It has been a busy time in the Crawford Lab, sorry for the lack of updates! But, we have gotten a lot done in the meantime….

…Including harvesting a collaborative project with Christine Hawkes that tested how historic precipitation influenced intraspecific plant-soil feedback. There were some interesting findings, so keep an eye out for a new paper coming soon!

…We established our big project on dune restoration funded by the Texas Sea Grant! Thankfully, the weather was cloudy and a little rainy to keep us cool as we manually moved over 25 tons of sand into these 60 pots. In the pots, we planted two grasses primarily used in restoration projects on Galveston Island. Half of the pots received inoculum that contained soil microbes from the dunes in Galveston. We are testing how plant diversity and soil microbes influence initial plant establishment, soil development, and the diversity of colonizing native plant species.

…The lab came together to help Anna finish up a big project that is testing how climate change influences plant-soil feedback in coastal prairies.

…Anna and Kerri were also able to head over to Sunny Florida for ESA, where Kerri presented a talk on plant soil feedback.

…We were lucky enough to have Ph.D. student Maya Reese join us in lab for a semester. Maya did a rotation in our lab testing how plant plant diversity indirectly influences future plant performance through changes in soil microbial communities. Luckily, Maya is only a floor away from us, so we can still get to hang out!

…A new graduate student joined us on our road to scientific discovery! Hannah Locke, who taught science with Teach for America is joined our lab in Fall 2016 as a Ph.D. student! (Photo cred to Lyle Hawthorne).

…We also got a whole new team of undergraduate research assistants to help us with our research! With their many helping hands, our projects are moving forward and new discoveries are being made. For more information, please check out our “Lab Members” page!