Lauren Hallett

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Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar

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The objective of classical ecosystem restoration is to return a degraded system to a state prior to disturbance. Changes in climate and other external factors, however, may turn a restoration goal into a moving target.

Lauren Hallett is currently completing an undergraduate degree in Biological Science at Yale University. Lauren has won a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to Australia from the Australian-American Fulbright Commission to undertake ecological research to develop goals and methods for the restoration of ecosystems degraded by human disturbance and the impact of climate change on this process.

Through her Fulbright Lauren will undertake research with Dr Richard Hobbs at Murdoch University in Western Australia, merging an interest in restoration ecology with global climate change.

“A key component of restoration ecology is the identification of restoration ‘thresholds’ – levels of degradation that fundamentally alter a system to the extent it cannot recover on its own,” explains Lauren. “A challenge for restoration ecology is to correctly identify these barriers to recovery and to predict the minimum level of intervention necessary to initiate positive change within the system.”

“This is complicated by climate change where for example, shifting precipitation patterns may alter ecosystem dynamics in a way that cannot be mitigated through human intervention at the ecosystem level. I am particularly interested in the effects of climate change on the ability of species to invade degraded systems, and my research will investigate this relationship in the Banksia woodlands of Western Australia.”

To date Lauren has undertaken research into the effects of climate change on the growth rates and genetic diversity of two dominant plant species in the tall grass prairies of Kansas. With her research Lauren has also combined a commitment to social awareness of climate change and effective means of communication about climate change to American audiences through the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy.

During her studies she has won a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, Blanning Memorial Fellowship, Yale Richter Fellowship and the Yale Environmental Studies Fellowship. She is also a debater, having competed at National and World championships and been an executive Board member of the Yale Debate Association and Head Coach of a High School team.