Dr. Karen Holl

Karen Holl (kholl at ucsc.edu) is a Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.  Her research focuses on understanding how local and landscape scale processes affect ecosystem recovery from human disturbance and using this information to restore damaged ecosystems. Her current research focuses in rain forests in Latin America and chaparral, grassland and riparian systems in California. She advises numerous public and private agencies on land management and restoration; recently she has been working to improve outcomes of the effort of the many large-scale tree growing campaigns. In 2008 she was selected as an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow and is committed to communicating with policy makers and the public. She teaches courses in restoration ecology, conservation biology, and environmental problem solving. She served as chair of the Environmental Studies Department and as the faculty director for the Ken Norris Center for Natural History at UC Santa Cruz. She is a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and the Ecological Society of America, and was the 2017 winner of the Theodore Sperry Award of the Society for Ecological Restoration. Her Primer of Ecological Restoration ​was published by Island Press in 2020.

Current Graduate Students

Brook Constantz

​I seek to better understand the succession and ecosystem services of restored floodplain habitats in the California Central Valley, and how these are driven by natural processes of the river system. I am interested in what landscape and regional factors predictably influence a successful and persisting restoration project and how this could be applied to future projects. My research will examine the changes in understory and overstory plant composition at older restoration sites along the Sacramento River. I plan to use geospatial data and vegetation modeling to reconstruct the historical environment and to forecast and visualize the impacts of a changing climate and water use on ecosystem function.

Francis Joyce

Justin Luong

Christina Blebea

​I am broadly interested in restoration processes in tropical forests. As young secondary forests become increasingly pervasive across the Latin America, I am curious what the future will be for these ecosystems. I am particularly interested in the ways that plant-animal interactions, especially seed dispersal, may drive continuing succession in secondary forests. My research in southern Costa Rica will investigate the influence of avian seed dispersers on establishment of later successional large-seeded tree species. I plan to analyze existing long-term data sets, examine functional traits of trees in the regional species pool, and experimentally test the extent to which certain larger-seeded tree species are dispersal-limited in mid-successional sites initially subject to varied restoration methods and landscape contexts.



​I am researching the mechanisms underlying grassland restoration success using non-species specific functional trait framework in the context of drought and precipitation variability. Additionally, I will be working more on potential trade-offs incurred through restoration. A side project I have at Younger Lagoon Reserve will focus on potential trade offs in carbon storage, biodiversity and water infiltration. I am also studying the success of coastal prairie restoration projects. I am interested in the overall sustainability and efficacy of ecological restoration and what causes some restoration projects to fail and others to succeed.







​I am researching insect-plant interactions in tropical forest restoration in Latin America. I am specifically interested in how myrmecochory facilitates succession in secondary forests. I hope to find seed dispersal of later successional trees by ants in my research in Costa Rica and potentially other restoration plots in Latin America. I will then experimentally test how ant communities impact succession.

Past Lab Members

Josie Lesage (Ph.D. 2020): Applied Ecologist, Santa Barbara Botanical Garden

Andy J. Kulikowski II (Ph.D. 2020): Lecturer UC Santa Cruz

Alicia Calle (Ph.D. 2019): Leader of Sustainable Landscapes Initiative, The Nature Conservancy, Colombia  
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J. Leighton Reid (Ph.D. 2013): Assistant Professor, Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Tara Cornelisse (Ph.D. 2013): Senior Scientist, Center for Biological Diversity

Daniella Schweizer (Ph.D. 2012): Monitoring Coordinator for the Restor Platform, ETH Zurich

Michael Vasey (Ph.D. 2012): Director, San Francisco Estuarine National Research Reserve

Rebecca Cole (Ph.D. 2009): Restoration Coordinator, Restor Platform, ETH Zurich

Prairie Moore (M.S. CSU Chico 2009): Botanist, NRM Corporation Environmental Services

Charles McClain (M.S. CSU Chico 2009): Ecologist, HT Harvey & Associates

Martha Bonilla-Moheno (Ph.D. 2008): Associate Professor, Insituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico

Aaron Gabbe (Ph.D. 2007): Conservation Planner - Senior Project Manager, ICF International

Alexandre Bonesso Sampaio (Visiting Student 2005): Environmental Analyst/Researcher, CECAT/IMBIO Brazil

Liba Pejchar (Ph.D. 2004): Professor, Colorado State University

Daniel Vieira (Visiting Student 2004): Researcher, EMBRAPA Brazil

Grey Hayes (Ph.D. 2002): Research and Education Coordinator, Swanton Ranch, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Felicia Rein (Ph.D. 2000): Research Scientist, Ministry of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Department, Israel