Rate My Professor Sara Baer

Baer's research addresses soil, ecosystem, community, and restoration ecology, with emphasis on changes during restoration of former agricultural systems to grassland. Recognized as an expert in grassland, soil, and restoration ecology, the Baer Lab studies above- and belowground structural (plant and microbial composition) and functional (productivity, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration) responses to environmental heterogeneity, interannual climate variation, and intraspecific variation among dominant species sources. Key work centers on tallgrass prairie restoration, documenting decadal-scale soil carbon accumulation influenced by texture, rapid recovery of labile organic matter limiting nitrogen, and ecotype-driven differences in community traits and processes. Baer's long-term, multi-site research, including collaborations across the U.S. Midwest and South Africa, informs soil nutrient pools, microbial communities, roots, structure, and sequestration. Select publications include 'Changes in ecosystem structure and function along a chronosequence of grasslands restored through the Conservation Reserve Program' (Ecological Applications, 2002), 'Soil resources regulate productivity and diversity in newly established tallgrass prairie' (Ecology, 2003), 'Environmental heterogeneity has a weak effect on diversity during community assembly in tallgrass prairie' (Ecological Monographs, 2016), 'Heterogeneity promotes resilience in restored prairie: implications for the environmental heterogeneity hypothesis' (Ecological Applications, in press), and 'The biogeography of relative abundance of soil fungi versus bacteria in surface topsoil' (Earth System Science Data, 2022). Awards include the Young Alumni Award from Kansas State University (2014) and Women of Distinction Award from Southern Illinois University (2015).