with Drs. Georgia Titcomb and Hillary Young.

Recent lab PhD recipient Ana Miller-ter Kuile collaborated with EEMB graduate student Austen Apigo and Dr. Young to explore whether surface contamination alters diet DNA metabarcoding results from small-bodied invertebrates on Palmyra Atoll. 

Ruby's work is featured in the article "False Forests" by Sonia Fernandez 

Devyn completed her dissertation defense titled: Interactions among multiple drivers of global change: climate-mediated effects of wild and domestic herbivores on plant communities and ecosystem function in southcentral California. 

Last week Ana completed her dissertation defense titled: Demystifying Species Interactions: Conservation and Theory from the Model Island System of Palmyra Atoll. 

Elizabeth will join Dr. Oz Schmitz's Lab this fall!

The past quarter brought new successes and new faces to the Young Lab!