The Dukes Lab

Jeff Dukes (Professor)

Elin Jacobs (Research Assistant Professor, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Modeling of terrestrial ecosystems, plant ecophysiology, precipitation, water stress.

Haley Flickinger (Ph.D. Student, Biological Sciences)
Responses of plants and plant communities to environmental change

Laura Jessup (Ph.D. Student, ESE Program, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Plant competition; plant-soil interactions; trait theory

Andrea Nebhut (Ph.D. Student, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Invasive plant species; climate change

Indira Paudel (Postdoctoral Scholar, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Drought responses of trees; tree ecophysiology

Akane Abbasi (M.S. Student, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Soil-atmosphere greenhouse gas fluxes.

Laura Ploughe (Ph.D. Student, Biological Sciences)
Biodiversity, plant communities, precipitation.

Zachary Reaver (M.S. Student & Knox Fellow, ESE Program, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Tree seedling responses to climate change.

Megan Scott (M.S. Graduate, ESE Program, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Precipitation change and soil-atmosphere greenhouse gas fluxes.

Maria Uribe (Ph.D. Student, ESE Program, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Seasonality and climate feedbacks from tropical forests.

Risa McNellis (Technician)
Lead technician for the Boston-Area Climate Experiment

Irfan Rashid (Visiting Scholar)
Visiting Scholar; Assistant Professor of Botany at the University of Kashmir

Jing Wang (Visiting Scholar)
Visiting Scholar; Hebei University

Novem Auyeung (Ph.D. Graduate, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Responses of ammonia-oxidizing communities and nitrogen cycling to climate change

I'm interested in how climate change, specifically warming and changes in precipitation, affect nitrogen cycling rates, nitrogen availability, and ammonia oxidizing bacteria and archaea communities throughout the year. I'm also working on a side project on the ecosystem service impacts of biofuels.

Katie Duszynski (M.S. Graduate, ESE program)
Carbon and nitrogen storage in tallgrass prairie soils

My research centers on the rate of carbon and nitrogen accrual in tallgrass prairie soils and how the composition of the plant community may affect this rate.

Carol Goranson (Lab Technician)
Maintenance and operation of the Boston-Area Climate Experiment

Jamie Herold (M.S. Graduate, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Management of plant species composition and diversity of Indiana roadsides

Susanne Hoeppner (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Effects of climate change on plant productivity and phenology

Guoyong Li (Visiting scholar, Henan University)
Thermal acclimation of plants

Hannah Lyons-Galante (Field Technician)
Assistance with the Boston-Area Climate Experiment

Yuan Miao (Visiting student, Henan University)
Identification of active vs. dormant microbes in soil

Jeanne Osnas (Purdue Postdoctoral Scholar in Natural Resources, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Leaf trait responses to environmental change.

Alejandro Salazar (Ph.D. Graduate, Biological Sciences; Fulbright-Colciencias Fellow)
The role of microorganisms on soil-atmosphere carbon cycling

Mike Schuster (Ph.D. Graduate, ESE program; USDA NIFA National Needs Fellow)
Climate change-induced precipitation variability impacts on invasive plant species and ecosystem processes

Nick Smith (PhD Graduate, Postdoctoral Researcher, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Long-term plant responses to climate change

My research focuses on the physiological responses of plants to climatic changes including changes in temperature, precipitation, and incoming radiation and how they influence ecosystem functioning and climate feedbacks. I am also interested in using predicative models to understand the impact of plant physiology on ecosystem-atmosphere feedbacks to climate change.

Vidya Suseela (Ph.D. Graduate, Forestry and Natural Resources)
Effects of climate change on resistant carbon fractions in soils and plants

I am interested in evaluating the effect of warming and altered precipitation on resistant carbon fractions in both soil organic matter and plant litter.

Sam Worley (Lab Technician)
Maintenance and operation of the Boston-Area Climate Experiment