Sally Koerner

Sally Koerner is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Biology at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She leads the Koerner Biodiversity Lab, investigating grassland plant communities and factors influencing biodiversity under global change. Her research examines mechanisms of biodiversity maintenance, impacts of global change drivers, and biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships.

Major publications demonstrate reintroduced bison significantly increase grassland diversity, reveal independent (non-interactive) effects of multiple global change drivers, and show water availability gradients drive species richness patterns across five continents. Research employs experimental manipulations of rainfall, nutrient addition, and grazing across global grassland ecosystems to understand community responses.