Research
1. Habitat susceptibility to non-native plants
An increasing number of studies has shown that plant communities respond differently to disturbance
and non-native plants; some buffer them while maintaining native plant composition, while others appear
to collapse under pressure. We use data mining, field observations and experiments to explore the levels
of invasion across habitats and to identify the mechanisms that drive habitat invasibility.
∙ Wagner, V., Večeřa, M., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., et al. (accepted) Alien plant invasion hotspots and invasion debt in European woodlands.
Journal of Vegetation Science
∙ Wagner, V., Chytrý, M., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., [...] et al.
(2017) Alien plant invasions across European woodlands.
Diversity and Distributions 23: 969-981.
2. Non-native plant management
Herbicides are widely used to suppress invasive plants but there is little information
on their effects on native species. We collaborate with plant and soil ecologists to understand
how this practice affects the entire native plant community and its soil components.
∙ Wagner, V., Antunes, P.M., Irvine, M. & Nelson, C. (2017) Herbicide usage for invasive non-native plant management in wildland areas of North America. Journal of Applied Ecology 54: 198-204.
∙ Lekberg, Y., Wagner, V., Rummel, A., McLeod, M., Ramsey, P.W. (2017) Strong indirect herbicide effects on mycorrhizal associations through plant community shifts and secondary invasions. Ecological Applications 27: 2359-2368.
∙Wagner, V. & Nelson, C.R. 2014: Herbicides negatively affect seed performance in native plants. Restoration Ecology 22: 288-291.
3. Biodiversity and ecological functioning of grasslands and meadows
Grassland and meadows can harbor a high biodiversity but are often distinguished only as “non-forest” in the regional
classification schemes. We carry out field research to explore the diversity and ecosystem
functions of understudied habitat types.
∙ Wagner, V., Spribille, T., Abrahamczyk, S., & Bergmeier, E. 2014:
Timberline meadows along a 1000km transect in NW North America: species diversity and community patterns.
Applied Vegetation Science 17: 129-141.
Lab news
16 January 2023
Summer 2023 position: We are looking for a UofA undergraduate student to apply for a USRA to join our project on Caragana arborescens invasions.
16 January 2023
Welcome to our new lab members Martin Hinojosa, Britton McNerlin (both MSc students), and Emily Wong (BIOL 498 student)!
12 January 2023
Former postdoc Ricarda Pätsch shows that bedrock meadows are a distinct vegetation type in interior NW North America. Read the paper in the journal Applied Vegetation Science
1 November 2022
Viktoria received a Schimper field research grant to collaborate with Tatyana Vakhlamova in Kazakhstan as part of a cross-continental comparison of levels of invasion across habitat types.
8 July 2022
We are looking for 1-2 MSc students to join our lab in January 2022. For more details see here
1 March 2022
Zoey's paper on non-native plant invasions in Alberta prairie grasslands was accepted in Rangeland Ecology & Management. Congrats, Zoey!