Department of Botany & Plant Sciences

Sara Jo Dickens

Email: sdick002@ucr.edu

Major: Plant Biology (ecology)

UCR Major Professor: Dr. Edith Allen

Education:

Research Interests:  

General topic of interest:

Exotic plant ecology, soil ecology, above and belowground feedbacks, biogeochemical cycling in reference to ecosystem ecology and exotic plant invasion, fire ecology and restoration ecology.

Overall Questions:

1. Do exotic grasses alter the soil chemistry and microbial communities in the ecosystems they invade? Do they alter the biogeochemical cycling of the ecosystems they invade? Do these changes effect native plant growth?
2. Are the effects of exotic grasses on native plant species the result of the physical presence of the exotics (i.e. competition), indirect effects of alterations the exotics cause in the soils, or a combination of both?
3. Can restoration via native plant revegitation lead to recovery of the soils?
4. Can fire in the form of spring time, prescribed burns reduce exotic grass cover enough for native plants to recover and facilitate soil recovery? What other methods may also facilitate this recovery?
5. How do wildfires influence exotic grass invasion of mature shrub lands?

              
North Mountain Research Area Following a 2005 wildfire

Experimental Site Locations:

North Mountain Research Area
Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve
Trump National Golf Club
White Point PreserveNorth Mountain Research Area following a 2005 wildfire

        Grants and Awards

• Fischer Vegetation Scholarship                                                                    2007
• Shipley Skinner/Riverside County Endowment Grant                                 2006 and 2007
• The Nature Conservancy: Graduate Fellowship                                          2007
• Graduate Fellowship University of California Riverside, CA                      2005
• Undergraduate Research Grant from the University of Colorado.             2002

• Maxine A. and F.W. Gray Scholarship and the Schumann Scholarship   1999   
  
  Committee Positions
  

• Co-chair of Botany and Plant Sciences Graduate Student Association    2006-2007

• Student member of Education Advisory Committee                                2007-Present

• UC Riverside Department of Botany and Plant Sciences
• Co-Founder and Co-Chair of California Invasive Plant Council’s  2007- Present
• Student Chapter

Dickens, S.M., F. Gerhardt, and S.K Collinge. 2005 Recreational Portage Trails as Corridors Facilitating Non-native Plant Invasion of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (USA). Journal of Conservation Biology. Vol. 19 (5): 1653-1657

 
Research site in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, MN

Professional Memberships
Ecological Society of America
Soil Ecology Society
Cal –IPC
The Nature Conservancy
Sierra Club