From Lehigh’s campus to tropical rainforests, Spicer studies canopy plants to understand how forest ecosystems adapt in a warming climate.
From the rainforests of Washington state and Panama to the groves on Lehigh’s campus, Michelle Spicer ’12 M’14, assistant professor of Earth and environmental sciences, conducts research in these scenic living laboratories, perched among the trees to study plants in forest ecosystems from the ground soil to the leafy canopies.
Spicer studies community ecology, plant adaptations in forest ecosystems and what those adaptations reveal about climate change.
At the university’s fall Research Symposium, Spicer gave a lightning talk on her research that asks a central ecological question: how do plants and microbial communities respond when environmental conditions become hotter and drier?
Spotlight Recipient
Michelle Spicer
Assistant Professor