I am an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Washington University in St. Louis. As an ecologist and conservation biologist, I am interested in determining when environmental and spatial processes interact to determine community composition, how are humans changing these interactions, and what these changes mean for global biodiversity. Research in my lab lies at the intersection of providing empirical tests of ecological theory and providing scientific information to conservation managers. Current projects in the Damschen Lab include: 1. How corridors and edge effects affect plant communities 2. If species traits can predict responses to landscape fragmentation 3. How climate change affects edaphic endemic plants 4. What controls edaphic endemic plant diversity 5. How connectivity varies across ecosystems 6. How local and landscape factors affect community restoration Our study sites include the Savannah River Site near Aiken, SC; the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains in southwestern Oregon; the kelp forests of the Santa Barbara Channel; the Ozark glades across Missouri, and the Tyson Research Center near St. Louis, Missouri.