Postdoctoral Research Associate, Chung Lab Email: cportales@uga.edu Lab Website: https://research.franklin.uga.edu/chung/ http://cristyportales.weebly.com/ Lab: 3505 Miller Plant Sciences Lab Phone: 706-542-3956 Biography I am a community ecologist that loves working in grasslands! I am particularly interested in understanding whether global change and increased climate variability will lead to more difficult to reverse transitions in plant communities, including long-term changes in plant diversity. During graduate school I studied mechanisms that promote or prevent diversity loss after nutrient enrichment and cessation in Midwestern grasslands. As a postdoc I am now studying potential mechanisms facilitating shrub expansion in the Southwest. Research Research Areas: Ecology & Global Change Research Interests: At UGA I am developing individual based models to understand the role of plant-soil interactions at the ecotone transition between grasslands and shrublands at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. With my mentor, Anny Chung, I am co-leading a cross-site synthesis working group to develop and inform theory on these difficult to reverse ecosystem transitions. Our group is funded by the Long-Term Ecological Research Network and hosted at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. Selected Publications Selected Publications: Cristy's Google Scholar Page Education Education: PhD Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (2020) BS Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. University of Texas at Austin (2014) BS Biochemistry. University of Texas at Austin (2014)
