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
Short-term disruption of a leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) biocontrol program following herbicide application
Canada thistle biological control agents on two South Dakota wildlife refuges
Insect visitation and pollen deposition in an invaded prairie plant community
Insect visitation and pollen deposition in an invaded prairie plant community
Alternative management practices of Cirsium arvense: final report
2004 inventory of the distribution and abundance of non-indigenous plants and rare plants at two riverine national parks in the Great Lakes Network -- final report
Role of soil transformation in invasion of mixed-grass prairie
Temporal dynamics of leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) and two species of flea beetles (Aphthona spp.) used as biological control agents
Effects of ungulates and prairie dogs on seed banks and vegetation in a North American mixed-grass prairie
Native weeds and exotic plants: relationships to disturbance in mixed grass prairie
Native weeds and exotic plants: Relationships to disturbance in mixed-grass prairie
Alien plant invasion in mixed-grass prairie: Effects of vegetation type and anthropogenic disturbance
Science and Products
Short-term disruption of a leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) biocontrol program following herbicide application
Canada thistle biological control agents on two South Dakota wildlife refuges
Insect visitation and pollen deposition in an invaded prairie plant community
Insect visitation and pollen deposition in an invaded prairie plant community
Alternative management practices of Cirsium arvense: final report
2004 inventory of the distribution and abundance of non-indigenous plants and rare plants at two riverine national parks in the Great Lakes Network -- final report
Role of soil transformation in invasion of mixed-grass prairie
Temporal dynamics of leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) and two species of flea beetles (Aphthona spp.) used as biological control agents
Effects of ungulates and prairie dogs on seed banks and vegetation in a North American mixed-grass prairie
Native weeds and exotic plants: relationships to disturbance in mixed grass prairie
Native weeds and exotic plants: Relationships to disturbance in mixed-grass prairie
Alien plant invasion in mixed-grass prairie: Effects of vegetation type and anthropogenic disturbance
*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