Diane Larson, PhD
Diane Larson is a Research Wildlife Biologist with the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center and is stationed at the St. Paul, Minnesota duty station.
What is a functional prairie ecosystem? Where can we begin to address such a huge question? With only a tiny fraction of the once vast prairies remaining, understanding their key functions and how to best preserve or reconstruct these functions is of utmost importance. Questions may begin with vegetation, but quickly propagate downward into soil communities and processes and upward to pollinators and herbivores. These are the motivations for my research.
My goals are to assist resource managers in ways that improve sustainability. Prairie reconstructions that both express the range of species planted and are resistant to noxious weeds, thereby minimizing subsequent management inputs, are more sustainable than those that degenerate into weedy fields in need of repeated herbicide applications. Can we improve planting methods and seed mixes to better achieve sustainable prairies?
Functioning ecosystems support mutualists, herbivores, commensals, predators. How will legacies of prior land use and vegetation impinge on these functions? Can we mitigate negative legacies? Create positive legacies to improve outcomes? What roles do invasive plant species play? If they support mutualists such as pollinators, how will we sustain these mutualists while controlling weeds?
Professional Experience
Research Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Discipline (formerly Fish and Wildlife Service), Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, 1991 to present
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. (Biology) University of Illinois, Chicago
B.A., M.A. (Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology) University of Colorado, Boulder
Affiliations and Memberships*
Adjunct Associate Professor, Dept. of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, January 1998 to present
Science and Products
Alien plant invasion in mixed-grass prairie: effects of vegetation type, stochiasticity, and anthropogenic disturbance in two park units
The Grasslands Ecosystem Initiative
Effects of fire retardant chemical and fire suppressant foam on shrub steppe vegetation in northern Nevada
Tiger salamander life history in relation to agriculture in the northern Great Plains: a hypothesis
Amphibians of the northern Great Plains
Effects of the herbicide atrazine on Ambystoma tigrinum metamorphosis: duration, larval growth, and hormonal response
Seed dispersal by specialist versus generalist foragers: the plant's perspective
Effects of climate on numbers of northern prairie wetlands
Potential effects of anthropogenic greenhouse gases on avian habitats and populations in the northern Great Plains
[Book review] Climate change for the next generation: Global Warming, by Jenny Tesar
Science and Products
Alien plant invasion in mixed-grass prairie: effects of vegetation type, stochiasticity, and anthropogenic disturbance in two park units
The Grasslands Ecosystem Initiative
Effects of fire retardant chemical and fire suppressant foam on shrub steppe vegetation in northern Nevada
Tiger salamander life history in relation to agriculture in the northern Great Plains: a hypothesis
Amphibians of the northern Great Plains
Effects of the herbicide atrazine on Ambystoma tigrinum metamorphosis: duration, larval growth, and hormonal response
Seed dispersal by specialist versus generalist foragers: the plant's perspective
Effects of climate on numbers of northern prairie wetlands
Potential effects of anthropogenic greenhouse gases on avian habitats and populations in the northern Great Plains
[Book review] Climate change for the next generation: Global Warming, by Jenny Tesar
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government