The MSU SpaCE Lab is committed to fostering an inclusive community.

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Contact:
Phoebe Lehmann Zarnetske
Michigan State University
Department of Integrative Biology
288 Farm Lane
East Lansing, MI 48824
plz (at) msu.edu    
517-355-7671

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Lab News!
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Summer 2026

• Our lab is at ESA 2026!
  • Kelly presents PS 33-021 - Alignment in biodiversity data between National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and community science-derived species range maps
  • Minyoung presents COS 058-04 - Integrating NEON freshwater biodiversity data with theoretical food-web models to understand network resilience to environmental variability
• Liz and Sophia present at MidSURE! Sophia presents at the ICER ACRES REU symposium!
• Minyoung presents the Gordon Research Conference on Unifying Ecology across Scales.
• Lala and Phoebe present at the Gordon Research Conference on Climate Engineering
• Lala's paper on climate intervention impacts on marine heatwaves is out in Environmental Research: Climate!
  • Press release
• Sophia Chen joins the lab as an ICER ACRES REU student working on climate intervention impacts on ecology! 

Spring 2026

• Our ESIIL Working Group: NEON-SYNC is funded! Phoebe is a Co-PI and Lucas is a technical lead, along with Tong Qiu (PI), Alan Hurlbert (Co-PI) and John Grady (Co-PI).​
• Our amazing undergraduates present at UURAF 2026! 
  • ​Liz Bauer, Addison Hoddinott, Elliot Palmer: Global Change and Kleptoparasitism in North American Birds
  • Caroline Roche, Olive Graves, Vivian Smith: Relationship Between Influential Bird Species of the Avian MetaNetwork and IUCN Threat Status
• Congratulations to Jenna for receiving a NSF GRF!
• Phoebe gives a UMich SEAS talk on Climate Intervention impacts on Ecology

Fall 2025

• Congratulations to Moriah Young on her successful PhD defense!
• We receive a grant from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to study impacts of climate intervention on ecology!
  • Press release
• Phoebe receives the MSU NatSci Outstanding Faculty Award
• Several papers published or in preprint: 
  • ​Lala et al. preprint: Climate Intervention through Stratospheric Aerosol Injection may partially mitigate marine heatwaves
  • Kara and Phoebe: Volatile Organic Compound Emissions From Solidago altissima Under Experimental Warming and Drought
  • ​IBEEM preprint: Nutrient enrichment intensifies plant competitive effects, favoring monocultures: a global meta-analysis​​
• Welcome to new PhD students Jenna Baljunas and Lucas Mansfield! 
• Welcome to new postdoc Minyoung Lee!
• Welcome to our new undergraduate students: Addison Hoddinott, Vivian Smith, Elliot Palmer, Jamie Seohl, Liz Bauer, Olive Graves, Sarah Pecis!

Spring 2025

• A Global Meta-Analysis of Passive Experimental Warming Effects on Plant Traits and Community Properties - New paper in Global Change Biology and press release out on Kara and Phoebe's global meta-analysis of warming effects on plant communities!
  • onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.70306
  • https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2025/07/some-studies-might-not-paint-full-picture-of-how-plants-respond-to-climate-change

Past Lab News

SpaCE Lab Location: 404 Natural Science Building