User:Thayesh/sandbox

Carla Staver is an ecologist and currently an Assistant Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Yale University.

Early life and education
Carla Staver had an international upbringing. She was born in Peru and then lived in Nicaragua for most of her time in elementary school. She then moved to the United States and spent most of her time in middle and high school in Ohio, but was also located in St. Louis and London for shorter periods of time. Her father is an agronomist and her mother is a botanist. Before going to college Staver did not want to be an ecologist. Once at Columbia University she quickly gravitated towards empirical studies and graduated with a B.A. in Ecology, Evolution, & Environmental Biology in 2005. Staver then earned a M.Sc. in Botany, with distinction, at University of Cape Town in 2008. Shortly afterward she began her doctoral studies at Princeton University; completing her Ph.D. in Ecology and Environmental Biology in 2012.

Career and research
Carla Staver is currently an assistant professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University. Her research has focused on understanding the spatial vegetation ecology of savanna – forest ecotone transitions. She has studied how the structure and type of vegetation feedbacks with abiotic factors like precipitation and wildfire and biotic factors like grazing to produce a regime that is capable of two stable ecosystem states. Much of this work was based in tropical African savannas, but has implications that connect to similar ecotones all over the world. Staver's work seeks to understand how the biosphere will respond and feedback to global changes. As land use change and climate change alter the planet her research will become increasingly important in predicting how ecosystems will come to be.

Awards and honors
The Ecological Society of America awarded Carla Staver and Sally Archibald with the 2012 Mercer award for their paper “Tree cover in sub-Saharan Africa: Rainfall and fire constrain forest and savanna as alternative stable states” which Simon Levin also authored. This award is given to a scientist(s) under the age of 40 who has published a paper that made a significant impact on the field of ecology.

In 2013 the American Society of Naturalists awarded Carla Staver with the Jasper Loftus-Hills Young Investigator Award. This award is given to young scientists who have shown outstanding and promising work in the three years since earning their doctorate.

Carla Staver is currently (2016 - 2020) an early career fellow of the Ecological Society of America. Early career fellows are scientists who have already made significant contributions to the field of ecology and its applications within 8 years of completing their PhD and are anticipated to continue such work.

Carla Staver was also a finalist for the 2017 Tansley Medal, an award given by the New Phytologist Trust to a scientist who is both early in their career and contributed outstanding work in plant science.

Publications
Carla Staver has published over 30 peer-reviewed science articles. Papers she authored have been cited over 3000 times in total.

Abbreviated List:

- Staver, A.C., S. Archibald, and S.A. Levin. 2011. The global extent and determinants of savanna and forest as alternative stable states. Science 334: 230-232.aver, S Archibald, SA Levin Science 334 (6053), 230-232

- Staver, A.C., S. Archibald, and S.A. Levin. 2011. Tree cover in sub-Saharan Africa: rainfall and fire constrain forest and savanna as alternative stable states. Ecology 92: 1063–1072.

- Staver, A.C and M. Hansen. 2015. Analysis of stable states in global savannas: is the CART pulling the horse? - a comment. Global Ecology and Biogeography.

- Staver, A.C. 2017. Prediction and scale in savanna ecosystems. New Phytologist.

- Staver, A.C., C. Wigley-Coetsee, and J. Botha. 2018. Grazer movements exacerbate grass declines during drought in an African savanna. Journal of Ecology