Carbon Dioxide, Grasslands & Grazing
Koerner and her collaborators are also investigating how rising carbon dioxide, grazing, fire, and climate interact to contribute to woody plant encroachment — the replacement of open grasslands by shrubs and trees.
“Many of the world’s warm grasslands are dominated by C4 grasses, which are particularly successful under relatively low atmospheric carbon dioxide. As carbon dioxide rises, that advantage can weaken. If woody shrubs start replacing your grass, you’re not going to be a successful cattle rancher anymore.”
Koerner serves as principal investigator on funded research projects totaling $9.8 million. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is a major funder of her research on the effects of cattle grazing on grasslands, while the National Science Foundation supports work in Kruger National Park, South Africa. She has published 65 peer-reviewed papers — including six in Nature, Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — with over 3,900 citations. She has also produced four nationally archived data sets and been quoted as an expert in The New York Times. As a researcher, she is known as “the grazing person.”
“The next step is turning these broad ecological patterns into tools people can actually use. If we can predict how grazing will impact plant diversity and how grazing interacts with drought, fire, and woody plant encroachment, we can help land managers make decisions that support both productive working lands and conservation. I think we can identify rules that allow us to make much better, place-specific decisions.”