Laura Powers Email & Phone Number

Palo Alto, California, United States

In my time at Grassroots Ecology, I have cultivated my understanding of California ecosystems while restoring native grassland, oak woodland, and riparian habitat around Santa Clara County. I have not only conducted surveys mapping and removing invasive plants like yellow star thistle (Centaurea solstitialis) and medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae), but also mapped rare native plant species including Western leatherwood (Dirca occidentalis). Additionally, I have developed a solid foundation… Show more In my time at Grassroots Ecology, I have cultivated my understanding of California ecosystems while restoring native grassland, oak woodland, and riparian habitat around Santa Clara County. I have not only conducted surveys mapping and removing invasive plants like yellow star thistle (Centaurea solstitialis) and medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae), but also mapped rare native plant species including Western leatherwood (Dirca occidentalis). Additionally, I have developed a solid foundation in native plant identification while working on the native plant nursery propagating a variety of plants and keying grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees at different life stages in the field. In addition to the technical restoration work skills I gained at Grassroots (invasive plant removal, native plant installation, restoration site monitoring, watering, and maintenance, nursery tasks, willow staking, monitoring vegetation), I worked in the Grassroots Ecology community outreach programs. I regularly organized and supervised groups of 20-70 volunteers, lead high school youth stewards and California naturalist intern programs in restoration work and naturalist education, and lead environmental education and creek science field trips for community college ecology students. In addition to serving at Grassroots Ecology, I also participated in field work with government agencies and other nonprofits in aquatic ecosystems across California. I electrofished for Coho salmon and steelhead trout in stream surveys from Santa Cruz to Humboldt, learned and executed seining, soil coring, e-DNA collection, crab counts, water quality data collection, macro-algae surveying protocols and more for an Estuary Marine Protected Area survey in Point Reyes, and traveled to the Mattole River to participate in the annual Mattole Dive snorkel survey with the Mattole Salmon Group to collect data on summer steelhead runs and invasive aquatic wildlife. Show less

Project Title: The Effects of Wildfires and Invasive Species on California Grassland Native Rhizosphere Microbiome

$5000 student fellowship to fund undergraduate research projects that culminates in an undergraduate senior thesis project.

Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program in the Dawson Lab Investigating nitrogen and carbon cycling by root networks growing in soil and underlying rock in California forests. Used a variety of biogeochemical analysis techniques including soil chemical analysis to assess nitrogen availability, root microbial methods to assess plant uptake of nitrogen from samples collected in the field, stable isotope analysis for resource tracing

The Dawson Laboratory is part of the departments of Integrative Biology and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. Projects in the lab study physiological and evolutionary plant ecology, ecosystem science, and stable isotope biogeochemistry to learn about how plants interact with the environment.

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Integrative Biology: Ecology, Evolution, And Organismal Biology

High School Diploma