Jennie R. McLaren

The research in my lab bridges the fields of community and ecosystem ecology. The goals of my research group are to understand the effects that changing the composition of organisms that inhabit an ecosystem will have on the processes and properties of that ecosystem. We are in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso.




Ecosystems worldwide are gaining and losing species and changes in plant identity likely influence a number of ecosystem properties. We examine changes in species composition resulting from environmental change, changes in herbivore populations, shifts in species ranges and changing land management practices. We examine effects on variables such as plant species abundance, litter decomposition and nutrient cycling. We conduct our research is conducted in northern ecosystems, including grasslands and boreal forest in Northern Canada (Kluane Lake Research Station, Yukon Territory) and arctic tundra in Alaska (Toolik Research Station), and also in the deserts of the Southwestern USA.

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Contact Information

Department of Biological Sciences
University of Texas at El Paso
500 W University Ave, El Paso, Texas 79968

jennie.mclaren@gmail.com