Magda Garbowski 

I am a plant ecologist trying to better understand of how species interact with one another and their environments to ultimately improve land management practices. I am particularly interested in understanding how interactive effects of global change (e.g., invasive species, drought, nutrient enrichment) alter plant communities and ecosystem processes and in applying this understanding to ecosystem restoration (Figure 1). 

I am currently a USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow and member of the Laughlin Lab at the University of Wyoming. The project I am working on uses plant traits to better understand the causes and consequences of invasion in Wyoming and California rangelands. Throughout 2021, I was a member of the Physiological Diversity Group at the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) where I worked on several projects focused on the functional underpinnings of grassland community change in response to nutrient enrichment using the Nutrient Network dataset. In addition, I served as the European "Disturbance and Resources in Global Grasslands Network" (DRAGNet) coordinator. Prior to these experiences, I received my MS (2016) and PhD (2020) from Colorado State University. Throughout my graduate studies I was a member of the Brown Lab and worked in close collaboration with state and federal agencies on numerous projects at the nexus of restoration, climate change, and invasive species management.

Figure 1: Restoration in the context of global change.