Ecology & Evolutionary
Biology
University of Arizona
P.O. 210088
Tucson, AZ 85721
office: 520-621-4022
fax: 520-621-9190
kimballs/at/email.arizona.edu
My Research:
Traits influencing plant community composition
Penstemon hybrid zone: pollination, physiology, and fitnessRestoration ecology at Carrizo Plain National Monument
Local ecology and geographic range limits
Teaching
I
am an evolutionary ecologist who studies how species’ traits
interact with the abiotic environment to determine range limits and community
composition.
My current work, as a post-doctoral researcher with Amy Angert, Travis Huxman, and Larry Venable, focuses on a tradeoff between relative growth rate and water use efficiency. The tradeoff between these two traits leads to species coexistence in the Sonoran Desert winter annual community.
For my dissertation, I worked with Diane Campbell to study how pollinator and physiological trait differences define the elevational range limits of two species that hybridize along an altitudinal gradient. I am continuing to investigate this hybrid system between Penstemon newberryi and P. davidsonii in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
My master’s thesis, with Paula Schiffman, was a study on how native and alien plants respond differently to cattle grazing due, in part, to differences in their growth forms. I also conducted a study with Paul Wilson on the relationship between local ecological preferences and the broader geographic ranges of alpine, subalpine, and montane plants in the Sierra Nevada. I plan to continue to study determinants of range limits and community assembly, possibly through an investigation of traits that influence invasibility.