The Givnish Lab
My students and I address fundamental issues at the interface of ecology, evolution, systematics, and biogeography, including:
  • What are the historical processes by which plant species arise, diverge ecologically, and come to occupy different habitats and geographic regions?
  • How do various features of plant form, physiology, and behavior affect energy capture and growth under different conditions, and thereby result in competitive success in some contexts and not others?
  • How can adaptations constrain species distributions and help create gradients in the composition, structure, and diversity of communities and landscapes?
  • What are the roles of spatially coupled, positive and negative feedbacks in creating patterned landscapes, and how might these be important in designing conservation and restoration strategies at large spatial scales?
Our research involves a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic systems, from boreal forests and ponds to Hawaiian cloud forests, Midwestern prairies and savannas, southern Appalachian forests, sloughs and tree islands in the Florida Everglades, sclerophyll woodlands and temperate rain forests in western North America and Australia, and cloud forests and bogs atop tepuis of the ancient Guayana Shield in South America.
Current Lab Members:
Philip Gonsiska
PhD student 		Robert Wernerehl
PhD student 		Stephanie Lyon
PhD student 		Emily Sessa
PhD student 		Kathryn Gerndt
MS student

Casey Harris
BS student

Recent Lab Members:
  • Rebecca Montgomery (Post-doctoral associate - Ecology and evolution of photosynthetic light responses in Hawaiian lobeliads) - Assistant Professor of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota
  • Omar Lopez (Post-doctoral associate - Leaf phenology and hydraulic conductivity as determinants of shade tolerance in trees of the southern Appalachians) - Research Associate, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
  • Ben Van Ee (Post-doctoral associate - Phylogeny in North American lilies) - Mercer Fellow, Harvard University
  • Jonathan Coop (Ph.D. - Subalpine treelines in the southern Rocky Mountains) - Visiting Professor of Biology, Western State College of Colorado
  • Austin Mast (Ph.D. - Phylogeny and biogeography of Banksia and Dryandra in Australia) - Assistant Professor, Florida State University
  • Terra Theim (Ph.D. - Spatial scales of genetic differentiation in understory species of Psychotria) - Post-doctoral research associate, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Kendra Millan (Ph.D. - Phylogeography of the Trillium erectum complex) - Research Associate, Wright State University
  • Jillian Henss (M.S. - Geographic scale of gene flow in Calochortus) - Research technician, fish evolution, The Field Museum
  • Tara Suring (M.S. - Metapopulation dynamics of the federally endangered Pitcher's thistle) - Prairie restorationist, Eden Prairie, Minnesota
  • Frank Landis (Ph.D. - Relationships among arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, plants, and environmental conditions in Wisconsin oak savannas) - Senior plant ecologist, Santa Catalina Conservancy
Thomas J. Givnish

© 2008 University of Wisconsin Department of Botany
Last updated: 8 October 2008