About

UPDATE: Beginning in May 2023, I will be starting a new position as an Assistant Scientist in Forest Ecology in the Department of Environmental Science and Forestry at The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station! I am looking forward to collaborating with landowners and natural resource professionals through this new position and continuing to develop a research program that links basic and applied questions in forest ecology. 

In the meantime, I am finishing up my PhD at the Yale School of the Environment, where I study plant-soil interactions and forest ecology. My research explores basic and applied questions related to shifts in plant dominance driven by factors of global change and how they influence soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics. So far, my work has focused on three broad topics: (1) interactions between under- and over-story plant-fungal associations and soil biogeochemical processes, (2) feedbacks between invasive plants, soil nutrient availability, and forest disturbance, and (3) the effects of forest management and restoration practices on soils. The ecosystems that I work in are strongly influenced by human use, such as urbanization, land management, and logging, and I am particularly interested in applications of my research for conservation, restoration, and land management.

Contact

Elisabeth (Eli) B. Ward
Doctoral candidate
she/her

Yale School of the Environment
​Greeley Memorial Laboratory 
370 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511

email: elisabeth DOT ward AT yale DOT edu
twitter:  @elibward
Google Scholar profile link