Lydia O'Halloran

Research Assistant Professor
Plant Ecologist
Forestry and Environmental Conservation Department, Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science

Office: Baruch Institute, Bldg B # 125
Phone:

Email: lohallo@clemson.edu
Vita: Download CV
Personal Website: https://sites.google.com/view/lydia-ohalloran-lab

Educational Background

Ph.D. Environmental Science
University of Virginia

M.S. Environmental Science
University of Virginia

B.A. Biology
Oberlin College

Courses Taught

Advanced Conservation Biology
Global Change Ecology

Profile

Dr. O’Halloran’s research interests are in plant ecology and global environmental change. Specifically, she is interested in how land use and climate change affect herbaceous plant ecology. She examines how plants respond to environmental impacts at the species scale (e.g. loss of fitness or phenotypic plasticity) and at ecosystem scales (e.g. changes in gross primary productivity, relative diversity and abundance) in hopes of providing the science necessary for climate change conservation planning in South Carolina and beyond. Her current research on silvopasture understory has important implications for developing climate-smart solutions in using native vegetation in agroforestry practices.

Publications

MacDougall, A., et al. [O’Halloran, L.R.] 2024. Widening global variability in grassland biomass since the 1980s. Nature Ecology & Evolution. doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02500-x.

Seabloom, E.W., et al. [O’Halloran, L.R.] 2015. Plant species’ origin predicts dominance and response to nutrient enrichment and herbivores in global grasslands. Nature Communications, 6: 771. doi: 10.1038/ncomms8710.

Hautier, Y., et al. [O’Halloran, L.R.] 2014. Eutrophication weakens stabilizing effects of diversity in natural grasslands. Nature, 508:521-525. doi:10.1038/nature13014.

Borer, E.T., et al. [O’Halloran, L.R.] 2014. Herbivores and nutrients control grassland plant diversity via light limitation. Nature, 508:517-520. doi:10.1038/nature13144.

Seabloom, E. W., et al. [O’Halloran, L.R.] 2013. Predicting invasion in grassland ecosystems: is exotic dominance the real embarrassment of richness? Global Change Biology, 19: 3677–3687. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12370.

O’Halloran L.R., Borer E.T., Seabloom E.W., MacDougall A.S, Cleland E.E., et al. 2013. Regional contingencies in the relationship between aboveground biomass and litter in the world’s grasslands. PLoS ONE, 8(2): e54988. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0054988.

Grace, J. B., et al. [O’Halloran, L.R.] 2012. Response to comments on “Productivity is a poor predictor of plant species richness.” Science, 335:1441–1441.

Adler, P., et al. [O’Halloran, L.R.] 2011. Productivity is a poor predictor of plant species richness. Science, 333: 1750-1753.

Firn, J., et al. [O’Halloran, L.R.] 2011. Abundance of introduced species at home predicts abundance away in herbaceous communities. Ecology Letters, 14(3):274-281. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01584.x.

Links