
About us
Welcome to the research lab of Nick Barber, Associate Professor of biology at San Diego State University. We study how environmental and anthropogenic factors influence community assembly, trophic interactions, and ecosystem functioning.
We work in restored, managed, and unmanaged ecosystems, and a major goal of our research is to generate basic ecological knowledge while contributing to the conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity.

news
April 2023:
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A busy winter and spring in the lab, including a new papers out on prairie soil bacterial communities.
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Mareike and Sam both presented posters at SDSU's S3 student research symposium - great job!
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And more exciting news all around:
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Liz was awarded a summer graduate fellowship at Nachusa Grasslands!
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Sam was awarded a REU in Maryland!
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Travis was awarded a REU at Plum Island, Massachusetts!
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Marieke will be visiting an equestrian facility in Germany for a potential internship!
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And Maricela was awarded a GRFP and will be starting her MS at Colorado State University!!!
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September 2022:
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A new schoolyear and exciting time for the lab!
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Welcome to Liz Becker, starting in the Joint Doctoral Program in Ecology. Liz has extensive experience in conservation and restoration work, and she is interested in how restoration can support ecosystem services in mixed agricultural-natural landscapes.
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Check out some of our new papers studying grazing impacts on threatened beetles in Germany, herbicide effects in honeysuckle-invaded woodlands, and some big collaborative papers we were excited to contribute to.
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And congrats to Camille and Maricela, who presented their research at ESA in Montreal. We had a great time meeting other ecologists and being able to connect with friends face-to-face.
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Finally, check out this amazing paper in Science, led by Amy Zanne, to which we contributed data. It was great to be part of a truly global project.