Kimberly Reever Morghan - Undergraduate Research Notes

I have a BA degree in Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. I took a broad range of classes with an emphasis on ecology and plant biology. My areas of interest include plant ecology, conservation biology, restoration ecology, and invasive (exotic) species control. My Honors Thesis research studied the effectiveness of nitrogen reduction as a technique for controlling invasive species in restored grasslands. The research plots were located in short-grass prairie south of Boulder, Colorado. This is just at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The hope was that the lower nitrogen conditions would favor native plants, such as Western wheatgrass (Agropyron smithii) over exotic species such as diffuse knapweed (Centaurea diffusa). The methods and results of that research can be found below in the Honors Thesis section.

Weed Research Results - Scientific Version

Here is the text of my Honors Thesis, broken out into sections . The publication version of this is titled "Effects of Soil Nitrogen Reduction on Non-Native Plants in Disturbed Grasslands" and is published in the March 1999 issue of Restoration Ecology (Restoration Ecology Vol. 7, pp. 51-55). The abstract is on-line at CU's page for Summa cum laude honors thesis abstracts here (sorry about the typos, I didn't type it).

Abstract

Introduction

Materials and Methods

Weed Research Results - Non-Scientific Version

The old version of my home page (a sort of research summary in extremely readable text) can be found here.

Knapweed Competition Studies at Lastoka

My 1997 research looked at the effectiveness of patches of native grass at reducing the density of diffuse knapweed. The differences in density can be found at my density results page, and the differences in species composition can be found at my species composition page.

My 1998 research was a continuation of my 1997 research. I looked at the change in knapweed density and the change in species competition at the Lastoka grasslands in Louisville, Colorado. Check out these results at my 1998 knapweed density results page and at my 1998 knapweed species composition page.

Back to my Home Page.