Bob Wernerehl - PhD candidate in Botany

B.A. (1995) UW-Madison

wernerehl@wisc.edu 608-265-5473

My research involves five species of native Wisconsin prairie grasses. I am investigating the effects of water availability as a basis for which species dominates which portions of the prairie continuum. Specifically, I am testing the hypothesis that species dominating particular points along the soil moisture continuum are those which grow faster and can accumulate more biomass than others on those sites, and that differences in leaf photosynthetic rates, root to shoot allocation ratio, and leaf height are primary determinants of which species out- perform others on specific sites.

I have a large experimental mesocosm planting at an agricultural research station west of Madison, and I am censusing graminoids along transects in a variety of high quality prairie remnants in southern Wisconsin.