Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience: The main target audience for this reporting period was the academic science community, and communication to them included a presentation in an organized session at the Ecological Society of America's annual conference, and smaller presentations within the University of Wyoming and the University of Oregon. This target audience included both established academics and students, with discussions with the newly-established student chapter for the Society of Ecological Restoration at the University of Oregon. The planned outreach to the ranching community via Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center's annual field day was delayed this past year due to COVID concerns, but is expected to happen next year after the pending award conversion to a standard grant. Changes/Problems: I am starting a new position as faculty at Southern Oregon University. Because of this change, I have requested and received initial approval to transfer the postdoctoral fellowship to a standard grant, so that I can complete the proposed work. I have completed 50% of her award period and work. Remaining work after the award transfer date will be collecting the final survival and fecundity measurements and collecting above-ground biomass in spring of 2023, and writing the analyses for the final papers. I have arranged teaching release with my department chair for this time period to accommodate this work, and will be rearranging the budget to pay field assistant during this period to help collect this data. With these adjustments, we anticipate no issues with completing all the planned data collection and analyses. As originally proposed, this work result in two peer-reviewed papers, which are currently proceeding on the planned schedule. To ensure completion of these papers, I will be requesting summer salary funding to support the final analyses and writing. Planned work following the transfer includes: Research objective 1: Collect a second year of data on species' germination, survival, and fecundity metrics. Complete and take down the field manipulation Research objective 2: Incorporate field data with newly developed models to assess when climate variabilityresults in species coexistence. Communicate results at Sierra Foothills Research and Extension Center field days and the Ecological Society of America annual conference, and submit a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal. Research objective 3: Develop models of forage productivity and stabilityin drought and post-drought conditions. Training and development objective 1: Develop and run a field-focused course on rangeland ecology and management. This course will be offered through my new position at Southern Oregon University, with the Environmental Science, Policy, and Sustainability program. I will bring students to my field site where I will guide them in collecting data in the field, learning about rangeland history, science, and management, and meeting local ranchers. Training and development objective 2: Network with the ranching community through SFREC's field day and small meetings such as the Natural Areas Association conference or other local meetings. I will present at SFREC's field day and engage with the local ranching community there. I also plan to present at a small meeting such as the Natural Areas Association conference or the Society for Ecological Restoration California conference, possibly in conjunction with undergraduate mentee Natalie Kataoka. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Professional development focused on creating and refining job application materials and interview preparation for permanent jobs, including detailed feedback from project mentors Drs. Shoemaker and Hallett, other postdoctoral researchers in Shoemaker and Hallett's lab groups, and other professors through the EPSCOR-funded Modelscapes consortium at the University of Wyoming. This included a total of 12 applications to academic and non-academic jobs, for six of these I progressed beyondthe initial round to interview or additional material requests, and received and accepted a job offer for an Assistant Professor position in the department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Sustainability at Southern Oregon University. This position's emphasis on teaching and applied ecology research fits perfectly with my research interests and career goals. Another professional development goal for me was practice and development as an educator and mentor. I received training in teaching practices and pedagogy through University of Wyoming's Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning, including discussion groups, feedback on her teaching philosophy, and feedback on course design and assessment. In the past year, I also directly mentored three graduate students and two undergraduate students. These mentoring relationships led to one published paper led by graduate student Carmen Ebel, on which I am a co-author, one successful graduate thesis by Dr. Alejandro Brambila, with plans for additional mentoring leading to a peer-reviewed paper on which I will be a co-author, an in- prep paper on which graduate student Janette Davidson and I will both be coauthors, and an in-prep paper led by undergraduate student Natalie Kataoka which I am guiding as the senior author. I also developed networks of academic scientists and restoration practitioners, including through a synthesis group sToration, funded by the sDiv center in the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity (iDiv). I am a coauthor on two in-prep manuscripts being developed by this group. My participation in these groups connects me to a breadth of research study systems which overlap conceptually with my focal topic of drought effects, patterns of environmental variation, and species interactions in rangeland systems. They also serve to build an international network of collaborators for current and future projects. In addition to these one-on-one mentoring commitments, I have invested time in building networks to promote access to science and restoration careers. I assisted with developing a Society for Ecological Restoration student chapter at University of Oregon, including helping organize a seminar series in February 2022 on fire ecology that brought together scientists, private land managers, Federal agency managers, tribal leaders, and science communicators to share diverse perspectives on fire management and restoration. I am part of the advisory committee for the Women of Color in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Slack network, which has over 300 active members from academic and non-academic career tracks. Finally, I served on the University of Wyoming Botany department's committee for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and have helped build resources to promote fieldwork safety and access to research opportunities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? I co-organized a session "Extending coexistence theories to predict species interactions in a changing world" at the Ecological Society of America's annual conference in August 2022, and gave a presentation in this organized session titled "Fluctuation- dependent coexistence mechanisms and the storage effect are equally strong drivers of coexistence for perennial species as for annuals" disseminating the new methods for modeling perennial and annual species interactions and sharing initial results from these models. I additional presented an invited seminar talk at the University of California Santa Barbara and spoke with lab groups, PIs, and graduate students about her overall body of work including this project and preliminary results. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Research objective 1: Use field manipulations to collect annual and perennial grass demographic responses to current and lagged drought. With advice and assistance from project mentors Hallett and Shoemaker, I established field manipulations and collected first year data on germination, survival, and fecundity. Drought treatment had an impact on soil moisture measures and fecundity metrics. Due to this being a relatively dry year, we are continuing the field experiment and data collection for a second year to get a wider range of environmental conditions and responses. Research objective 2: Build modern coexistence theory models to predict when climate variability results in species coexistence. I have expanded existing coexistence theory models to include multi-year dynamics of perennial grasses. This methods development took considerable work and included training in modeling from project mentor Shoemaker. I presented on this expanded method at the Ecological Society for America's annual conference and am leading an in-prep methods paper which has been invited to a special issue "Toward building better bridges between theory and data" in the American Naturalist journal. Training and development objective 1: Develop and lead two course modules, including at least one rangeland field-focused module. I developed a course module on species interactions and disturbance dynamics for mentor Lauren Shoemaker's course "Intro Research and Analysis." The module covered mathematical, statistical, and simulation models of species, communities, and ecosystems and especially focused on dynamics such as rangelands undergoing drought events and other disturbances such as forest fire or windthrow where different species respond to these disturbance dynamics in different ways. Building this course with aspects of flipped-coursedesign included creating discussion-focused lectures, assigning pre- class reading and responses, and two interactive coding modules. Working on this module also developed my skills in teaching online, designing classes with active learning components such as breakout rooms, code blocks that built step by step, discussion questions, and peer-to-peer learning. I additionally gave a guest lecture in another University of Wyoming course on experimental design in actively grazed ecosystems. I engaged in teachers training through University of Wyoming's Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning, including getting direct feedback on teaching philosophy and pedagogy, weekly reading discussions of teaching/pedagogy texts, and seminars on particularly topics in active learning and inclusivity in the classroom.

Publications

Progress 09/01/21 to 10/11/22

Outputs
Target Audience: The main target audience for this reporting period was the academic science community, and communication to them included a presentation in an organized session at the Ecological Society of America's annual conference, and smaller presentations within the University of Wyoming and the University of Oregon. This target audience included both established academics and students, with discussions with the newly-established student chapter for the Society of Ecological Restoration at the University of Oregon. The planned outreach to the ranching community via Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center's annual field day was delayed this past year due to COVID concerns, but is expected to happen next year after the pending award conversion to a standard grant. Changes/Problems: I am starting a new position as faculty at Southern Oregon University. Because of this change, I have requested and received initial approval to transfer the postdoctoral fellowship to a standard grant, so that I can complete the proposed work. I have completed 50% of her award period and work. Remaining work after the award transfer date will be collecting the final survival and fecundity measurements and collecting above-ground biomass in spring of 2023, and writing the analyses for the final papers. I have arranged teaching release with my department chair for this time period to accommodate this work, and will be rearranging the budget to pay field assistant during this period to help collect this data. With these adjustments, we anticipate no issues with completing all the planned data collection and analyses. As originally proposed, this work result in two peer-reviewed papers, which are currently proceeding on the planned schedule. To ensure completion of these papers, I will be requesting summer salary funding to support the final analyses and writing. Planned work following the transfer includes: Research objective 1: Collect a second year of data on species' germination, survival, and fecundity metrics. Complete and take down the field manipulation Research objective 2: Incorporate field data with newly developed models to assess when climate variabilityresults in species coexistence. Communicate results at Sierra Foothills Research and Extension Center field days and the Ecological Society of America annual conference, and submit a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal. Research objective 3: Develop models of forage productivity and stabilityin drought and post-drought conditions. Training and development objective 1: Develop and run a field-focused course on rangeland ecology and management. This course will be offered through my new position at Southern Oregon University, with the Environmental Science, Policy, and Sustainability program. I will bring students to my field site where I will guide them in collecting data in the field, learning about rangeland history, science, and management, and meeting local ranchers. Training and development objective 2: Network with the ranching community through SFREC's field day and small meetings such as the Natural Areas Association conference or other local meetings. I will present at SFREC's field day and engage with the local ranching community there. I also plan to present at a small meeting such as the Natural Areas Association conference or the Society for Ecological Restoration California conference, possibly in conjunction with undergraduate mentee Natalie Kataoka. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Professional development focused on creating and refining job application materials and interview preparation for permanent jobs, including detailed feedback from project mentors Drs. Shoemaker and Hallett, other postdoctoral researchers in Shoemaker and Hallett's lab groups, and other professors through the EPSCOR-funded Modelscapes consortium at the University of Wyoming. This included a total of 12 applications to academic and non-academic jobs, for six of these I progressed beyondthe initial round to interview or additional material requests, and received and accepted a job offer for an Assistant Professor position in the department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Sustainability at Southern Oregon University. This position's emphasis on teaching and applied ecology research fits perfectly with my research interests and career goals. Another professional development goal for me was practice and development as an educator and mentor. I received training in teaching practices and pedagogy through University of Wyoming's Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning, including discussion groups, feedback on her teaching philosophy, and feedback on course design and assessment. In the past year, I also directly mentored three graduate students and two undergraduate students. These mentoring relationships led to one published paper led by graduate student Carmen Ebel, on which I am a co-author, one successful graduate thesis by Dr. Alejandro Brambila, with plans for additional mentoring leading to a peer-reviewed paper on which I will be a co-author, an in- prep paper on which graduate student Janette Davidson and I will both be coauthors, and an in-prep paper led by undergraduate student Natalie Kataoka which I am guiding as the senior author. I also developed networks of academic scientists and restoration practitioners, including through a synthesis group sToration, funded by the sDiv center in the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity (iDiv). I am a coauthor on two in-prep manuscripts being developed by this group. My participation in these groups connects me to a breadth of research study systems which overlap conceptually with my focal topic of drought effects, patterns of environmental variation, and species interactions in rangeland systems. They also serve to build an international network of collaborators for current and future projects. In addition to these one-on-one mentoring commitments, I have invested time in building networks to promote access to science and restoration careers. I assisted with developing a Society for Ecological Restoration student chapter at University of Oregon, including helping organize a seminar series in February 2022 on fire ecology that brought together scientists, private land managers, Federal agency managers, tribal leaders, and science communicators to share diverse perspectives on fire management and restoration. I am part of the advisory committee for the Women of Color in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Slack network, which has over 300 active members from academic and non-academic career tracks. Finally, I served on the University of Wyoming Botany department's committee for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and have helped build resources to promote fieldwork safety and access to research opportunities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? I co-organized a session "Extending coexistence theories to predict species interactions in a changing world" at the Ecological Society of America's annual conference in August 2022, and gave a presentation in this organized session titled "Fluctuation- dependent coexistence mechanisms and the storage effect are equally strong drivers of coexistence for perennial species as for annuals" disseminating the new methods for modeling perennial and annual species interactions and sharing initial results from these models. I additional presented an invited seminar talk at the University of California Santa Barbara and spoke with lab groups, PIs, and graduate students about her overall body of work including this project and preliminary results. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Research objective 1: Use field manipulations to collect annual and perennial grass demographic responses to current and lagged drought. With advice and assistance from project mentors Hallett and Shoemaker, I established field manipulations and collected first year data on germination, survival, and fecundity. Drought treatment had an impact on soil moisture measures and fecundity metrics. Due to this being a relatively dry year, we are continuing the field experiment and data collection for a second year to get a wider range of environmental conditions and responses. Research objective 2: Build modern coexistence theory models to predict when climate variability results in species coexistence. I have expanded existing coexistence theory models to include multi-year dynamics of perennial grasses. This methods development took considerable work and included training in modeling from project mentor Shoemaker. I presented on this expanded method at the Ecological Society for America's annual conference and am leading an in-prep methods paper which has been invited to a special issue "Toward building better bridges between theory and data" in the American Naturalist journal. Training and development objective 1: Develop and lead two course modules, including at least one rangeland field-focused module. I developed a course module on species interactions and disturbance dynamics for mentor Lauren Shoemaker's course "Intro Research and Analysis." The module covered mathematical, statistical, and simulation models of species, communities, and ecosystems and especially focused on dynamics such as rangelands undergoing drought events and other disturbances such as forest fire or windthrow where different species respond to these disturbance dynamics in different ways. Building this course with aspects of flipped-coursedesign included creating discussion-focused lectures, assigning pre- class reading and responses, and two interactive coding modules. Working on this module also developed my skills in teaching online, designing classes with active learning components such as breakout rooms, code blocks that built step by step, discussion questions, and peer-to-peer learning. I additionally gave a guest lecture in another University of Wyoming course on experimental design in actively grazed ecosystems. I engaged in teachers training through University of Wyoming's Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning, including getting direct feedback on teaching philosophy and pedagogy, weekly reading discussions of teaching/pedagogy texts, and seminars on particularly topics in active learning and inclusivity in the classroom.

Publications

Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:The main target audience for this reporting period was the academic science community, and communication to them included a presentation in an organized session at the Ecological Society of America's annual conference, and smaller presentations within the University of Wyoming and the University of Oregon. This target audience included both established academics and students, with discussions with the newly-established student chapter for the Society of Ecological Restoration at the University of Oregon.The planned outreach to the ranching community via Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center's annual field day was delayed this past year due to COVID concerns, but is expected to happen next year. Changes/Problems:I am starting a new position as faculty at Southern Oregon University. Because of this change, I have requested and received initial approval to transfer the postdoctoral fellowship to a standard grant, so that Ican complete the proposed work. I have completed 50% of the award period and work.Remaining work after the award transfer date will be collecting the final survival and fecundity measurements and collecting above-ground biomass in spring of 2023, and writing the analyses for the final papers. I have arranged teaching release with my department chair for this time period to accommodate this work, and will be rearranging the budget to pay a field assistant during this period to help collect this data. With these adjustments, weanticipate no issues with completing all the planned data collection and analyses.As originally proposed, this work will result in two peer-reviewed papers, which are currently proceeding on the planned schedule. To ensure completion of these papers, I will be requesting summer salary funding to support the final analyses and writing. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Professional development focused on creating and refining job application materials and interview preparationfor permanent jobs, including detailed feedback from project mentors Drs. Shoemaker and Hallett, other postdoctoral researchers in Shoemaker and Hallett's lab groups, and other professors through the EPSCOR-funded Modelscapes consortium at the University of Wyoming. This included a total of 12applications to academic and non-academic jobs, for six of these I progressed beyondthe initial round to interview or additional material requests, and received and accepted a job offer for an Assistant Professor position in the department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Sustainability at Southern Oregon University. This position'semphasis on teaching and applied ecology research fits perfectly with my research interests and career goals. Another professional development goal for me was practice and development as an educator and mentor.I received training in teaching practices and pedagogy through University of Wyoming's Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning, including discussion groups, feedback on her teaching philosophy, and feedback on course design and assessment. In the past year, I also directly mentored three graduate students and two undergraduate students. These mentoring relationships led to one published paper led by graduate student Carmen Ebel, on which I am a co-author, one successful graduate thesis by Dr. Alejandro Brambila, with plans for additional mentoring leading to a peer-reviewed paper on which I will be a co-author, an in-prep paper on which graduate student Janette Davidson and I will both be coauthors, and an in-prep paper led by undergraduate student Natalie Kataoka which I amguidingas the senior author. I also developed networks of academic scientists and restoration practitioners, including through a synthesis group sToration, funded by the sDiv center in the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity (iDiv). I am a coauthor on two in-prep manuscripts being developed by this group.My participation in these groups connects me to a breadth of research study systems which overlap conceptually with my focal topic of drought effects, patterns of environmental variation, and species interactions in rangeland systems. They also serve to build an international network of collaborators for current and future projects.? In addition to these one-on-one mentoring commitments, I have invested time in building networks to promote access to science and restoration careers. I assisted with developing a Society for Ecological Restoration student chapter at University of Oregon, including helping organize a seminar series in February 2022 on fire ecology that brought together scientists, private land managers, Federal agency managers, tribal leaders, and science communicators to share diverse perspectives on fire management and restoration. I am part of the advisory committee for the Women of Color in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Slack network, which has over 300 active members from academic and non-academic career tracks. Finally, I served on the University of Wyoming Botany department's committee for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and have helped build resources to promote fieldwork safety and access to research opportunities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?I co-organized a session "Extending coexistence theories to predict species interactions in a changing world" at the Ecological Society of America's annual conference in August 2022, and gave a presentation in this organized session titled "Fluctuation-dependent coexistence mechanisms and the storage effect are equally strong drivers of coexistence for perennial species as for annuals" disseminating the new methods for modeling perennial and annual species interactions and sharing initial results from these models. I additional presented an invited seminar talk at the University of California Santa Barbara and spoke with lab groups, PIs, and graduate students about her overall body of work including this project and preliminary results. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Planned work during the next reporting period includes: Research objective 1: Collect a second year of data on species' germination, survival, and fecundity metrics. Complete and take down the field manipulation Research objective 2: Incorporate field data with newly developed models to assesswhen climate variability results in species coexistence. Communicate results at Sierra Foothills Research and Extension Center field days and the Ecological Society of America annual conference, and submit a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal. Research objective 3: Develop models of forage productivity and stabilityin drought and post-drought conditions. Training and development objective 1: Develop and run a field-focused course on rangeland ecology and management. This course will be offered through my new position at Southern Oregon University, with the Environmental Science, Policy, and Sustainability program. I will bring students to my field site where I will guide them incollecting data in the field, learning about rangeland history, science, and management, and meetinglocal ranchers. Training and development objective 2:Network with the ranching community through SFREC's field day and small meetings such as the Natural Areas Association conference or other local meetings. I will present at SFREC's field day and engage with the local ranching community there. I also planto present at a small meeting such as the Natural Areas Association conference or the Society for Ecological Restoration California conference, possibly in conjunction with undergraduate mentee Natalie Kataoka.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Research objective 1: Use field manipulations to collect annual and perennial grass demographic responses to current and lagged drought. With advice and assistance from project mentors Hallett and Shoemaker, I established field manipulations and collected first year data on germination, survival, and fecundity. Drought treatment had an impact on soil moisture measures and fecundity metrics.Due to this being a relatively dry year, we are continuing the field experiment and data collection for a second year to get a wider range of environmental conditions and responses. Research objective 2: Build modern coexistence theory models to predict when climate variability results in species coexistence. I have expanded existing coexistence theory models to include multi-year dynamics of perennial grasses. This methods development took considerable work and included training in modeling from project mentor Shoemaker. I presented on this expanded method at the Ecological Society for America's annual conference and amleadingan in-prep methods paper which has been invited to a special issue "Toward building better bridges between theory and data" in the American Naturalist journal. Training and development objective 1: Develop and lead two course modules, including at least one rangeland field-focused module. I developed a course module on species interactions and disturbance dynamics for mentor Lauren Shoemaker's course "Intro Research and Analysis." The module covered mathematical, statistical, and simulation models of species, communities, and ecosystems and especially focused on dynamics such as rangelands undergoing drought events and other disturbances such as forest fire or windthrow where different species respond to these disturbance dynamics in different ways. Building this course with aspects of flipped-course design included creating discussion-focused lectures, assigning pre-class reading and responses, and two interactive coding modules. Working on this module also developed my skills in teaching online, designing classes with active learning components such as breakout rooms, code blocks that built step by step, discussion questions, and peer-to-peer learning. I additionally gave a guest lecture in another University of Wyoming course on experimental design in actively grazed ecosystems. I engaged in teachers training through University of Wyoming's Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning, including gettingdirect feedback onteaching philosophy and pedagogy, weekly reading discussions of teaching/pedagogy texts, and seminars on particularly topics in active learning and inclusivity in the classroom.

Publications