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With less than 0.1% remaining, the midwestern tallgrass prairie is a globally rare ecosystem. Here in the Chicago region, there is a strong culture and community of dedicated to actively preserving and restoring these critical habitats. Most restoration activities involve the spreading of native seeds and the removal of invasive plants. A restoration is considered successful once a given plant community is established. However, there is little attention, if any paid to the restoration of the ecosystem functions that sustain these plant communities, often eventually resulting “failed” restoration.
My research investigates the how well restoration practices result in restored ecosystem processes that are essential for long-term restoration of the tallgrass prairie. Thus, while my primary interests are for native plant and natural areas conservation, I have chosen to approach this issue quite literally, from the bottom, up. My research is supported by Lake Forest Openlands Association and takes place at the Skokie River Nature Preserve in Lake Forest, IL. This preserve contains a rare, pristine prairie a moderately disturbed prairie and old agricultural field that has been restored and managed as a prairie for the last 20 years. By examining the seasonal variation in key soil properties such as plant available nitrogen and phosphorus, total carbon:nitrogen, soil moisture, pH, cations, and mycorrhizal fungi colonization and growth and how these relate to prairie productivity, I hope to help inform the field of restoration ecology and the more specifically, the practice of prairie restoration by shedding some light on the relationship between ecosystem processes and restoration “success”. |
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Graduate Research |
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Publications and Presentations |
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Heneghan, L., F. R. Fatemi, L. Umek, K. A. Fagen, K. Grady and M. Workman. 2006. Does European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica, L), an invasive shrub in the Midwest, impact soil properties on a landscape scale? Applied Soil Ecology 32: 142-148.
Heneghan, L. and L. Umek. 2005. Above, Below and Beyond - Understanding and Contextualizing the Role of People in Urban Ecosystems. Scholarship with a Mission: Externally Funded Research in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (internal publication for DePaul University).
Seasonal Variability in Key Soil Characteristics in a Tallgrass Prairie Along a Restoration Gradient. Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference, March 2007. The Chicago Wilderness Research Agenda: The Importance of Research in Conservation. Urban Watch High School Science Summit, April 2006. Progress in Ecological Research for Lake Forest Openlands Association and this Affects Land Management. Lake Forest Openlands Association Board Meeting, April 2006. L. Heneghan and L. Umek. Do Soils Modified by Invasive Species Necessitate New Ecological Management Responses? The Ecological Society of America (ESA), 89th Annual Meeting, August 2004. Symposia: Digging deeper or scratching the surface? Exploring ecological theories in urban soils. Buckthorn and its Alien Annelide Inhabitants. Openlands Project TreeKeepers Meeting, August 2004. |
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Here I am in Skokie River Nature Preserve in early Fall. |
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A “Garden Guardian” getting his hands dirty at Webster School |
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Conservation Beyond School |
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My interest in plant conservation extends beyond my school work as I volunteer regularly at prairie & woodland restoration work days, as a TreeKeeper and as an Asian Long-horned Beetle monitor. I am also very involved in the development of both the Social Science and Natural Science Research Agenda for Chicago Wilderness. In addition to my graduate research, I am also the Urban Ecology Project Coordinator at DePaul University. There, I coordinate research on the ecological impacts of the invasive shrub, European buckthorn, the ecology of urban forests and restoration ecology with Dr. Liam Heneghan. I also initiated a native prairie garden and the afterschool club the “Garden Guardians” at Webster Elementary, a Chicago public school in the Lawndale neighborhood. |
