Hana Petersen

Hana completed her BSc Hons in Biological Sciences in 2015, and will graduate with an MSc specialising in plant ecology at the end of 2018. Her research interests are in the fields of plant community ecology, vegetation dynamics, and conservation biology. She is particularly interested in how plant community composition and diversity varies spatially, what drives this variation, and how this changes across environmental gradients. She was appointed as a DST-NRF intern for 2018/2019, based at the SAEON ALN satellite office in Prince Albert. She will aid in data collection for numerous long-term ecological research projects at the Tierberg LTER facility, as well as on Wolwekraal Nature Reserve (under the supervision of Sue and Richard Dean). These projects include monitoring the effects of climate change on Succulent Karoo shrub phenology, as well as a new study on the impact of drought on plant mortality in various habitat types.