Wisconsin Discovery Portal

Researcher's Profile

Last Name

Hotchkiss 

First Name

Sara 

Middle Initial

Areas of Research Expertise

* Studies of vegetation history and climate history
* Ecosystem response to climate change
* Disturbance and landscape dynamics
* Paleoecology
* Studies the sensitivity of Hawaiian high-elevation and aquatic ecosystems to global change, specifically, the response of treeline vetetation on Maui to changes in climate
* Studies the effects of Sphagnum palustre in Hawaiian wet forests over the past few decades
* Studies biocomplexity of lake ecosystems in northern Wisconsin as they interact with changes in riparian vegetation driven by human land use decisions
* Investigates the development and intensification of agriculture over 1000 years in Hawaii, focusing on interactions between human societies and the ecosystems they lived in

Web site

University Web Page of Sara Hotchkiss 

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

 

Current/Active Funding

  • NSF, 2007-2011, Collaborative Research: Pre-Contact Intensive Agriculture and Society in Kohala, Hawaii
  • NSF, 2007-2010, Collaborative Research: Disturbance, Succession, and Nutrient Availability: Patterns, Mechanisms, Interactions

Issued Patent(s)

 

USPTO Published Applications

Recent Publication(s)

  • "Top-down analysis of forest structure and biogeochemistry across Hawaiian landscapes"

Vitousek PM, Tweiten MA, Kellner J, et al., Pacific Science 64(3): 359-366 Jul 2010.  The authors detected spatial variation in ecosystem properties associated with the properties of different species, including differences in canopy N concentrations associated with the native species Metrosideros polymorpha and Acacia koa, and differences brought about by invasions of the biological N fixer Morella faya. 

  • "Strong relationships between vegetation and two perpendicular climate gradients high on a tropical mountain in Hawai'i"

Crausbay SD, Hotchkiss SC, Journal of Biogeography 37 (6): 1160-1174 Jun 2010.  Modern spatial patterns suggest that this landscape will respond to changes in moisture balance through changes in species assemblage and structure, especially at the ecotone. Furthermore, ecotone response to climate change may vary from east to west because of differences in species-specific constraints or climatic context.

  • "Bosmina remains in lake sediment as indicators of zooplankton community composition"

Alexander ML, Hotchkiss SC, Journal of Paleolimnology 43 (1): 51-59 Jan 2010. We measured Bosmina spp. mucro and antennule lengths in surface sediment samples from Wisconsin lakes to test whether such measures could be used to reconstruct zooplankton community composition and size structure in paleolimnological studies

  • "The response of a jack pine forest to late-Holocene climate variability in northwestern Wisconsin"

Tweiten MA, Hotchkiss SC, Booth RK, et al., Holocene 19 (7): 1049-1061 Nov 2009. Terrestrial plant communities have the potential to respond to climate change rapidly, if dominant species are killed by a series of extreme events, or slowly, if the cumulative effects of shorter-term climate fluctuations result in longR term compositional change. We used pollen and charcoal records from a lake and a testate amoebae-derived history of water-table depth in a nearby peatland to assess the response of the jack pine-dominated forests of northwestern Wisconsin to the climate variability of the last similar to 2000 years.

  • "Freshwater macrophyte communities in lakes of variable landscape position and development in northern Wisconsin, USA"

Alexander ML, Woodford MP, Hotchkiss SC, Aquatic Botany 88 (1): 77-86 2008. Using multivariate analyses, we evaluated the roles of landscape position and human development in the presence, composition, and abundance of freshwater macrophyte communities among 60 study lakes located in Vilas County, Wisconsin.

Recent Artistic Works

 

Collaboration

  • University of California-Santa Barbara, Department of Geography
  • Colorado State University Department of Crop & Soil Sciences

Research Tools

 

Research Facilities

 

E-mail Address

shotchkiss@facstaff.wisc.edu 

Phone Number

608-265-6751 

Current University

UW- Madison 

Department

Botany 

Title

Assistant Professor 

Other Appointments

 

Address Line 1

353 Birge Hall 

Address Line 2

430 Lincoln Drive 

City

Madison 

State

WI 

Zip Code

53706 

Bachelor's Degree

 

Master's Degree

 

PhD

 

Other Degrees

 

Technologies Available for Licensing

Attachments
Created at 6/12/2007 2:06 PM  by Mindy Dawson 
Last modified at 7/20/2010 3:22 PM  by EXTWEB\alarson