Noel B Pavlovic, PhD

Dr. Noel B. Pavlovic is a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, stationed at the Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station in Porter, Indiana, where he has worked for 30 years.  He addresses ecological and biological issues in plant and animal restoration and conservation from the populational, community, ecosystem, and landscape levels.  He is working on a conservation synthesis of the federally threatened Pitcher’s thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) in the sand dunes of the western Great Lakes.  Since his dissertation focusing on the biology and demography of prairie fame flower (Phemeranthus rugospermum), a Midwestern endemic succulent plant, he has been interested in disturbance dependent plants and metapopulation dynamics. He has studied fire effects on the structure, phenology, and floral and faunal composition of Midwest oak savannas. He is currently working on a regional perspective on oak savanna restoration in the lower Great Lakes. Another focus has been controlling of invasive plants, especially Asiatic bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) and the potential for hybridization with the native American bittersweet (C. scandens). That research also focused on habitat requirements and fire effects on the invasion and spread of Oriental bittersweet.  He is currently interested in the roles of soil and endophytic microorganisms on the bittersweet invasion. He has served on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative’s Terrestrial Habitat and Connectivity Working Group leadership team and has been involved in research concerning coastal and regional corridor creation (habitat connectivity) in the Great Lakes region.