The
Community ecology & restoration lab
Nick barber, san diego state university
About us
Welcome to the research lab of Nick Barber, 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. Most of our work focuses on plants, insects, and soil microorganisms.
Our goal is to cultivate an inclusive lab environment in which people at all career stages are welcomed and feel free to learn and contribute to science regardless of their background or identity.
news
May 2025:
Lots of things to celebrate at the end of a successful year!
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Esme had a paper published in Urban Ecosystems from her MS thesis work. She is also gearing up for a summer project studying Cactus Wren habitat around San Diego.
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Liz was awarded a scholarship from the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, an ARCS Scholarship, and a SDSU CORE Fellowship!
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Eva received funding from the Friends of Nachusa Grasslands to study invasive legumes and will be collecting data and soil there this summer.
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Sara completed a report on post-fire habitat restoration in coastal sage scrub that will form the first chapter of her thesis.
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Jolene gave several invited talks this year, published a paper in Journal of Pollination Ecology, and helped re-launch SDSU's SACNAS chapter.
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Nick was honored to receive Robert and Patricia Anderson Outstanding Contribution to Science at Nachusa Grasslands Award from the Friends of Nachusa Grasslands. Friends has been a dedicated supporter of our science, and we value the long-term collaborations we've been able to maintain at Nachusa!
September 2025:
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New paper out, led by former postdoc Kendall Beals in collaboration with our colleagues at the University of Wisconsin. We found that woody encroachment in restored and remnant prairies affects soil microbes and enzyme activities. Read it here.
August 2025:
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With a new academic year starting soon, we are welcoming new faces in the lab!
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Dr. Jolene Saldivar is beginning her NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology. She received her PhD from UC Riverside and spent last year as a UC Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Davis in Louie Yang's lab.
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Sara Wifall is staring the Ecology MS program. She was a biology & psych major at Pacific Lutheran University.
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Eva Bednard is also starting the Ecology MS program. She received her BS in Biology from Loyola University Chicago, where she has worked for the past year as a research associate.
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Sara also got a jump start on her research this summer, studying plant survival in restored coastal sage scrub here in the San Diego area. This is a new project in collaboration with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. Hannah Wood, an undergrad from UC Davis, has been a big help on the field work this summer. Thank you Hannah!
February 2025:
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Some reasons to celebrate:
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Liz's first paper was accepted at Restoration Ecology, a long-term overseeding experiment she carried out with Bill Kleiman and Elizabeth Bach at Nachusa. (March update: the paper is up! If you don't have access, email us and we'll send you a copy)
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Lydia won a photography award at SDSU's Darwin Day celebration.
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Alec and Rory are getting ready to present posters at S3.
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Nick had a great visit to the Morton Arboretum (despite cold & snow).
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