Read the latest news and updates about the lab

Sept 2025
  • We welcome two "new" graduate students to the lab, Amber Domanus and Grace Litavsky. Both were former postbacs and Amber was also a UIC undergrad, so they aren't exactly new, but both are starting their MS program in fall 2025. We are very happy to have them in the lab!
May 2025
  • Congratulations to postbac (and future MS student) Grace Litavsky for winning second place in the departmental poster competition for her poster "The effect of recent mowing on bee richness and abundance in Chicago vacant lots"! 
April 2025
November 2024
May 2024
April 2024
  • Congratulations to postbac Amber Domanus for winning 3rd place in the departmental poster competition!
March 2024
  • Congratulations to Dr. Hosler for successfully defending her dissertation last week! We'll miss you in the lab
February 2024
December 2023
  • I'm so excited that our paper about the feedback between people, their yards, and birds has finally been published! Thanks to Amy Belaire for collecting this amazing dataset and to Megan Garfinkel for putting it all together into a structural equation model. Download the paper here.
July 2023
May 2023
  • Congratulations to Philip for publishing the first chapter of his dissertation! This paper continues a really nice collaboration between members of our lab and the DuPage County Forest Preserves
  • We're excited to be part of a continental-wide study of insect decline led by Peter Dunn at UW Milwaukee, which follows up on this cool paper. We are using malaise traps to collect insects on the UIC greenhouse grounds, almost in the geometric center of Chicago. Looking forward to seeing what we find!
  • The third paper is out from our work in the ComEd powerline corridors. This one suggests that the pollinator habitat scorecard developed by the Rights of Way as Habitat Working Group may not predict pollinator communities in all types of corridors -  definitely worthy of a follow-up study!
January 2023
  • The second paper from our work in the ComEd powerline corridors was just published. It's based on a survey of the human residents living near the corridors and how the management of those corridors affects cultural ecosystem services. The paper is open access and published here. Congratulations and thanks to Megan for her leadership on this project!
December 2022
  • Congratulations to Benji Roberts for successfully passing his MS defense with no conditions! Excellent job!
  • The paper we've been working on for YEARS about spatial patterns in urban front yards is finally out! Take a look.
June 2022
Nov 2021
July 2021
December 2020
  • Some overdue updates from the last few months:
    • Maryam successfully defended her dissertation in October - congratulations! (photo of zoom defense here)
    • The last chapter of Elsa's dissertation was published in Ambio: Assessing four methods for establishing native plants on urban vacant land. PDF here
    • Emily's second collaborative paper with cancer biologists was published in Cancer Control: Histoecology: Applying ecological principles and approaches to describe and predict tumor ecosystem dynamics across space and time. PDF here
May 2020
  • Lots of exciting events in the lab lately - both Alexis and Megan successfully defended their dissertations, and Philip passed his preliminary exam. All events took place virtually through zoom meetings. Congratulations, everyone!
March 2020
  • Congratulations to Megan, who just published the first chapter of her dissertation (PDF here) and also wrote a great blog post about the work here
February 2020
  • The lab welcomes visiting scholar Chang Liu, who will be at UIC for one year. She is visiting from Henan Agricultural University in Zhengzhou, China
  • Congratulations to Elsa, who had another paper from her dissertation accepted. "Management effects on plant community and functional assemblages in Chicago’s vacant lots" is forthcoming in Applied Vegetation Science
  • Bianca's paper from her SESYNC postdoc came out in Landscape & Urban Planning - an interesting look at where people observe birds in Chicago. PDF here
November 2019
  • We're looking for a postdoc to study urban power line corridors. See more details here
October 2019
  • Our 2nd paper about vegetation in Boston yards and gardens has been accepted in Landscape Ecology! This work is in collaboration with Alessandro Ossola, Dexter Locke, and Brenda Lin. PDF here. One more paper is in the works from this very cool dataset, about spatial patterns in yard vegetation.
  • Emily just completed a week-long NetLogo course with Volker Grimm and Steve Railsback, through Physalia Courses. I'm looking forward to getting started on my own project!
August 2019
  • Todd Lookingbill's edited volume "Collateral Values: The Natural Capital Created by Landscapes of War" is out! Our chapter about "The Ecosystem Service Impacts from Invasive Plants in Antietam National Battlefield" can be downloaded here.
  • Emily was awarded a grant from NSF to synthesize lab data on biodiversity in residential yards and gardens!
  • Congratulations to Bianca on her new job as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Environmental Studies at the New School in NYC!
July 2019
  • Our paper about long-term changes in an urban forest community is out! It's been a great collaboration with DuPage County Forest Preserves, and other related papers are currently in the works. Congratulations and many thanks to Maryam for her hard work on this cool but challenging dataset. PDF
June 2019
  • Congratulations to Alexis for publishing the first chapter of her dissertation, and for highlighting the value of urban cemeteries for cavity nesting birds. Great work! https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/12/3258 
  • Emily had a great time in Toronto at the meeting for the Global Urban Biological Invasion Consortium. What an impressive group of researchers and an exciting topic - thanks very much to Marc Cadotte for putting this together.
April 2019
  • Maryam, Bianca, and Emily will be at the Landscape Ecology conference in Fort Collins, April 7-11 (http://www.usiale.org/annual-meeting.html). Looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting new people, and learning new things!
March 2019
  • Are you an undergraduate student looking for an opportunity to get involved with research in the Chicago area? Are you interested in learning about urban pollinators? Graduate student Lauren Lynch from UIUC is looking for students to help with her research this summer. Learn more about the project and how to contact Lauren on this flier.
  • Sheryl Hosler will be joining the lab as a PhD student in fall 2019, after finishing her Masters degree at NIU. She was recently awarded a University Fellowship by UIC! 
February 2019
  • Our lab had a good showing at the Wild Things conference! Alexis gave a talk about her research on birds in cemeteries, and two undergraduate students - Elizabeth Herrera and Jenny Paddack - presented posters.
  • A new paper just came out in Landscape & Urban Planning, led by Alessandro Ossola and coauthored by Dexter Locke, Brenda Lin, and Emily Minor. This paper is hopefully the first of three papers about vegetation in residential yards and gardens in the Boston metropolitan area. It makes use of a large-scale, high resolution dataset that allows us to look at differences between front, back, and side yards. "Greening in style: Urban form, architecture and the structure of front and
    backyard vegetation" ​PDF
November 2018
  • Congratulations to Elsa for a successful dissertation defense! Next steps - Berlin, Germany for 10 months as a Fulbright scholar
October 2018
  • Finally, the last chapter of David Lowenstein's dissertation has been accepted for publication in Urban Ecosystems! This paper examines how pollinators select from the many floral resources available in urban areas. Here's the PDF.
  • Elsa's second dissertation chapter was accepted in the same week! Her paper, which will be published in Science of the Total Environment, examines the social and biophysical drivers that affect vegetation in vacant lots. Here's the PDF.
September 2018
  • Emily's spending a week at Henan Agricultural University in Zhengzhou, China!
August 2018
July 2018
  • Philip, Alexis, and Emily are participating in the Global Urban Evolution (GLUE) project. Another group had already claimed Chicago, so we are collecting clover in Rockford, Illinois. We were pleasantly surprised to find clover at most of the urban sites we visited. Interestingly, clover was harder to find at the rural sites. 
  • Several group members and colleagues are presenting research at the North American Congress for Conservation Biology in Toronto. If you're reading this post and attending the conference, please say hello!
May 2018
  • Lots going on this summer! Megan, Benji, Philip, and Yuliana are doing fieldwork; Maryam has an internship at Field Museum; Alexis has an RA and will be writing up our community garden research; Elsa is aiming to finish her dissertation before heading to Germany!
April 2018
  • The US-IALE conference in Chicago was great! We broke records in terms of attendance and numbers of presentations. Most of the lab attended; Maryam, Elsa, Alexis, and Benji presented their research. 
  • Two lab members just won awards! Congratulations to Yuliana for winning a Graduate Teaching Award from UIC Department of Biological Sciences, and congratulations to Maryam for winning a Chancellor’s Graduate Internship Award Program from UIC!
March 2018
  • Elsa just received a Fulbright scholarship to work in Berlin next year with Ingo Kowarik - congratulations!!
  • Elsa and Yuliana both won prizes in the departmental photo competition for photos of their research!
February 2018
  • A paper from David's work in urban agriculture was accepted in Urban Ecosystems: "Herbivores and natural enemies of brassica crops in urban agriculture". PDF coming soon!
January 2018
December 2017
  • Benji just received the UIC Chancellor’s Graduate Research Award for his proposal ""Dispersal Related Morphology of Ground Beetles in Response to Features of Urban Environments”" - Congratulations!!
November 2017
  • Hooray! Matt McCary's paper "Covariation between local and landscape factors influences the structure of ground-active arthropod communities in fragmented metropolitan woodlands" has been accepted in the journal Landscape Ecology. Here's a PDF
  • The call for abstracts is open for the next Landscape Ecology (US-IALE) conference, which will take place in downtown Chicago on April 8-12. We had a great response to the call for symposia and expect this to be an exciting conference! Read more about the conference here and submit your abstract here. 
September 2017
August 2017
  • We are co-hosting the 2018 US-IALE meeting in Chicago this April. The call for symposium and workshop proposals has been released: http://chicago2018.usiale.org/call-for-symposia-workshops. Feel free to contact me if you have questions about the conference or about the proposal process. 
  • I would like to welcome two new lab members this fall:
    • Philip Johnson is a new PhD student in the lab. He received his BS from University of Minnesota
    • Bianca Lopez is a postdoctoral fellow at SESYNC in Annapolis, Maryland. Bianca received her PhD from UNC and will be working with me and Andrew Crooks (at George Mason University) to study ecosystem services provided by urban green spaces in Chicago
July 2017
  • A warm welcome to the newest lab member, Lyndon Phillip Anderson!! Born on July 28 to parents Elsa and Chris - congratulations!!
  • Megan is presenting her research at the American Ornithology meeting on August 3rd. She will be speaking in an organized symposium called 'Agriculture, ecosystem services, and avian conservation'. Go say hi if you are at the meeting!
June 2017
May 2017
  • We had a fun day of birding banding at Thatcher Woods with Mrs. Bruce's 4th grade class at Irving Elementary School. See the outreach page for photos
  • We're gearing up for field work this summer! Elsa will be doing social surveys of community gardeners, Megan will be looking at birds and arthropods in soy fields, and Alexis and Benji will be studying plants, birds, and insects in Chicago community gardens
April 2017
  • Congratulations to Maryam for passing her prelims!
  • Congratulations to Alexis for passing her prelims!
  • Elsa, Maryam, and Emily are giving talks at the US-IALE conference in Baltimore. Next year, it will be in Chicago!
March 2017
February 2017
  • Maryam and Alexis are presenting posters at the Wild Things conference on Feb 18. Tickets to the event are sold out - should be a great event!
  • Maryam and Elsa received travel awards to attend the US-IALE conference in Baltimore. Thanks to US-IALE and NASA-MSU for their generous support of students. 
  • It's a good month for Maryam :) Her paper about valley oaks, in collaboration with Mary Ashley and Walt Koenig, was just published. PDF
  • Our paper using InVEST to model urban pollination services, led by Amelie Davis, was just accepted in Landscape & Urban Planning.
January 2017
  • Congratulations to Megan for passing her prelims!
  • Megan was awarded a Friends of Nachusa Grasslands Scientific Research Grant - Congratulations!
December 2016
  • Elsa's review paper about vacant lots was accepted to Urban Forestry and Urban Greening!
  • More good news for Elsa - she was just awarded the UIC Provost’s Award for Graduate Research!
October 2016
  • The manuscript from Alex Silva's MS thesis was just accepted in Anthrozoos! Stay tuned for the PDF of 'Adolescents' experience, knowledge, and attitudes toward bees: implications and recommendations for conservation'
September 2016
August 2016
  • Megan just won an IESP Predoctoral Fellowship - Congratulations!!!!
July 2016
June 2016
  • A paper we started writing >6 years ago finally got published thanks to the hard work and persistence of Moira Zellner. ML Zellner, D Massey, ES Minor, M Gonzalez-Meler. Exploring the Effects of Green Infrastructure Placement on Neighborhood-Level Flooding via Spatially Explicit Simulations. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 59: 116-128 PDF
  • David Lowenstein turned in the final copy of his dissertation and accepted a postdoc position at Oregon State University. Congratulations, David!