Rebecca Bland

Rebecca Bland studies species invasion and ecosystem responses. As a PhD student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, she specifically examines how the soil microbial community changes in response to invasive plants and the corresponding plant biodiversity loss. Before coming to University of Arizona, Rebecca earned a Master of Forestry and a Master of Arts in Religion from Yale University where she studied how combining LiDAR remote sensing data and current forest species composition maps could determine historic land use. Outside of school, Rebecca has spent time teaching and working in religious communities and hopes to continue to combine her two favorite worlds (science and religion) and to engage young people in asking questions about both.