Plant Science — OUR SCIENTISTS

Stuart Wagenius, Ph.D.

Conservation Scientist

Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 2000

Echinacea Project

Check out Stuart's echinacea blog, where he and his team
members post details of events that don't fit on data sheets.

PUBLICATIONS
(847) 835-6978

Graduate Faculty Memberships

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Northwestern University (Present)

Research Interests

Conservation genetics
Feedbacks between evolutionary and ecological dynamics
Biology of Echinacea angustifolia in fragmented habitat
Spatial scale-dependence in species interactions
Effects of fire on prairie plants

Statement

Research in my lab addresses questions about the ecology and evolution of native perennial plants in remnant prairie habitat. Native prairie plants used to live in vast continuous habitat, but now they are constrained to small and isolated remnants. The persistence of plant populations in these remnants depends on their demographic response to new threats such as lack of fire, competition with weeds, inbreeding depression, and limited mate availability. My students and I quantify the ecological and evolutionary consequences of habitat fragmentation on herbaceous plant populations. We investigate short-term consequences, such as reproductive failure and inbreeding depression, as well as long-term consequences, such as loss of genetic diversity and lack of fire.

I offer research opportunities for enthusiastic students, teachers, and volunteers, including graduate students through University of Illinois — Chicago and Northwestern University. I teach courses in plant conservation genetics through the school of the Chicago Botanic Garden, Northwestern's program in plant biology and conservation, and the Center for Plant Conservation. In 1995, I started the Echinacea project which investigates the ecology and evolution of the purple coneflower Echinacea angustifolia in fragmented prairie habitat in western Minnesota.

Selected publications

Shaw, Ruth G., Charles J. Geyer, Stuart Wagenius, Helen H. Hangelbroek, and Julie R. Etterson. 2008. Unifying life-history analyses for inference of fitness and population growth. American Naturalist 172:E35-E47.

Geyer, C. J., S. Wagenius, and R. G. Shaw. 2007. Aster models for life history analysis. Biometrika 94:415-426.

Wagenius, S., E. Lonsdorf, and C. Neuhauser. 2007. Patch aging and the S-Allee effect: breeding system effects on the demographic response of plants to habitat fragmentation. American Naturalist 169:383-397. (Supplemental Material)

Wagenius, S. 2006. Scale dependence of reproductive failure in fragmented Echinacea populations. Ecology 87:931-941. (Supplemental Material)

Wagenius, S. 2004. Style persistence, pollen limitation, and seed set in the common prairie plant Echinacea angustifolia (Asteraceae). International Journal of Plant Sciences 165:595-603.

Neuhauser, C., D. A. Andow, G. E. Heimpel, G. May, R. G. Shaw, and S. Wagenius. 2003. Community genetics: expanding the synthesis of ecology and genetics. Ecology 84:545-558.