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 is focused 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. 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, and served as chair of the Environmental Studies Department at UCSC.  She is the associate editor for the Island Press-Society for Ecological Restoration book series and faculty director for the Ken Norris Center for Natural History. She is a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and was the 2017 winner of the Theodore Sperry Award of the Society for Ecological Restoration. 

Current Graduate Students

Alicia Calle

I am studying restoration in the context of tropical productive agroecosystems. In particular, I am focusing on silvopastoral systems (SPS), a form of agroforestry that integrates multiple layers of trees and shrubs with grazing pastures. SPS are already considered a promising alternative for productive intensification in the Neotropics. Their high productivity is based on the ecological interactions and processes that they harbor over time, and therefore, SPS could also have potential as a tool for the ecological restoration. My research seeks to better understand how SPS can contribute to the restoration of cattle dominated landscapes, and how the principles of restoration can be applied to design better SPS. The goal is to make restoration more attractive to landowners, by using it to enhance productivity and resilience in these landscapes.

Josephine Lesage

Andy Kulikowski

Elizabeth Howard

I am interested in coastal prairie ecosystems and the factors that control their diversity, and how we can best overcome potential diversity loss and barriers to restoration. I am specifically interested in: native annual forbs (wildflowers) and their seed banks; the potential impacts of climate change on these communities through changes in precipitation patterns and variability; and the importance of disturbances, such as grazing and fire, in maintaining these habitats.







I’m interested in examining how ecological restoration can assuage the loss of biodiversity in degraded tropical landscapes. Because arthropods represent a large portion of this diversity, they provide an ideal system to examine the efficacy of restoration efforts. My research experience through University of Wyoming includes work on parasitoid wasp behavior and soil arthropod community dynamics during succession, both of which are applicable within a tropical restoration framework. In particular, I will investigate how different restoration strategies (passive, tree plantations, and applied nucleation of tree islands) within abandoned pasture and agricultural land affect arthropod meta-population dynamics, tri-trophic interactions, and functional diversity. The Proyecto Islas, a long term restoration study in Coto Brus County, Costa Rica, provides a unique opportunity for investigating such questions.



I am both a graduate student and the Manager of Younger Lagoon Reserve.  At Younger Lagoon Reserve, I am responsible for facilitating research, teaching and public education.  Additionally, I coordinate biological and environmental monitoring, am responsible for compliance and annual reporting, and administer the reserve’s native habitat restoration program.  For my graduate work, I am studying the long-term success of native coastal habitat restoration.



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Past Lab Members

J. Leighton Reid (Ph.D. 2013): Restoration Ecologist, Missouri Botanical Garden

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

Ricardo Gomes Cesar (Visiting Student 2013): Doctoral Student, University of Sao Paulo

Daniella Schweizer (Ph.D. 2012): Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Sao Paulo

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

Rebecca Cole (Ph.D. 2009): Director, Las Cruces Biological Station, Coto Brus, Costa Rica

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): Senior Biologist, TRA Environmental Services

David Morales (Visiting Post-doctoral Scholar 2006): Forestry Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization

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

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

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

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

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