Plant Science — OUR SCIENTISTS

Daniel Larkin, Ph.D.

Conservation Scientist, Community Ecology

Ph.D., Botany, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006

PUBLICATIONS
(847) 835-6931

Graduate Faculty Memberships

Northwestern University, Plant Biology and Conservation

Research Interests

Restoration ecology
Invasive plant species
Plant-soil feedbacks
Nutrient cycling
Plant community change
Wetland and terrestrial ecology

Statement

Ecological management and restoration efforts often fail to produce biologically diverse communities that function like reference sites over the long term. My overall goal is to conduct research that informs restoration efforts and improves our ability to mimic nature.

Invasive plants play a special role in restoration, acting both as a major impetus for restoration and as a major obstacle to achieving restoration goals. By better understanding how invasive species change community structure and ecosystem functioning, we can develop improved strategies for controlling invasive plants and reversing their effects.

My recent research has focused on Typha x glauca (hybrid cattail), an aggressive invader of wetlands throughout the upper Midwest. Typha forms dense monotypes that exclude native species, alter soil properties, and change wetland biogeochemistry. With collaborators at Loyola University Chicago and the University of Michigan Biological Station, I am investigating Typha's mechanisms of dominance, its effects on nutrient cycling and plant community composition, and reversibility of its effects through restoration.

In addition to my ongoing wetland research, I am developing projects related to restoration, invasive species, and long-term vegetation change in prairies, savannas, and woodlands of the Chicago region.

Selected publications

Tuchman, N.C., D.J. Larkin, P. Geddes, R. Wildova, K.J. Jankowski, and D.E. Goldberg. In revision. Patterns of environmental change associated with Typha x glauca invasion in a Great Lakes coastal wetland. Wetlands.

Larkin, D.J., J.M. West, and J.B. Zedler. In revision. Created pools increase food availability for fishes in a restored salt marsh. Ecological Engineering.

Zedler, J.B., C.L. Bonin, D.J. Larkin, and A. Varty. 2008. Salt marshes. Pages 3132–3141 in S.E. Jorgensen and B.D. Fath, eds. Encyclopedia of Ecology. Elsevier, Oxford.

Larkin, D.J., S.P. Madon, J.M. West, and J.B. Zedler. 2008. Topographic heterogeneity influences fish use of an experimentally restored tidal marsh. Ecological Applications 18:483-496.

Zedler, J.B., D.A. Falk, and D.J. Larkin. 2007. Upstart views of restoration icons. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 88:104-112.

Larkin, D.J., G. Vivian-Smith, and J.B. Zedler. 2006. Topographic heterogeneity: Theory and ecological restoration. Pages 142-164 in D.A. Falk, M.A. Palmer, and J.B. Zedler, eds. Foundations of Restoration Ecology. Island Press, Washington, D.C.