It's been a great spring with lots of accomplishments to celebrate!

• Sean Stewart and Jules Bartley both successfully defended their theses.
• Lab undergrads Scott Estepa and Dellaina Morse presented their senior capstone project, which was a seed bank germination study. The last few plants are popping up now, and they should finish in the next few weeks.
• A handful of former or current lab undergrads are graduating!
• PI Kerry was awarded a Western SARE sabbatical research grant, and will be working with Kelly Hopping at Boise State University next semester.
• We held our first end-of-year lab party to celebrate all of these great accomplishments!

Congratulations to MS student Sean Stewart, who successfully defended his thesis last Friday! Thanks to all that attended in person or on zoom.

Congratulations to former lab research assistant, Cristina Winters, who was just recognized for her outstanding research in STEM and service/leadership! See attached biography. Great job, Cristina! We are so proud of you!

Dr. Lucy Kerhoulas (Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management), Dr. Rosemary Sherriff (Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis), and I are hiring 3 research assistants for a tree failure study in northwestern California. See attached PDF for more details, and apply by March 24!
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Here's a great article in Science Magazine about IDE (the International Drought Experiment), which is a network of drought experiments using the same protocol that the Byrne lab participates in (we have the only two sites in Oregon!)

It's been a busy few weeks since the semester ended, but lots of good stuff happening.
Here is a brief update:

• MS students Francisco and Sean helped Kerry set up a new study in southern Oregon, to understand the efficacy of targeted grazing and herbicide to restore an annual grass invaded grazing allotment.
• Francisco's seed bank germination study is well underway in the Cal Poly Humboldt experimental greenhouses!
• lab undergrad Cristina finished up her root work in the lab, and accepted an REU position at Harvard Forest for the summer studying.... you guessed it, forest roots!
• MS student Julia finished processing her duff samples from last summer and has returned to Teakettle Experimental Forest in the southern sierra for the summer to collect more data on old growth pines
• Sean has completed a full draft of his thesis, but is currently leading a field crew in Klamath Falls to collect more demographic data on Applegate's milkvetch (the data won't be part of his thesis). Welcome to the lab, summer field assistants AJ (ESM major) and Owen (RRS major)!
• Kerry was recently awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor!

Congratulations to Francisco, who has been awarded research grants from both the Native Plant Society of Oregon and The Great Basin Chpt. of the Society for Ecological Restoration to support his unfunded side project, non-destructive age estimation for Artemisia cana and Artemisia arbuscula. The funding will offset the cost of travel, tools, and provide a stipend for an undergraduate to accompany him in the field for data collection.

The lab recently purchased a hydropneumatic elutriation system ("root washer") so we can more quickly quantify root production in grasslands and shrublands, and fine root production in forests. Lab research assistants Shannon (l) and Jade (r) are ready to process fine root samples from old growth Jeffrey and sugar pines with MS student Julia!

Wow, it's not often we have two publications out in one week!

• Our new publication on the effects of drought and microsite on the seed bank of two sagebrush communities is out in Journal of Arid Environments! Congratulations to MS student Allison!
• Our Restoration Note on the efficacy of a photography app to enumerate native seeds (in this case, two sagebrush species) is out in Ecological Restoration. Congratulations to undergrads Sam Kelly and Cessair McKinney who led this research project, which was an outgrowth of their senior capstone project. What a fantastic accomplishment!