WELCOME TO THE LAB OF CONSERVATION ECOLOGY!

The Lab of Conservation Ecology is a multi-faculty lab, led by Drs. Sara Souther and Clare Aslan, united around the theme of conservation of Southwestern landscapes in an era of global change. To enhance diversity and resilience of these unique dryland ecosystems, we work across a variety of disciplines and ecological scales, ranging from population-level demographic and genetic analyses of rare plants to landscape-level investigations of fire resilience and adaptation. Below, we showcase several representative projects that illustrate our multidisciplinary approach to conservation science.

Current Focus Areas

    • Social and ecological fragmentation along jurisdictional boundaries

    • Emory Oak Collaborative Tribal Restoration Initiative (EOCTRI)

    • Tribal Nations Botanical Research Collaborative

    • Demographics of Pectis imberbis

    • Pollination, germination, and recruitment barriers for Amsonia kearneyana

    • Drivers and consequences of low pollination rates for Pediocactus peeblesianus var. fickeisenae

    • Factors influencing the production of native forb seed to inform commercial production

    • The influence of source population on growth and pollination of native forbs for restoration planning

    • Cuenca Los Ojos monitoring program: evaluating restoration success and informing conservation management

    • Climate adaptation strategies for the arid grasslands of the Colorado Plateau

    • Rapid plot monitoring of landscape-scale forest restoration within the four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) project footprint in Northern Arizona

    • Social and ecological drivers of fire resilience in the Sonoran Desert.

    • Southwest FireCLIME

    • Long-term vegetative response to different grazing regimes

    • Environmental data collection and monitoring in support of rangeland collaborative planning

Current Projects

Meet the Principal Investigators

Clare Aslan, PhD

Associate Director and Associate Professor, School of Earth and Sustainability
Co-Director, Center for Adaptable Western Landscapes


  • Associate Director and Associate Professor, School of Earth and Sustainability
    Co-Director, Center for Adaptable Western Landscapes

    Dr. Clare Aslan is a community ecologist and conservation biologist, interested in the ecology and conservation of species interactions, how dynamics at the interaction level can scale up to affect full communities, and how social-ecological dynamics influence biodiversity. She is passionate about solutions-oriented research. Clare obtained her PhD from the University of California, Davis, and completed a Smith Conservation Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California-Santa Cruz. Her current projects include studies of mutualism disruption; cross-boundary ecological connectivity; endangered species conservation; restoration of interspecific interactions; and social-ecological resilience. Clare enjoys outdoor adventures with her husband and two kids, cats, creative writing, basketball, and the diverse, captivating communities and landscapes of Arizona.

    • 2010-2012

      David H. Smith Conservation Research Postdoctoral Fellowship

      University of California, Santa Cruz

    • March 2010

      Ph.D., Ecology

      University of California, Davis

    • December 2000

      B.S., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

      University of Arizona

    • 2020-present

      Co-director, Center for Adaptable Western Landscapes

      Northern Arizona University

    • 2020-present

      Associate Director, School of Earth and Sustainability

      Northern Arizona University

    • 2015-present

      Associate Professor, School of Earth and Sustainability

      Northern Arizona University

    • 2010-2012

      David H. Smith Conservation Research Postdoctoral Fellowship

      University of California, Santa Cruz

    • 2018

      Most Promising New Scholar Award

      Northern Arizona University

    • 2018

      Sustainability Leadership Award

      Northern Arizona University

Sara Souther, PhD

Assistant Research Professor, School of Earth and Sustainability
Core member, Center for Adaptable Western Landscapes

  • Dr. Sara Souther is a plant ecologist and conservation biologist, who studies the structure and dynamics of human-environment interactions. Sara uses a variety of tools, including demographic and spatial modeling, experimental plantings and common garden construction, and innovative statistical analysis to identify behaviors or management structures that promote resilient ecosystems. The long-term mission of this multidisciplinary and collaborative work is to provide information to conserve ecological systems, as well as the diversity of human interactions with these systems, in a time of rapid anthropogenic change. Sara enjoys spending time with her family, word and mind games, cooking, eating the products of cooking, art, biking, plants in all their green glory, and, of course, ecological research. 

    • 2011-2013

      David H. Smith Conservation Research Postdoctoral Fellowship

      University of Wisconsin, Madison

    • 2011

      P.h.D., Biology

      West Virginia University

    • May 2003

      B.S., Biology, and B.A., Sociology and Anthropology

      West Virginia University

    • 2018-present

      Assistant Research Professor, School of Earth and Sustainability

      Northern Arizona University

    • 2017-2018

      Research Faculty, School of Earth and Sustainability

      Northern Arizona University

    • 2014–2016

      Assistant Professor

      West Virginia Wesleyan College

    • 2011- 2013

      David H. Smith Conservation Research Postdoctoral Fellowship

      University of Wisconsin, Madison

    • 2003-2006

      Peace Corps Paraguay

    • 2011

      David Fairchild Blaydes Biology Doctoral Dissertation Scholarship

      West Virginia University

Affiliates and Staff
Graduate Students