Lauck is interested in understanding how hydrologic variability and disturbance regimes affect the structure and function of primary producer communities in arid streams and wetlands. Using a combination of field observations from Sycamore Creek and the Salt River wetlands, greenhouse experiments, and statistical modelling, she hopes to better understand how variability within and between years affects long-term biotic community structure and ecosystem function. Lauck received her master’s in Ecology at Florida State University, where she studied interactions between algal crusts, plant communities, and storm disturbance regimes on barrier islands coastal dunes in the Florida panhandle. As an undergraduate at Florida Atlantic University, she worked on several projects, including her Honors Thesis on managing pine scrubland plant communities and an NSF Undergraduate Research and Mentoring (URM) program fellowship working in sawgrass communities in the Florida Everglades. She is an avid proponent of outreach and education, a ESA-SEEDS alumni, and a GPSE mentor teaching science to local middle schools.
M.S. Ecology & Evolution. Florida State University. 2016.
B.S. Biology. Florida Atlantic University. 2013.
My research focuses on wetland primary producer community structure and function. Particularly, I am interested in understanding how variability in environmental drivers, such as precipitation, and disturbance regimes affect the structure and function of wetland plant communities in arid environments across intra- and interannual temporal scales.
Urban and Streams Ecosystems Lab
Central Arizona-Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research
Eliyahu, D., McCall, A. C., Lauck, M., Trakhtenbrot, A., & Bronstein, J. L. (2015). Minute pollinators: The role of thrips (Thysanoptera) as pollinators of pointleaf manzanita, Arctostaphylos pungens (Ericaceae). Journal of pollination ecology, 16, 64.
Eliyahu, D., McCall, A. C., Lauck, M., & Trakhtenbrot, A. (2015). Florivory and nectar-robbing perforations in flowers of pointleaf manzanita Arctostaphylos pungens (Ericaceae) and their effects on plant reproductive success. Arthropod-plant interactions, 9(6), 613-622.
Lauck, M., & Benscoter, B. (2015). Non-destructive estimation of aboveground biomass in sawgrass communities of the Florida Everglades. Wetlands, 35(1), 207-210.
Lauck, M., Scholl, J., & Frazier, E. An Analysis of the Vegetation within the FAU Preserve as a Basis for Management of Scrub Habitat for Gopherus polyphemus. FAU Undergraduate Research Journal, 2(1), 7.
Awards
ASU-SOLS Graduate Education Research Fellowship 2016
ASU-SOLS Graduate Recruitment Fellowship 2016
Best Undergraduate Poster, Southeastern Ecology and Evolution Conference 2013
Florida Atlantic University Undergraduate Grant 2013
Edward Shoaf Scholarship 2013
NSF Undergraduate Research and Mentoring Fellowship 2011
Academic Competitiveness Grant 2009
Florida Bright Futures Academic Scholarship 2008
Travel Awards
ASU Graduate Program Student Association Travel Award 2018
ASU Graduate College Travel Award 2018
ESA-SEEDS Minority Ecologists Forum Travel Award 2017
Diversity Scholarship, SEEC travel award 2015
ESA-SEEDS Travel Award, ESA Annual Meeting 2014
Society of Wetland Scientists Travel Grant 2013
INTECOL International Wetlands Conference Travel Award 2012
National Science Foundation Travel Grant 2012
ESA-SEEDS Travel Award, SEEDS Annual Leadership Meeting 2013
Research Grants
Central-Arizona Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research Grad Grant 2018
Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory Fellowship 2014
Robert K. Godfrey Endowment for Botany 2014
Broward Undergraduate Research Grant 2013
FAU Undergraduate Research Grant 2011
Graduate Partners in Science Education
Ecological Society of America
Society of Freshwater Science
Graduate Partners in Science Education
Graduate & Professional Student Association