Kelly Lyons, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Research Focus...

At the Crossroads of Invasion, Native Species Persistence and Ecosystem Functioning

An increase in human travel and transport has resulted in movement of species around the planet at an unprecedented rate. As new additions to ecosystems, many of these species become invasive, dramatically altering natural and managed ecosystems and homogenizing communities. Coupled to the invasion epidemic, and in part a result of, are declines in biodiversity that are unsurpassed in previous eras on Earth. My research is focused at the crossroads of these pressing conservation concerns. I aim to determine the role of biotic and abiotic factors on invasive species success as well as the impact of invasive species on native species persistence and ecosystem functioning.

• Lyons, K.G. Kelly G. Lyons, Baruk G. Maldonado-Leal, Gigi Owen. 2009. Community and Ecosystem Impacts of the non-indigenous C4 grass Pennisetum ciliare (Buffelgrass) in the Plains of the Sonoran desert, Sonora, México In Invasive Plants on the Move and Controlling them in North America, eds. Francisco Espinosa-García, Tani Hubbard, Thomas R. Van Devender, and Bonnie Harper-Lore. University of Arizona Press.

• Franklin, K.A., Lyons, K., Nagler, P.L., Lampkin, D., Glenn, E.P., Molina-Freaner, F., Markow, T., Huete, A.. 2006. Buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare) land conversion and productivity in the plains of Sonora, Mexico. Biological Conservation 127(1):62-71.

• Lyons, K.G., Brigham, C.A., Traut, B.H., Schwartz, M.W. 2005. Rare species and ecosystem functioning. Conservation Biology 19(4): 1019-1024.
  

• Lyons, K.G., Schwartz, M.W. 2001. Rare species loss alters ecosystem function – invasion resistance. Ecology Letters 4: 358-365.
  

• Schwartz, M.W., C. Brigham, J.D. Hoeksema, K.G. Lyons, M. Mills, P. VanMantgem. 2000. Is biodiversity-for-ecosystem-function an appropriate conservation paradigm? Oecologia 122: 297 305.

Degrees...

• B.A., American University
• M.S., University of California, Davis
• Ph.D., University of California, Davis

Contact Information...

Phone number: (210) 999-8348

Email at: Kelly.Lyons@trinity.edu

Laboratory website: www.trinity.edu/klyons